While in her home country of Germany, she participated in the 2024 German U18/U23 Championships. Since coming to the bayou, her skills are steadily sharpening, as she has set two personal bests—19:33.7 in the 5k and 4:58.02 in the mile—at the Sun Belt Conference Championships during her first year.
This ever-evolving list of feats belongs to one of ULM’s track and field/cross country athletes, Lilly Schuster. A Berlin native and baking aficionado, Schuster is a freshman toxicology major and mid-distance runner with specialties in the 800m and 1500m events. She took up her spikes as an early teen after one of her teachers noticed her natural skill in running.
“I started whenever I was about 13,” Schuster said. “I was really good at running, and my old teacher told me that I should join one of the running clubs.”
Once she joined and her talent began to show, she jokingly recalled how she realized that distance running was where she shone.
“For track and field, the younger age groups do all of the events—running, sprinting and jumping,” she said. “But my coach and I figured out pretty soon that I’m not really good at jumping and throwing, so we started specializing in running right then. I ended up really enjoying it, and now I’m doing cross country for the first time this year, since we don’t do it back home as much.”
With her heart set on running, Schuster trained ceaselessly and pushed herself to new heights. This led to her garnering attention from the ULM track and field team—a program with 16 national championships, six world records, and three Olympians.
Although entering such an esteemed program allowed Schuster to continue perfecting her craft, her journey was not without adversity. Before arriving on campus, she found herself struggling to find a balance between excelling both academically and athletically due to the independent structure of German academic institutions and athletics.
“Back home, we have university and then we have sports; they’re not well connected like they are here [in the US],” Schuster said. “Because of that, I found that towards the end of high school, it was hard to find a balance between being a great athlete and student. My friends were good at academics, so I obviously wanted to be as well, but at the same time, I knew I wanted to do both [academics and track] and succeed at both.”
Schuster’s discipline and perseverance most notably allowed her to overcome those setbacks, but she also credits her supportive family and one of her track role models, Majtie Kolberg, for inspiring her.
“My parents have definitely uplifted me; especially my dad,” she said. “He’s into sports, so we like to talk about sports. I love how he supports me and the way he goes about things in general. And sports-wise, I look up to Majtie Kolberg; she’s a mid-distance runner from Germany as well. I really like how she’s always smiling and looks effortless while doing what she does.”
As Schuster continues her career at ULM, she hopes to set more personal bests and to eventually establish a new school record in the 1500m. With the 2024-2025 season marking her first season doing collegiate track and field, Schuster’s future is ripe with opportunities, and her success as a Warhawk is imminent.
