NCAA D II champs begin Thursday in Pueblo, Colorado with athletes from CWU, WWU & SPU in action...

The NCAA Division II track and field championships open up Thursday in Pueblo, Colorado, hosted by Colorado State Pueblo at the ThunderBowl (photo courtesy CSU-Pueblo Athletics).

Western Washington, Central Washington and Seattle Pacific will send athletes to the national championships. Those athletes qualified for nationals by being one of Division II's 22 best in their individual events, according to the NCAA season-long descending order list, or being one of the 16 best relay teams.

Starting the meet off Thursday at 3:40 pm Pacific time is Central Washington's 4 x 100 team of Elise Hopper, Zoe Gonzalez, the All-American E'lexis Hollis, and Ashlyn Nielsen, will shoot for a spot in Saturday's finals. The Wildcats will look to become the first-ever 4x100 relay team from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference to earn All-America status.

At 4:25 Pacific, Kevin McDermott from Western Washington begins his quest for a spot in the finals of the men's 1500. Fifteen minutes later, teammate Bec Bennett goes in the qualifying round of the women's 400.

E'lexis Hollis (Jeff Evans/WWU Athletics photo) of Central Washington returns to the track at 5:10 pm Pacific for her qualifying heat of the women's 100, where she looks to make the finals in her third trip to outdoor nationals, after earning first team All-America honors indoors.

Thirty minutes later, Western Washington's Ila Davis and Seattle Pacific's Maya Ewing race in separate heats of the women's 3000 steeplechase for a spot in Friday's finals.

Western Washington's Maurice Woodring runs in the prelims of the men's 400 hurdles at 6:55 pm as he looks to become the school's first All-American in the event.

To close Thursday's competition, Seattle Pacific senior Annika Esvelt runs in the women's 10000, where she finished second in last year's race. She also looks to join WWU’s Sarah Porter (2009-11) as the only woman in GNAC history to earn three All-America honors in the event.

NCAA.com will live stream all three days of the meet. The link to live results is available here.

NOTE: The NCAA, USTFCCCA, Great Northwest Athletic Conference, and the sports information offices of CSU-Pueblo, Central Washington, Western Washington, and Seattle Pacific contributed to this report.

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