INDIANAPOLIS— Colorado Mesa University's Kirstin Williams was selected to compete as an individual at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships on Nov. 18 in Joplin, Missouri, it was announced by the NCAA on Monday.  The Maverick redshirt junior was also officially named to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's all-region teams earlier in the day.
 
Williams earned the honor and the NCAA championship selection by virtue of her 23^rd place finish in last Saturday's NCAA Division II South Central Regional Championship in Lubbock, Texas and becomes just the fourth Maverick woman to qualify for the national championships as an individual joining 3-time qualifier Alexis Skarda (2008, 2010, 2011), Alexia Chapman (2016) and redshirting teammate Kira MacGill (2022) in that elite company.
 
Her selection also means that the Mavericks have had a national qualifier in back-to-back-years since 2010 and 2011, although Skarda did not end up running at the 2011 championship due to injury.
 
The Maverick women have been selected as a team once (2014).
 
Williams, a native of St. George, Utah, ended up as the second highest individual finisher from non-qualifying teams out of the South Central Regional as the region had a nation-wide nine teams selected, all of whom were nationally-ranked in the pre-regional USTFCCCA Division II Coaches Poll. 
 
The top three teams in defending national champions Adams State, Colorado School of Mines and Western Colorado all earned automatic berths.  West Texas A&M, UCCS, CSU Pueblo, Colorado Christian, Dallas Baptist and Fort Lewis then claimed six of the ten available at-large spots, which paved the way for Williams to advance as an automatic qualifying individual out of the incredibly deep regional.
 
CMU finished tenth as a team in Saturday's regional behind those nine selected teams.
 
The USTFCCCA All-Region honor was bestowed as she was one of the top 25 individual finishers in the regional 
 
Williams, a transfer from her hometown Utah Tech, is now the sixth Maverick to ever earn such an honor.  Skarda was a 3-time pick in the aforementioned years while MacGill has earned the honors in both 2021 and 2022.  Chapman, Lauren Lipski and Reanna Jereb were all honored in 2016.
 
Williams has led the Mavericks in all four races she has run this season and earned First Team All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference honors with a 13^th place finish at the conference meet.  She also placed fourth at the season-opening Mountaineer Invite and was 27^th at the Lewis Crossover.
 
The NCAA Division II National Championships will be hosted by Missouri Southern State on the Lions' Tom Rutledge Cross Country Course.  The women's 6-kilometer race, will begin at 10 a.m. Central (9 a.m. Mountain) can be seen via a live stream on www.ncaaa.com.
 
The top 40 finishers at the national championships will earn USTFCCCA All-America honors.