Buffs Qualify Three to NCAA Indoor Championships

BOULDER  — The Colorado track and field program will be sending three individuals to the 2023 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships March 10-11 in Albuquerque, N.M.
 
Graduate transfer Ella Baran qualified through in the women’s 5,000-meter run, pentathlon school record holder Avery McMullen is in for the pentathlon and true freshman Isaiah Givens qualified through in the men’s mile. All three will earn All-American status once they start their races with the top eight earning First Team All-American honors and the ninth through 16^th athletes earning Second Team All-American honors.
 
McMullen is the veteran of the group, returning for her second-straight indoor appearance. She finished as a First Team All-American last season after finishing eighth overall. She backed that up with a 12^th place finish outdoors in the heptathlon. McMullen had the ninth-best mark in the NCAA up until last weekend when she dropped to 16^th on the list following conference championship weekend. She sat out last weekend in the pentathlon but is coming off a school record in the 60 hurdles this season and an appearance at the USA Indoor Championships where she finished 8^th in the pentathlon and fifth in the 60 hurdles.
 
This will be Ella Baran’s first NCAA Division I Championships on the track, but she is no stranger to the championship stage. Baran qualified for four NCAA Division III Championships, including winning the indoor mile last year. She was an All-American for the Buffs in cross country this season with a 30^th-place finish and is ninth on the descending order list in the 5,000.
 
Givens is earning his first trip to the NCAA Championships and will become the first true freshman male to earn an All-American honor since Ben Saarel. Givens, who redshirted cross country, broke the 4-minute mile barrier at the Husky Classic for the first time at 3:59.57, then two weeks later destroyed the school record by dropping nearly four seconds to 3:55.99. Givens was 21^st on the descending order list but will enter the championships as the 15^th-best runner in the field after scratches.