NCAA Regionals in Sacramento and NCAA Division II championships begin Thursday...

Thursday begins the three-day exercise known as the NCAA Regionals for Washington, Washington State, Gonzaga, and Eastern Washington in Sacramento, with a concurrent meet for schools east of the Mississippi in Jacksonville, Florida.

96 athletes in each event from all Division I schools advanced to this meet based on marks put up over the course of the outdoor track season.

As Ken Goe of the Oregonian put it, “All the two meets do is winnow the field for the NCAA Outdoor Championships, June 5-8 in Austin, Texas. The only newsworthy developments to come out of three long days of competition will be the projected national scorers who get eliminated. The happiest athletes there will be the ones who squeak into the main meet in Austin with a 12th-place regional finish.”

This is a meet where finishing in twelfth place is just as good as finishing in first, as the top twelve from each of the two regional meets advance to the NCAA finals in Austin in two weeks.

The Huskies advanced 45 entries into the meet, while the Cougars have 21 entries.  Eastern Washington has eight entries, while Gonzaga has six heading to Sacramento.

Notable entries with Washington ties includes Mountlake Terrace HS alum Chinne Okoronkwo (left/photo courtesy Texas Tech Athletics), who is entered in the triple jump and pole vault; Curtis HS alum Lexi Ellis of Oregon in the triple jump; Kalama HS grad Kaelyn Carlson-Shipley of Arizona in the javelin; and Mt. Spokane grad John Dressel of  Colorado in both the 5000 and 10000.

The start lists and time schedule for the West Regionals are available here.

Media partner Flotrack ($) will offer live streaming coverage of the NCAA West Regionals.

Meanwhile, the NCAA Division II championships get underway Thursday in Kingsville, Texas, hosted by Texas A&M/Kingsville at Javelina Stadium.

All four Washington D2 schools will be represented at the meet, with Central Washington and Western Washington sending the largest contingents, with the Wildcats qualifying seven athletes, and the Vikings also bringing seven athletes.

The time schedule is available here, while the link to live results is available here.

A live stream of the meet is available via ncaa.com

NOTE:  The NCAA and the sports information offices of Texas Tech University and Sacramento State University contributed to this report.