SEATTLE – It's not quite a mile high like its more famous Colorado sibling. But 4,692 feet, Pueblo is still high enough.
 
Now, Annika Esvelt and Maya Ewing will get to reach for the heights when they both race there in the NCAA Division II Track & Field Championships.
 
That officially became a done deal on Tuesday afternoon when the accepted entries for this year's meet were announced by the NCAA.
 
Esvelt, in her fifth year, will be the No. 3 seed in the women's 10,000 meters and No. 5 in the 5000. Ewing, a junior, is the No. 12 seed in the 3000 steeplechase.
 
The meet is set for Thursday through Saturday, May 22-24, at the Eddie and Neta DeRose ThunderBowl on the campus of Colorado State University-Pueblo.
 
Ewing will be up first in the steeplechase preliminaries (yes, that event has a prelim) at 4:40 p.m. Pacific time on the 22nd. The finals of the 10K for Esvelt are set for 6:10 Pacific that same day.
 
The top 12 from the steeple prelims will advance to the finals on Friday the 23rd at 5:10 p.m. Pacific. The 5K finals are set for Saturday the 24th at 6:05 p.m. Pacific.
 
Unlike previously, there was no drama surrounding this year's entries. Up through last season anywhere between 20 and 24 could be accepted for individual events, with 20 being the "desired minimum." For those on the bubble (20 through 24), that meant sweating it out until the official entries were revealed.
 
That all changed this year when the selection process was revised so that the top 22 declared entries – no more, no less – would make the meet.
 
That didn't affect either Esvelt or Ewing, as both were way about the red line.

Esvelt secured her spot in the 5000 on April 4 when she ran 15:56.94 at the Stanford Invitational. That was her first-ever sub-16, and at that point of the season, it was the only sub-16 in all of Division II. Now, there are seven and Esvelt is right in the middle of that pack. The top seed is Klaudia O'Malley of Michigan's Grand Valley State at 15:42.43.
 
A couple weeks later at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, California, Esvelt took care of business in the 10K, going 33:34.90. The only two ahead of her on the entry list are Brianna Robles of Colorado's Adams State (32:50.18) and Anna Fauske of UC Colorado Springs (33:22.66).
 
But that's not the whole group of title contenders. Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge from Colorado School of Mines, is seeded No. 15 at 34:37.64, a time she posted last weekend at the APU Franson Last Chance Meet in Azusa. Ramsey-Rutledge has gone way faster than that, however. On March 29 at The TEN, an elite-level distance meet in San Juan Capistrano, California, she completed her 25 laps in 32:31.16.
 
That would have made her the  No. 1 seed with room to spare. But because The TEN had just three college events (800, 1500, and 10,000), it did not count as an official meet for NCAA qualifying purposes. That meant Ramsey-Rutledge had to run another 10K at some point during the season, and she did that last week in Azusa. The 34:37 was fast enough to get her in the door; she likely will be faster than that on race day in Pueblo.
 
Ewing had a breakout steeplechase race on March 8 at the PLU Open when she won in 10:48.00. That made her the national leader for a couple weeks early in the season, but she was just getting started.
 
On April 4 at Stanford, Ewing broke the school record when she went 10:35.63. But even with that, she knew it would take a faster time to secure a spot at NCAAs. She got that faster time two weeks later at the Clay, going 10:27.61. (As it turned out, the 10:35.63 from Stanford would have left her below the red line at No. 24.)
 
This will be Esvelt's seventh trip to an NCAA meet overall, and her third for outdoor track. Earlier this school year, she was fourth at cross country, then seventh in both the 3000 and 5000 at indoor nationals. She also did the 10K-5K double at last year's outdoor nationals, placing second in the 10 and seventh in the 5.
 
Ewing is making her first NCAA appearance. It caps an outstanding junior year, as she was All-GNAC and All-West Region in cross country, then won the GNAC indoor 5000 meters championship this past winter.


 
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