Schmaltz Automatically Qualifies for U.S. Championships in 800 Meters

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - North Dakota State senior Christine Schmaltz ran a personal best time in the 800 meters at the American Milers Club High Performance Series on Wednesday, June 15 to automatically qualify for the U.S. Championships.

Schmaltz's first place time of 2 minutes 2.77 seconds shattered her previous best time by 2.3 seconds.  Her time now ranks second all-time at NDSU.

"It was an amazing performance," said head coach Ryun Godfrey.  "She was able to drop a huge amount of time."

Schmaltz is the first Bison to automatically qualify for the U.S. Championships this season.  Former NDSU athletes Laura (Hermanson) Januszewski and Amanda (Thieschafer) Smock also automatically qualified in the 800 meters and triple jump, respectively. 

Senior Whitney Carlson is provisionally qualified in the long jump and junior Leslie Brost is provisionally qualified in the pole vault.  The U.S. Championships are scheduled for Thursday, June 23-Sunday, June 26.