Nina Schultz gave the defending B.C. high school girls’ track and field champions a step up on the competition.
The Grade 11 New Westminster Secondary student won her second consecutive combined-events title at the provincial high school championships at the Apple Bowl in Abbotsford last weekend.
Schultz garnered more than 5,000 points in the seven-event girls’ heptathlon, becoming the fourth high school female to reach the milestone mark since the competition was first run in 1982.
“I was really happy with my performance overall. I had five personal bests and one seasonal-best in the high jump,” said Schultz.
Last year’s most outstanding female athlete scored a career-best 5,046 total points, winning the 100-metre hurdles in a personal-best time of 14.82 seconds, the high jump in 1.74 metres, the 200m in a personal-best time of 26.35, the long jump in 5.38m and the javelin, with a PB throw of 36.37m. She also posted PBs in the 800m, finishing third with a career-best time of 2:29.61, and the shot put, with a second-place heave of 10.30m.
“I think after the first day I was happy with my results and thinking just to do my best (on Day 2). But after talking with my coaches I felt I could go for a really good score,” Schultz said.
Robin Buckingham of Walnut Grove placed second in the heptathlon with 4,469 points. Calli-Ann Abbott of Brooks Secondary in Powell River was third with a 4,381 total.
Four-time B.C. high school champion Georgia Ellenwood holds the girls’ provincial record in the heptathlon with 5,296 points set in 2013, when she beat D.W. Poppy’s Kelly-Ann Kempf’s long-standing 1985 record of 5,262.
The only other female athlete to reach the 5,000 mark in the heptathlon was Burnaby Central’s Allison Eades, who did it twice in 1982 and ’83, tallying 5,081 points in her first try and 5,156 in her second attempt.
Schultz’s score is the fifth-best all-time total in the 33-year history of the girls’ event.
Earlier this year, Schultz won the youth women’s heptathlon at the UBC Open in March, posting a 4,954-point score.
At that meet, Schultz posted personal-best scores in the hurdles, shot and long jump that were higher than what she achieved at the provincials.
Adding those differences to her existing best to date would translate to a 5,243 point total, just 53 points off Ellenwood’s B.C. high school record.
But Schultz says those numbers can wait until next season when she enters her final year at NWSS.
For now, all the focus is on the upcoming high school provincial meet, she says.
The New Westminster teen will compete in three individual events, including the high jump and long and triple jumps, at the upcoming B.C. high school championships to be held in Langley from June 4 to 6.
“I’d really like to repeat what we did last year, seeing as we made history last year,” she said.
