One word aptly describes the attitude of Morgan Anderson and Sam McKinnon on the eve of the NCAA Division I 2015 Track & Field Championships West Preliminary meet in Austin.

Excited.

The two Oregon State runners headed for Texas on Tuesday for the regional, a precursor to the NCAA Championships in Eugene. Both expect to be pushed to the limit as they strive to become the second and third Beavers to advance to NCAAs since the program was reinstated in 2007 following an 18-year hiatus.

The regional is Thursday through Saturday at the University of Texas. Qualifiers advance to the NCAA finals, June 10-13 at Hayward Field.

A redshirt sophomore 1,500-meter specialist from Scotts Mills who graduated from Silverton High School, Anderson qualified with a season-best time of 4:24.55 at the Oregon Relays on April 18, the second-fastest time in school history. Ranked 41^st in the 48-woman field, she recently placed 16th at the Pac-12 Championships in 4:26.31.

“I am super-excited,” she said Tuesday. “When they posted the [qualifying] list online I couldn’t sleep at all. I’ve just been super-excited all week.”

The first round of the 1,500 is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Thursday and will halve the field from 48 to 24. The top 12 finishers from the second round, set for 4:30 p.m. Saturday, will advance to Eugene.

Anderson described the upcoming races as a huge learning curve, and a great opportunity.

“This is my first time there, but it is the national preliminaries so you have to race with the mindset that you’re going to qualify,” she said. “I think I’m definitely ready to step up and race to my potential and to what I know I can do this season.

“[My time] will probably be significantly faster than what it’s been,” and possibly enable her to meet her preseason goal of going under 4:20 barrier.

“I had pretty big expectations,” she added. “I wanted to break 4:20 and run a bit faster than I have so far. But it’s been an interesting season, more and more learning each race.

“So it wasn’t exactly what I expected it to be or fully what I wanted it to be time-wise. But the goal was to make it to regionals and here we are.”

OSU’s school record in the 1,500 is 4:17.77, set by Laura Carlyle in 2012. Carlyle is the only Beaver to advance to NCAAs since the program’s rebirth; she placed 24^th in the 5,000 meters in 2011 and 22^nd in the 1,500 in 2012 and earned honorable-mention All-America honors in both instances.

McKinnon is a freshman from Mountain View High School in Meridian, Idaho. She ran her first steeplechase at the May 1 High Performance Meet after competing in the 800, 1,500 and mile in previous indoor and outdoor meets.

McKinnon set a school record (10:30.81) at the High Performance Meet, and then shaved six seconds off that mark and placed fourth at the Pac-12 meet in 10:25.77. She is ranked 27^th-ranked overall and No. 4 among West Regional freshmen.

The steeplechase quarterfinals are scheduled for 6:50 p.m. Friday. The 48 hopefuls will compete in three 16-women heats; the top 12 placers advance to Eugene.

“I’m so excited, it’s going to be great,” she said Tuesday. “It’s pretty cool; coming in as a freshman and being able to compete in something like this is really awesome.

“It’s not exactly something I expected coming in in the fall” after a highly-decorated career at Mountain View, where she was an eight-time letterwinner and three-time state champion in track and cross country and Idaho’s Gatorade Athlete of the Year.

McKinnon and coach Kelly Sullivan had been talking since November about her possibly running the steeplechase. One of her good family friends [Courtney Pugmire Meldrum] was an Olympian and former world record-holder in the steeplechase, so McKinnon was well-versed in the event.

“It’s similar, but very different in a lot of ways to the 3,200, which I ran in high school,” she said. “I love it, it’s so much fun.

“I’ve been running the 1,500 meters since sixth grade, so taking a break from it is kind of nice,” she added. “The hurdling and the water jumps make it easier to focus on the race.

“You always have something you’re running towards, and I like that.”

Like Anderson, McKinnon expects the quality field will push her to another PR.

“I don’t know how much faster I can go,” she said. “The last few races I’ve hit a couple hurdles. So if I can make it over all of them cleanly, I should be quite a bit faster.

“I’m feeling great. I’m excited and ready to go have a great meet.”

For more information on the Oregon State track & field and cross country teams, follow them by Facebook at Facebook.com/OSUTrackCrossCountry or on Twitter at twitter.com/@beavers_track.