PUEBLO, Colo. (May 22, 2019) – Eight total members of the Colorado State University-Pueblo men's and women's track and field programs have their eyes set on the 2019 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which is scheduled for May 23-25 in Kingsville, Texas.
 
Texas A&M University-Kingsville will serve as the host of the championships at Javelina Stadium. The championships will be streamed live on www.NCAA.com each day. Live results can be found HERE. 
 
The group touts five National Champions from 2018-19 and the squad has totaled nine All-American awards this year. 
 
Heading to her home state is junior Lauren Fairchild (McKinney, Texas), as she will begin the Championships for the Pack when she competes in flight two of the long jump beginning at 2 p.m. MT on Thursday. The NCAA Division II Indoor National Long Jump Champion qualified with a leap of 6.01m (19' 8.75"), which sits eighth in the field.
 
 Also for the women on Thursday is sophomore Hailey Streff (Madison, S.D.), as she is running the preliminaries of the 1500m. Her time of 4:28.45 ranks as the 13th fastest time in the field. She runs in heat one at 4:55 p.m. MT. The top four from the two heats and the next four fastest times advance to Saturday's final beginning at 4:35 p.m. MT. 
 
Wrapping the day for the Pack, but starting the national meet for the No. 14 men's program will be junior Marcelo Laguera (Chihuahua, Mexico) in the 10,000m run. The last time Laguera ran a 10K at a national meet he was crowned the NCAA Division II Cross Country National Champion. He enters the race with the second fastest 10,000m time in Division II, as he posted a mark of 29:25.15. He runs the final at 8:35 p.m. MT.
 
Friday, the ThunderWolves have two men and one woman in the 800m prelims beginning at 5:05 p.m. MT. The top two from each of the three heats and the next two fastest times advance to Saturday's final at 5:55 p.m. MT for the women and 6:05 p.m. MT for the men. 
 
First up will be sophomore Yasmine Hernandez (Johnstown, Colo.) in heat three of the women's race. She clocked a provisional time of 2:08.72 and ranks 10th in the field and fourth in her heat. 
 
On the men's side, junior Thomas Staines (Colorado Springs, Colo.) will look to defend his 2018 outdoor national title and win his fourth consecutive NCAA 800m race. He owns the fastest 800m time in NCAA Division II this outdoor season, as he ran an automatic time of 1:47.53. After earning indoor All-American honors in the 800m, senior Devundrick Walker (Aurora, Colo.) will race after qualifying with a time of 1:49.47, which is sixth in the field. Both Staines and Walker have been selected for the third heat. Last year, Staines ran an outdoor championship meet record time of 1:46.56.  
 
The final event of day two will be the preliminaries of the men's 4x400m relay. The top two from each of the two heats and the next four fastest times move on to Saturday's final, which is slated to wrap the outdoor championships at 8:05 p.m. MT. 
 
The 4x400m squad is made up of sophomore Jordan Whitley (Colorado Springs, Colo.), senior Shawn Horne (Camp Casey, South Korea), Walker and Staines. The Pack ran to the NCAA Division II automatic time of 3:08.82 and sits sixth in the field. Horne, Walker and Staines were all on the National Champion distance medley relay team at the indoor national championships. 
 
Laguera races again Saturday in the finals of the 5000m run at 7:30 p.m. MT. The junior has a qualifying time of 14:08.87 in the 5000m race that is the 10th best in the field. 
 
Last year the Pack men were 12th overall and the women scored for the first time since 2011 with a half point to place them 70th.

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As a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, Colorado State University – Pueblo competes in 22 varsity sports in NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics.