Tyler Pence - Men's Cross Country Coach (2024)

Tyler Pence will be in his ninthseason on the coaching staff at the University of Illinois Springfield in 2024-25. He returned to being an assistant coach in 2022-23 after three seasons as the head coach. Pence took a step back after entering the SpringfieldFire Academy and now serves his community as a member of the Springfield Fire Department.

Pence built UIS into one of the top distance programs in the NCAA Midwest Region. In three seasons as head coach, he has helped the program earn 16 all-GLVC honors in cross country, including two individual GLVC Championships, and win eight individual GLVC Championships in track and field. He has also coached the first NCAA Division II National Championship qualifiers in program history.

As head coach, Pence helped UIS runners win 25 all-conference awards, ten individual GLVC Championships, three GLVC Runner of the Year honors, and qualify 11 runners for NCAA National Championships.

Pence isa competitive runner who has qualified for theU.S. Olympic Marathon Trials twice.

In 2021, Pence led the UIS men’s cross country team to a second-place finish at the GLVC Cross Country Championships. Four runners earned all-GLVC honors, including the GLVC Runner of the Year and GLVC Freshman of the Year. One women also earned all-GLVC, and three runners on the men’s and women’s teams were all-region and NCAA national qualifiers.

During the 2022 track seasons, UIS had five runners earn all-conference honors. UIS won one individual GLVC Championship, and had two runner-up finishes.

During the 2020 cross country season, Pence led the men’s team to a second-straight top-three showing, and the women’s team had their best finish in program history after coming in fourth. A total of five runners earned all-GLVC honors, and Blake Jones made program history after becoming the first runner to win the GLVC Cross Country Individual Championship.

In the 2020-21 track campaign, UIS won four individual championships at the GLVC Outdoor Championships. Jones was named the GLVC Outdoor Runner of the Year, and earned All-American honors at both the indoor and outdoor national championships. He finished third in the 5,000m at the NCAA outdoor meet, the highest national finish for a UIS athlete at this level. Pence also coached Taryn Christy who earned All-American honors in the 10,000m at outdoor nationals.

In his first year as the head coach of the program in 2019-20, Pence helped the UIS cross country and track and field teams have another record-setting year.

During the 2019 cross country season, UIS had six all-GLVC performers and three all-region runners. Both teams had their highest finish in program history at the GLVC Championships, including a runner-up finish for the men. UIS also had its first two NCAA national qualifiers in Christy and Jones, and Christy won All-American honors at the event.

Throughout the shortened 2020 track season, UIS had runners regularly setting personal-best marks. Christy earned all-GLVC honors by finishing second in the 3,000m at the conference meet, and she became the first national qualifier in program history in the 5,000m. She also earned All-American honors after that event was cancelled. On the men’s side, Tyler Pasley just missed all-GLVC honors after finishing third in both the 3,000m and 5,000m at the conference meet.

Under Pence, UIS cross country and track and field has also excelled in the classrooms. All six teams earned the GLVC Team Academic All-Conference award while he was head coach, and his student-athletes have earned 74 GLVC Individual Academic All-Conference honor. Christy and Pasley were both named third-team Academic All-Americans in 2020, the first two in program history to win that accolade. Christy was a first-team Academic All-American in 2021 and 2022, and Jones earned third-team honors in 2021.

Over his three years as the assistant coach at UIS, the Prairie Stars improved each year, including a great 2018-19 campaign. During the cross country season, the men’s team finished third at the conference meet, and the women’s team came in seventh. The men’s team had two all-conference runners, and women’s runner Taryn Christy was the GLVC Freshman of the Year.

During the track season, the Prairie Stars continued to have success, including the first three GLVC Individual Championships when Blake Jones won the indoor 5,000m, and Jones and Christy swept the outdoor 10,000m events. Those two runners also became the first runners in program history to earn NCAA Division II provisional marks, and Christy just missed being a national qualifier in the 10,000m. Jones and Christy were both named GLVC Freshman of the Year in indoor track.

Pence is still a competitive runner, and competed in the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials. In 2018, he ran the California International Marathon in a time of 2:15:36 to become eligible for the trials.

Pence was an All-American runner in college at GLVC rival Southern Indiana. He was a two-time national champion in track, winning the indoor 5,000m and outdoor 10,000m as a junior. He earned nine All-American awards, 12 all-region honors, and 13 all-conference accolades. Pence was the GLVC runner-up at all four cross country meets he competed in, and he won three GLVC Individual Championships. Pence was the 2014 Cross Country Region Runner of the Year, and was the 2014-15 Southern Indiana Male Student-Athletes of the Year. He earned four GLVC Runner of the Week awards in his career.

Pence was also a three-time Academic All-District selection, and a two-time first-team Academic All-American. He graduated from Southern Indiana in 2016 with a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education with a minor in mathematics and special education.

Pence attended Springfield High School and was a three-time all-conference performer in cross country. He helped Springfield finish in the top-six in the IHSA Cross Country Championships all four years, and helped the 2011 track and field team finish fifth at state.