Buffs Ready For NCAA Championships

BOULDER  — Three Colorado track and field student-athletes will begin competition at the 2023 NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championships Friday in Albuquerque, N.M.
 
Avery McMullen starts things off Friday morning in the women’s pentathlon. The school record holder in the pentathlon and the 60 hurdles will run the hurdles at 10:20 a.m. MT to start off her five-event day. She then goes on to compete in the high jump at 11:30 a.m., the shot put at 1:30 p.m., the long jump an hour later at 2:30 p.m., and finishes off the pentathlon in the 800-meter run starting at 3:40 p.m.
 
This is McMullen’s second NCAA pentathlon and third championship appearance. Last year she was eighth in the pentathlon, earning her first-ever First Team All-American honor. She followed it up with an appearance in the heptathlon outdoors. McMullen enters the championships as the 16^th-seeded athlete in the field.
 
Shortly after the pentathlon wraps up, Ella Baran runs the 5,000-meter final beginning at 5:05 p.m. Baran was the NCAA Division III mile national champion last season before transferring to CU. She earned an All-American finish in cross country and is the ninth-ranked athlete in the field.
 
This will be Baran’s first tactical race experience in the black and gold and has a strong chance to improve on her ranking. Baran became just the second woman in CU history to run under nine minutes in the 3,000 this season and has the speed and experience to close with the best of them.
 
The final race for the Buffs Friday comes with true freshman Isaiah Givens in the mile prelims at 7 p.m. Givens will be in the second heat and have the benefit of knowing what times need to be beaten to qualify through to the finals. Givens will be seeking a top-four finish in his heat to automatically move on to the finals Saturday, but could move on if he finishes top-six in his heat and earns one of the two next best times qualifier positions.
 
Givens is coming off an extraordinary winter where he ran a personal best of 4:06 in the mile at altitude in Boulder, then cracked the 4-minute barrier for the first time at the Husky Classic. He shocked everyone when he ran 3:55 and broke the school record in the mile at the Ken Shannon Last Chance Invite and earned his spot as the 15^th seeded athlete in the mile.
 
All three of the Buffs…