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2025 Female Most Improved: Paige Schulz

Tuesday, 25 November 2025 00:10

By Bonnie 

Clyde and I were in total agreement about who should receive the Female Most Improved honor: 

Bonnie - This was an easy one for me. While Adeline's and Amy's improvement were dramatic, especially Amy's, their likely Team Minnesota placement are near the bottom of the Top 10, whereas Paige Schulz's name will be on top of the list. She excels at long distance and recorded three of the four fastest 70.3 times by a Minnesota woman last season. She lowered her PR twice in 2025 and was six-plus minutes faster this year than her previous best for 2024. Moreover, her 9:43:35 at Ironman Chattanooga was the fastest 140.6 time ever by an amateur Minnesota woman.

For me, the choice for F-MI couldn't have been more clear: Paige Schulz.

Clyde - It’s important to note that when assessing Most Improved (MI) nominees, Bonnie and I look at movement relative to Team Minnesota. Thus, an athlete might have made bigger absolute gains than another, but an athlete who moved towards the top of Team MN may win the MI honor. That is because improvement is relative, i.e., it’s harder to make absolute time gains the faster you already are. To me, this is how this year played out. Adeline had a breakout year, but in my opinion, Amy had a...

breakthrough year – one that took her from competitive in her age group to winning races and being close to making a Team Minnesota berth.

Then there was Paige Schulz. Paige was not on Team Minnesota in 2024. This year she won 70.3 Wisconsin in 4:34, placed second overall at Ironman Chattanooga in a blistering 9:43, both of those results were nominated for Performance of the Year, and Paige was nominated for Triathlete of the Year. Indeed, her absolute and relative improvement was out of this world. Like Bonnie, my choice for this year’s Most Improved female is clearly Paige.