Buffs Geared Up For NCAA Championships

BOULDER – The University of Colorado track and field program sends 17 total Buffaloes to the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships this Wednesday through Saturday at Hayward Field in Eugene.
 
The women have a program record 12 entries and are sending a dozen women to the championships, tying the 1996 team for the most women attending. The men are sending a 4x400-meter relay for the first time in program history.
 
Action will begin Wednesday evening at 8:48 p.m. MT when the men's relay of Aaron McCoy, Tyler Williams, Ian Gilmore, Garrett Nelson and Kellen Monestime take to the track. The four members of the relay will compete in the third heat of the semifinals seeking a top-two finish in the final heat or one of the next three fastest times. The men's team will have the added bonus of knowing what the final qualifying time will be after the first two heats finish.
 
The Buffs ran a 3:05.50 time in the NCAA West Preliminaries, the second-best mark in school history and less than half a second from the school record of 3:05.16 set in 1994. Colorado has their work cut out for them with five relays in their heat with qualifying times under 3:05 led by Florida's 3:01.22.
 
The women take to the track on Thursday with the semifinals in every event except the finals in the women's 10,000-meter run. Micaela DeGenero and Rachel McArthur start things out in the women's 1,500-meter run where the two women are split between the two heats. The women will need a top-five position in their heat or one of the top-two next best times. DeGenero, who finished sixth in the finals last year, will be in the first heat with McArthur in the second.
 
Shortly after the 1,500, the women's steeplechase semifinals will begin with both Madie Boreman and Gabrielle Orie in the second heat seeking a top-five position or next two fastest times. There are seven women with qualifying times under 10 minutes in the heat.
 
Abbey Glynn will compete at 8:30 p.m. MT in the first of three heats in the women's 400 hurdles where she is the third-fastest athlete based on qualifying times. She will be seeking a top-two finish in her heat or need one of the top-three next fastest times to make it to the finals. There are 10 women in the next two heats with faster qualifying times, including six in the second heat alone. Glynn will then have an hour and 18 minutes before she competes in the 4x400-meter relay semifinals along with Grace Jenkins, Jaida Drame and Emma Pollak. The quartet is in the first heat needing a top-two finish or next three fastest times. There are two teams under 3:30 in the first heat followed by a pair under 3:31.
 
The women's 10,000-meter final is the first final for the women on the track. Emily Covert and India Johnson will both be in the 24-woman field. Covert has the top ran time in the NCAA this season for women in the final after teammate Abby Nichols decided to focus on the 5,000 and Oregon's Alessia Zarbo failed to qualify. Covert, Arkansas' Lauren Gregory and Washington's Haley Herberg are all in the race will top-five times in the NCAA this season. Covert's 32:30.82 from the Pac-12 Championships leads Gregory and Herberg's times by four seconds, where Gregory ran her time back on April 1st at the Stanford Invite and Herberg ran her time in the same Pac-12 Championship race. Johnson is ranked 11th in the NCAA in the race but is ranked sixth in the final with five of the top-10 times in the NCAA not qualifying or racing the 10,000 this championship.
 
Friday turns to Avery McMullen in the women's heptathlon where she comes in ranked 20th in the NCAA. The 5,663 points she earned at the Mt. SAC Relays is third in CU history in the event. The sophomore was an All-American this season in the indoor pentathlon where she finished eighth. She is exactly 200 points from the all-time CU heptathlon record set by Annette Tannander in 1983 prior to the currently heptathlon changes in the javelin. She trails the current format record by just 25 points set by Heather Sterlin in 1997. It may take a school record performance to earn another First Team All-American bid as the eighth-best mark in the NCAA is 5,834 points. The NCAA leader Anna Hall is also the USA Champion in the heptathlon with 6,458 points and is ranked second in the world in the event.
 
McMullen will compete in four events on Friday, the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200-meter run. She will finish up on Saturday with the long jump, javelin and 800-meter run. In addition to the heptathlon record, McMullen is closing in on the women's long jump record held by Tannander of 20-8, and is approaching or has top-10 marks in the high jump, 100 hurdles and 200-meter run.
 
The last for sure race for the Buffs is the women's 5,000-meter run Saturday afternoon. This is also one of the tightest finals around with Nichols,  Covert and Johnson all in the 24-woman final. Nichols held the NCAA lead in the 5,000 for most of the season after she ran 15:27.11 on the first of April at the Stanford Invitational. Oklahoma's Taylor Roe took the lead at the Bryan Clay Invitational at 15:21.47 two weeks later, then Nichols reclaimed the lead less than 24 hours later when she led all college athletes in the elite portion of the Mt. SAC Relays at 15:15.95, the eighth-best time in NCAA history at the time. Alabama's Mercy Chelangat was the next best collegiate in the race and ran the 10th-best time in NCAA history. That held until Katelyn Tuohy of NC State ran 15:14.61 a week later in Virginia to take the eighth-best mark in NCAA history and knock Nichols down to ninth. All four women are in the race, with only Chelangat doubling in the 10,000 along with Covert and Johnson. Tuohy was also the top-ranked 1,500-meter runner but decided to focus on the 5,000, similar to Nichols with the top time in the 10,000.
 
It could take a championship record to win the women's 5,000-meter run with the current record held by Sally Kipyego at 15:15.08.
 
Both Wednesday and Thursday's prelims and finals will be televised on ESPNU, while Friday will only feature the men's finals on ESPN2. Saturday's action will be televised on ESPN with only the track events live. All of the women's heptathlon events along with all field events will be on ESPN3 all four days.
 
ALUMNI NOTE
Colorado's Jenny (Barringer) Simpson was inducted in to the inaugural class of the USTFCCCA Collegiate Athlete Hall of Fame last night in Eugene. She will be honor during the championships at Hayward Field this week.
 
SCHEDULE