Barely a month into the indoor track season and New West’s Nina Schultz has already set the bar high.
The Kansas State University track star posted the seventh-best pentathlon score in NCAA indoor history and established a new under-20 Canadian national record in the process.
She did it at last week’s Texas Tech Shootout, with three of her five events ending in new personal records.
“It’s definitely exciting, I’m happy with the score and the personal best, but anything can happen in the pentathlon and I just need to go out and keep improving and having fun,” Schultz, a sophomore, told K-State Athletics. “Overall, I felt a lot more relaxed and comfortable out there.”
Her new personal marks were set in the high jump, with a clearance of 1.82 metres, the long jump (6.39m) and 800m run (2:19.79). Schultz began the day with a first-place showing of 8.28 seconds in the 60m hurdles, an event in which she had established a new personal best just one week earlier with a time of 8.24.
She finished first in four of the five competitions, while placing second in shotput with a throw of 11.61m.
“Nina competed well,” remarked KSU’s director of track and field Cliff Rovelto. “She ran another sub 8.30 hurdles race, had a personal best in the high jump again, a PR in the long jump and a very controlled 800 metres. Obviously this is a big score, but I think she can still improve a little in every event.”
Her overall score of 4,502 points stands second in KSU history behind Akela Jones’ 4,643, set in 2016. Schultz’s previous indoor best of 4,340 came in the 2017 NCAA Indoor championships.
Her finish in Texas was also the best result in the NCAA this year, by 100 points, and put her seventh on the all-time NCAA indoor pentathlon list.
Schultz is ranked fourth on the 2018 IAAF World senior list, two points back of American Erica Bougard.
With a full slate of NCAA events, the 19-year-old is also preparing to represent Canada at the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April.
