Buffs Close Out Indoor Regular Season

BOULDER — The University of Colorado track and field team heads to the Ken Shannon Last Chance Invite this Friday and Saturday in Seattle to close out the 2023 indoor regular season.

Events begin Friday with the men's weight throw and men's heptathlon starting things off at 12 p.m. PT, followed by the women's weight throw and pentathlon. The only track events Friday are the women's 3,000 invitational, 5,000 and 200 for Colorado.

Things ramp up Saturday with CU competing in every field event except the men's shot put with the women's high jump at 10 a.m. Track events competed by the Buffs will include the 60-meter dash, mile, 400, 800, 3,000 and 4x400-meter relays.

The women have a few athletes competing with hopes to extend their seasons to the NCAA Indoor National Championships. Ella Baran is currently ninth in the 5,000 and seems safe, while Avery McMullen is also ninth in the pentathlon and safe. Baran will compete in the mile or 3,000 this weekend, the later of which she is on the bubble at 17^th in the NCAA. She needs to run a second or two faster, more than likely 8:55 to be safe. McMullen is competing in the long jump and has a wind-aided jump of 6.32 meters (20-9) from last season. If she jumps that this weekend she could add the long jump to her indoor schedule. She will be joined by Kara Lucyk in the event.

Others with outside chances looking to qualify include India Johnson in the 5,000. She is 32^nd in the NCAA right now and needs to run around 15:40 to get in. She will also try the 3,000 along with Kaitlyn Barthell. Allie Routledge is 28^th in the high jump and needs a jump of 1.85 (6-0.75) or better to make it to the NCAA Championships. Routledge is also competing in the pentathlon.

The multis kick things off with Nick Bianco and Troy Colleran in the heptathlon with Jada Green, Eva Bruce and Routledge in the pentathlon. Green is coming off a pentathlon and hurdle appearance at the USA Indoor Championships last week and will compete in her third pentathlon in four weeks.

The weight throw starts out the field events. Tyler Sconce and Matt Ward will compete for the men while school record holder Gya'ni Sami will compete for the women. Lauren Whyrick rounds out the throwers competing with an appearance in the shot put.

The distance squad will run Whitney Valenti in the mile along with Baran, while the men have Isaiah Givens, Caleb Niednagel and Ben Greene in the men's mile. The men's 3,000 is a stacked field with Charlie Sweeney, Jace Aschbrenner, Hunter Appleton, James Overberg, Brendan Fraser and Grady Rauba. Sweeney is also entered in the 5,000.

For the sprinters, Luc Andrada in in the 60 and 200 while Ian Gilmore and James Milholen will double in the 200 and 400. Garrett Nelson and Tyler Williams are also in the open 400 with Williams seeded in the top heat. The four will come together in the 4x4 and aim to run 3:05 for a chance at the NCAA Championships.

For the women, the 4x4 squad of Abbey Glynn, Emma Pollak, Grace Jenkins and Jaida Drame will all run in the open 400. They all fill out a different heat with one in heats two through five. They will also run the 4x4 and need to run 3:34 or faster to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

The Buffs will also have Jackson Meyer in the high jump and long jump along with Aidan Christiansen in the long jump.

The events will be streamed for runnerspace.com subscribers with live results available here.

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Players Mentioned

Luc Andrada

Hunter Appleton

Jace Aschbrenner

Ella Baran

Kaitlyn Barthell

Eva Bruce

Aidan Christiansen

Troy Colleran

Jaida Drame

Brendan Fraser

Ian Gilmore

Isaiah Givens

Abbey Glynn

Jada Green

Ben Greene

Grace Jenkins

India Johnson

Kara Lucyk

Avery McMullen

Jackson Meyer

James Milholen

Garrett Nelson

Caleb Niednagel

James Overberg

Emma Pollak

Grady Rauba

Allie Routledge

Gya'ni Sami

Tyler Sconce

Charlie Sweeney

Whitney Valenti

Matt Ward

Lauren Whyrick

Tyler Williams