EMPORIA, Kan.— Sophomore Kammi Merrritt became the first Colorado Mesa University women's hurdler to earn an all-America honor as she ran to a 14^th place time of one minute, 0.33 seconds in the preliminary round of the 400-meter hurdles on Thursday evening at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which got underway at Emporia State University's Francis G. Welch Stadium.
 
The Star Valley, Wyoming native and school record holder, who is the first Maverick woman to ever qualify for the national championships in the discipline took fifth in the third heat and will garner second team all-America status when the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association officially announces those next week.  Those honors go to the 9^th through 16^th place finishers while the top eight advanced to Saturday's final and will be first team all-Americans.
 
Merritt is the first of three Maverick women slated to compete in the meet, which runs through Saturday.
 
Meanwhile, the Maverick men's 4x100-meter relay team also competed at the NCAA Championships for the first time in program history.  The quartet of Amaris Mora, Joseph Randolph, Marik Cummings and Teo Casados finished 13^th in the preliminary round with a time of 43.76 seconds after a faulty exchange.
 
On Friday, Casados and Randolph will run in the men's 200-meter dash preliminaries at 5:30 p.m. CDT (4:30 p.m. Mountain) before Hannah Schissler will make her NCAA Championship debut in the women's heats, slated to begin 15 minutes later.