MCMullen Closes Out First Day Of Heptathlon

EUGENE – Colorado track and field sophomore Avery McMullen closed out the first day of the women's heptathlon competition here Friday at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
 
McMullen made it through the first four events in ninth place, led by an eighth-place finish in the 200. She will finish up competition tomorrow starting with one of her best events, the long jump, before finishing out the day with the javelin and 800-meter run.
 
The day started with McMullen finishing second in the first heat of the 100-meter hurdles in 13.87 seconds. Her mark was good for 10th in the competition and warranted her 997 points. Moving to the high jump, McMullen opened at 1.63 meters (5-4.25) and cleared that along with 1.66 meters on her first attempts. She needed two attempts at 1.69 meters and three at 1.72 meters (5-7.75) before failing to clear 1.75 meters. She finished tied for fourth in her flight and tied for ninth overall in the high jump while earning 879 points to remain in 10th through two events.
 
The shot put came shortly after with McMullen throwing 10.93 meters on her first attempt before launching it 11.67 meters (38-3.5) on her second attempt. Her third attempt came up just short of her second attempt at 11.63 as McMullen finished 15th in the shot put for 639 points. She fell three spots after the third event to 13th before she had a few hours to recover for the final event of the day, the 200-meter dash which was scheduled to start two hours and 43 minutes after the start of the shot put.
 
McMullen came out of lane two in the 200 and finished seventh in 24.69 in the heat, but that heat turned out to be the fastest of all the heats as only one athlete from the other two heats finished faster than McMullen. She finished eighth in the event for 915 points, bumping her up to ninth with a first day total of 3,430 points.
 
Anna Hall leads the heptathletes through the first day with 3,922 points, nearly 250 points ahead of second place as the US Champ won the high jump, 200 and placed third in the hurdles and shot put. McMullen sits one spot out of a scoring position, trailing Houston Baptist's Kaitlin Smith by just 50 points.
 
Already McMullen has tied her hurdle mark from Pac-12s and bettered her marks in the other three events. She has only had one better first day, the Mt. SAC Relays, where she ran faster in the hurdles but didn't perform as well as she did today in the high jump and shot put. McMullen's first day personal best of 3,459 was aided by a wind-aided 200 time of 24.27, giving her 40 more points in that event.
 
 
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