Annett Wichmann will attempt to improve on her All-America showing at NCAA Indoors and Amber Kaufman and Emily Sheppard hope to bust a big jump at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, beginning today at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.

High jump qualifying is this afternoon, with the top 16 advancing to Friday's finals. Wichmann's heptathlon competition is Friday and Saturday. CBS College Sports (digital 247) will carry live coverage Friday, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. HST, and KGMB will have live coverage Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Wichmann, a junior from Germany, is making her third straight appearance at NCAA Outdoors. She was ninth last year, and finished fourth in the pentathlon at this year's Indoors, becoming the first UH track All-American since distance runner Cheryl Smith in 2001.

The top eight finishers this week earn All-America honors, with one additional American honored for every foreign-born athlete in the top eight.

The quality and diversity of athletes at this meet make it one of the most prestigious track and field events of the year. That does not change Hawai'i's preparation.

"They know how to prepare and what's expected, so it's just a matter of not worrying about little things," UH coach Carmyn James said. "It's all about consistency ... at a higher and higher level."

Wichmann is a three-time Western Athletic Conference heptathlon champion and ranks 17th nationally. Kaufman won WAC with a high jump of 6 feet, 0.5 inches, which ranks third nationally in college and qualified her for Olympic Trials.

The sophomore from San Jose, Calif., who starts on the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team, has the 13th-best jump in the country this year. Coincidentally, Kamehameha graduate Kanani Herring, who will be joining Kaufman on the volleyball team in the fall, won this year's state high school high jump championship.

Like Kaufman, Sheppard is making her first national appearance. The junior from Vancouver, British Columbia, was second to her teammate at WAC Championships, with a jump of 5-11.25. That ranks eighth in the NCAA this year.

The Rainbow Wahine's best finish at nationals came in 1984, when they were 32nd behind Gwen Loud's victory in the long jump. Loud is the program's only NCAA champion.