AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn cross country junior Ryan Kinnane will make his NCAA National Championship debut this Saturday, November 19 in Stillwater, Okla. as the first Tiger to qualify individually since Ty McCormack and Kane Grimster in 2014.
"We are incredibly proud of Ryan," said Tiger's head coach Aaron Kindt. "To have a guy like Ryan, that scratched his way across All-Region last year then to be in that spot where we kind of knew he had a chance if he ran well, and he ran probably his best race all year so there was no doubt he earned that spot."
This year's championships will be held at Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Kinnane will line up for the final race of the season, the men's 10k which is set to begin at 10:20 a.m. CT.
While receiving All-Region honors, the Andover, Kansas native just missed qualifying for this meet last year with a 23rd place finish in the men's 10k at the South Regional. He returned to the course in Huntsville, Ala. this year and ran himself into one of the top spots.
Of his five meets this fall, Kinnane has finished inside the top 15 in all of them improving his pace with each competition.
The 2021 Cross Country NCAA Championships will be broadcast live on ESPNU and can be streamed via https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/3774719 Live timing will be available via https://live.pttiming.com/XC-PTT.html?mid=5234 and tickets to this year's event can be purchased for $10 via https://okstate.evenue.net