Anyone who has been following Summit High School senior distance runner Ella Hagen over the last four years knows it was only a matter of time before she committed to a big-name university in order to further pursue her running and academic career.

Since running in her first race as a freshman full of talent, love for the sport and potential, Hagen has not only been a fixture in the state of Colorado, but across the national ranks as well.

After having an incredible freshman campaign, Hagen took her running to a whole new level throughout the course of her sophomore season, ultimately being crowned a state champion at the 4A cross-country race and in the 1600-meter run at the 4A track and field meet.

With two state titles in just her first two years as a Summit Tiger, Hagen continued to excel throughout her junior season where she added an individual Nordic skiing state title to her resume, winning the skate race.

Not only did Hagen’s three individual state titles and numerous first-place finishes draw the interest of college coaches from across the nation, but Hagen’s name being attached to basically every Summit High School distance-running record was also a welcome sight.

In the past three years, Hagen has set seven school records in every event from the 1500-meter run to the 5-kilometer run. Perhaps Hagen’s most impressive mark to date is in the 3200-meter run where she almost snuck under the 10-minute barrier, striding to a time of 10 minutes, 6.19 seconds at the Arcadia Invitational last April.  

With a laundry list of accolades and marks to her name, Hagen’s college recruitment journey truly picked up speed last spring when she went on a series of official visits to some of the top National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division I running schools.

“My official visits were to NC State, Tennessee, BYU (Brigham Young University) and Colorado,” Hagen said. “That was it for the officials and then I also talked to the Duke coach and Stanford some.”

With a wide swath of schools interested in her as both a student and an athlete, Hagen steadily narrowed down her list of potential landing spots based on what she wanted out of a program, school and college town.

One of the main principles Hagen used to whittle down the list of schools included finding someplace where she would be happy no matter if running was going well or not.

“My guiding question behind it all was, ‘Where am I going to be the best person and best version of myself’ as well as, ‘Where can I be happy with and without running?’,  Hagen said. “I quickly narrowed it down after visiting some other schools. I realized that I wanted to be in the mountains and wanted to have that access.”

Knowing she wanted to stay in the mountains, Hagen’s list was cut down to a few select schools. It was a visit to the University of Colorado a few weeks ago though, that firmly solidified her decision to be a Colorado Buffalo.

During the visit, Hagen got the opportunity to talk with newly appointed director of cross-country and track and field Sean Carlson, who Hagen got the opportunity to meet on her official visit to the University of Tennessee while he was still coaching in Knoxville.

It was ultimately Carlson and the current members of the Colorado distance team that gave Hagen the overwhelming gut feeling that she was meant to continue her running career at the University of Colorado.

“Being able to meet the team and spending time with them showed me that it was a group of people I wanted to spend my time around,” Hagen said. “I think it is going to be a very special team. We will be able to compete for each other on the starting line, not just with each other. At the end of the day, it was a gut feeling. I came home and I knew. I didn’t have that feeling with any other college.”

Carlson will be taking over the reins of the illustrious program from Mark Wetmore, who coached the Buffaloes to eight team national championships and worked to develop numerous All–American athletes in his three decades at the university. 

In his two years at Tennessee, Carlson transformed the distance program into one of the best in the nation. Prior to his stint as a Tennessee Volunteer, Carlson spent 10 years at Notre Dame where he led his athletes to four American collegiate records, 13 school records, 29 NCAA All-American performances and three NCAA championships. 

Beyond what Carlson provides Hagen from a coaching perspective, Hagen was also taken aback at the opportunity to run with other girls — something Hagen has not been accustomed to in a long time as she often trains with the boys on the high school team.

“I am beyond grateful for the high school team right now,” Hagen said. “I have the boys to run with, and we have had a lot of fun, but being to have girls around me that push me to do my best was a very special feeling. … It made me feel like it will not necessarily be easy, but with the people around me it will be a really fun few years.”

Once completing the rest of her cross-country season this fall and her final high school track season this spring, Hagen will be adorned in the black and gold of the Colorado Buffaloes. Hagen will attend the university on scholarship, further proving that student athletes in Summit can achieve their own dreams of pursuing their sport at the collegiate level.

“I want to show that as long as you set your mind to it and legitimately care about what you are doing, you can achieve things that have not been set out before,” Hagen said. “It is definitely special being able to show that even coming from a small school like Summit that we can be competitive and right in the scene. … There are no limitations on us and it is possible for the young kids and the current kids on the team.”