Waldorf’s Molina earns fifth in NSAA Multi

By Aaron Schneider

JAMESTOWN, N.D. – Patricia Molina turned in a fifth-place finish in the pentathlon while representing the Waldorf College women’s track and field team in the North Star Athletic Association (NSAA) Indoor Championships & Multi, which concluded on Monday.

The pentathlon is comprised of the 60-meter high hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800. Molina recorded 2,221 points in the pentathlon to provide Waldorf two points in team standings of the NSAA Championships.

“Patricia did an excellent job this weekend,” Waldorf coach Kelsey Riggins said. “Our goal with the multi was for her to score some points going in to the team competition next weekend and she did just that.”

Opening the pentathlon in the 60 hurdles on Sunday, Molina clocked a time of 11.65 seconds for 435 points.

“She actually had to run this race twice,” Riggins said. “The first time the timing system didn’t work correctly, so she had to turn around 10 minutes later and run the race again. She actually ran a better race the second time around, so it worked out well for her.”

Molina recorded a height of 1.38 meters (4 feet, 6.25 inches) in the high jump for 491 points. The freshman from Candelaria, Spain set a new lifetime-best with the performance.

“Her approaches are looking really nice and she is starting to show some consistency in this event,” Riggins said.

Molina tossed the shot put 7.94 meters (26 feet, 0.5 inches) to tally 395 points.

“She threw very well and made up some points in this event,” Riggins said. “Patricia may be small, but she is mighty. She is very explosive and does a good job in the shot put.”

Molina leaped to a distance of 4.48 meters (14 feet, 8.5 inches) in the long jump, adding another 423 points.

“She had a season-best last weekend and jumped pretty close to that this weekend,” Riggins said.

Molina ran to a time of 2:48.75 in the 800 for 477 points. Behind a strong finish in the race, Molina defeated Dakota State University’s Kelsey Poppen in the pentathlon.

“She knew going into the 800 who she needed to beat and by how much,” Riggins said. “She ran a very smart race.”

With the NSAA Indoor Championships & Multi being held during a separate weekend, Molina will be ready to go to work along with her teammates in this weekend’s NSAA Indoor Championships at Brookings, South Dakota. The Warriors begin the two-day NSAA Indoor Championships on Friday, starting at 11 a.m. and enter with points following Molina’s showing in the pentathlon.

“She has the women’s team set up with some points coming into the meet and got us started off on the right foot,” Riggins said. “The best thing about having the multi on a different weekend, which is something a lot of conferences don’t do, is that we can put our multi-event kids in the open events next weekend with fresh legs.”