ICONIC: Charity Hufnagle

Every March, many sports fans find excitement while they follow the brackets of the NCAA Tournament as the college basketball season comes to a close.

If a team of a lesser known brand, from a lesser known conference advances far in the tournament, that team gets headlines, becomes the lead story on news broadcasts and captures the imagination of those who are watching.

Cinderella is the name that is placed upon these teams. Often times the 1983 NC State of the ACC and the 1985 Villanova of the Big East squads who were lower seeds are brought up, but for the sake of this story, those schools don't fit in. They competed in the decade's two most dominant basketball conferences. Yes, nobody picked them to have success in the tournament, but those two programs played amongst some of the best competition in the country all year. They were prepared to win.

We're talking about squads like Cleveland State who represented the Mid-Conference in 1986 that advanced all the way to the Sweet 16. Kent State from the Mid-American Conference that competed in the Elite Eight in 2002. Colonial Athletic Association's George Mason and VCU that advanced to the Final Four in 2006 and 2011 respectively.

Most notably was the Horizon League's Butler Bulldogs that advanced to the NCAA Championship game in 2010 and 2011. Butler came close to winning the tournament in 2011, but missed a last second shot that would have won the game.

Butler competes out of the state of Indiana. The same state as a woman named Charity Hufnagle, previously known as Charity Griffith before her marriage in 2023.

After a career at Rushville Consolidated High School, where she was a regional champion in the high jump, Hufnagle remained in Indiana to compete at Ball State University. Just like Kent State, Ball State also competes in the Mid-American Conference.

Hufnagle went to the college that isn't in a major conference and is best known for being the school that legendary former late night host David Letterman attended. Over her career, she became the school's top all-time track and field performer. In her third indoor season (2022) at Ball State, Hufnagle won the high jump indoor and outdoor as well as the pentathlon conference championships. She also competed at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships in those events.

As a First-Team All-American in the high jump after a top five finish at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships, Hufnagle showed that she was a talent to be taken seriously. In 2022, when she was asked about her success in the midst of the season as she was consistently breaking school records, she said, "I want much more than that, for sure. I'm gonna keep going."

When asked about what much more meant, Hufnagle replied, "Pro." That was an answer that most track and field athletes in the Mid-American Conference did not have in 2022. Going pro in any sport is a long shot, but becoming a professional in track and field out of that particular conference feels about as common as booking a flight to the moon.

Hufnagle, however, wasn't a normal Mid-American Conference athlete. She was better than the best. From 2022 t0 2023, Hufnagle won four high jump and two in the pentathlon conference championships. Along with her aforementioned success at the NCAA Championships in 2022, she topped it in 2023.

Despite having bruised heels, Hufnagle recorded another First-Team All-American top five effort in the high jump at the 2023 NCAA Indoor Championships. She also had a second straight appearance in the pentathlon championship competition. When the outdoor season reached its end, Hufnagle did what all of the other Cinderellas that we mentioned from non-major conferences and programs didn't do in the basketball tournament.

On June 10, 2023, Hufnagle took on a field that included the defending champion Lamara Distin of Texas A&M, an SEC school. Also included in the field was another SEC competitor in Georgia's Elena Kulichenko who would go on to win three NCAA Championships in 2024 and 2025. She was also an Olympian in 2024 for Cypress.

Hufnagle went on to win the NCAA championship in the high jump while in a Ball State uniform. She was only the second woman to accomplish the feat in school history. The first was LaTasha Jenkins who won the 200 meters at the NCAA Championships in 1999.

"I've always had the drive to win an NCAA Championship since high school," Hufnagle said after the win in 2023. "I was just a mediocre athlete in high school. I've always told myself I was gonna do it. I'm finally happy I could put it into action today."

When Hufnagle said that she was an average athlete in high school, the interviewer couldn't believe his ears. Remember earlier in this feature, where we said Hufnagle was a regional champion. That's not bad, but the athletes who win at the NCAA meet are usually state champions on the high school level. Griffith finished 10th and 14th in the high jump at the state championships in Indiana during her respective 11th and 12th grade seasons.

When she started her collegiate career nobody would've predicted an appearance at the NCAA Championships, let alone her winning the whole thing. She finished 13th with a mark of five feet and one inch in the high jump at the 2020 Mid-American Conference Indoor Championships as a freshman. By the time she was done at Ball State, she was the NCAA champ, clearing six feet and four inches, which is rare for any women's collegiate athlete to accomplish.

Hufnagle was the Cinderella that got to dance with the prince, marry him and live happily ever after. Most collegiate Cinderellas dance with the prince but by the time they make it back to the chariot, it's a pumpkin as the clock strikes midnight before they're allowed to become the champion.

The year of 2023 wasn't the end of Hufnagle's success, but it was the last time that she could legitimately be called a Cinderella. She transferred to the University of Kentucky, where she competed for her final collegiate season. Kentucky is not Ball State. Winning an NCAA championship is expected when you have the talent that Hufnagle has.

Hufnagle had to battle injuries throughout her time at Ball State. The same thing happened at Kentucky. Those injuries were a bit of a issue but she still earned an SEC championship in the pentathlon. Hufnagle also earned second-team All-American Honors in the pentathlon as well as the high jump. She had her best NCAA Championships performance during the 2024 season in the heptathlon when she placed seventh, which made her a First-Team All-American in that event.

Hufnagle shined best after the NCAA season as she won the United States championship for the first time in the high jump during the Olympic Trials. In 2025, Hufnagle became a pro, just as she desired. The Ball State legend competed at the World Championships, where she placed fifth in the high jump final.