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Schultz sprints to NCAA bronze

Kansas State freshman sets an under-20 Canadian women's pentathlon record -- breaking her own mark set a month ago -- at the NCAA national track and field championships
Nina Schultz
Kansas State University freshman Nina Schultz continues to set a high bar, establishing three personal bests at the NCAA national indoor track and field championships last week.

Many freshmen find the first year a test to avoid being a “deer in the headlights”; where the main task is an adjustment, quietly finding their way around campus and a new social structure while absorbing all the minutiae of university life before pushing to make their own mark.
It’s apparent that New West’s Nina Schultz doesn’t ease into anything.
The New Westminster native continued to turn heads and shatter records in her first year as a student-athlete at Kansas State, establishing a number of personal bests as well as the under-20 Canadian pentathlon record at the NCAA indoor track and field championships last week in College Station, Texas.
Her final tally of 4,340 points placed her third in the NCAA pentathlon event, erasing the previous Canadian u20 record of 4,271. The previous best mark was also a product of Schultz’s diligence and talent, coming a month ago at the Sevigne Husker Invitational.
The 18-year-old began her march at the NCAAs with the seventh-best time in the 60-metre
hurdles – 8.41 seconds – and a new PB. In the high jump, Schultz pierced her past top mark by a centimetre with a vertical of 1.81m, good for third place. It also slotted her fourth on the pentathlon high jump all-time list.
In the shot put, the New West Spartans Track and Field team product placed eighth overall with her second throw for 12.14m, setting another new personal mark.
Things got dramatic in the long jump, when Schultz fouled in her first two jumps. On her third and final attempt, Schultz delivered a career-best 6.18m for the third-best result at the event. It was also the second longest distance in the school’s women’s pentathlon history.
The final event of the women’s pentathlon saw Schultz cross the 800m finish line in 2:26.55, 12th overall but enough to secure the bronze overall total and a first team All-American honour.
She became just the third freshman since 2000 to achieve it.
“Nina has had a long, very successful freshman year. She had a great meet and competed really well,” KS coach Cliff Rovelto told Kstatesports.com. “Her first four events were personal best and her final score was a personal best. She is a good one and she is going to be special going forward.”
The past year has seen Schultz reset numerous personal best and a few Canadian records.
Her outdoor 60m hurdles time of 8.33 seconds is ranked No. 1 in the nation for juniors, while she also owned the top national high jump mark.
Spartan coach and technical director Besnik Mece, who has known Schultz since meeting her as an eight-year-old attending Lord Kelvin Elementary, said the national team has her on their radar.
“She is taking now much attention of the media, as the new talent athlete of the Canadian combined events, who could replace the great Brianne Theisen-Eaton,” he wrote in a press release. “Some of them are predicting for her to compete at (the) 2019 World Indoor championships. But Schultz’ engine is much more stronger. She will accelerate faster in the highway of Tokyo 2020.”