When Nina Schultz won the heptathlon at the Jim Click Shootout this past April with 6,075 points, she set a new under-20 national record in her native Canada. It was also the third-best heptathlon mark in the world this year. Oh, and it was her first collegiate heptathlon too.
Schultz came to Kansas State because of Cliff Rovelto, and there’s no doubt he has helped Schultz improve in various aspects. But Schultz’s connection with at least the high jump goes back two generations and a world away from New Westminster, Canada.
Her mother, Debra Duan immigrated to Canada in the 1990s and was herself a noted high jump specialist.