When Sarah Holtz was attending Pacelli High School, she was highly active. After two years of Holtz attending Luther College, not much has changed.

Holtz has stepped up for the Luther women’s basketball and track and field teams and she’s also kept up on her studies as she maintained a GPA of 3.94 in the spring, landing her on the Iowa Conference Spring Sports All-Academic team.

Being highly involved is the only way Holtz knows.

“It’s been going great,” Holtz said. “(Playing sports) keeps me busy, but in a good way. I honestly find it helpful. When I’m in the off time for about a week or two between track and basketball I procrastinate and I find that I have less drive to do things.”

Holtz, who competed in the javelin and high jump this spring, won an Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship for Luther in the high jump with a height of 5 feet, 3 1/4 inches and was the first Norse athlete to win a conference title in that event since 1999.

Holtz thrived on the basketball court for the Norse last season as she played in all 29 games and started in 10 contests. She averaged 9.4 points, 4.2 rebounds while shooting 44 percent from the field, 35 percent on three-pointers and 76 percent on free throws.

She said she’s learned to play with a lot more freedom on the court since she played for Lyle-Pacelli, where she racked up more than 2,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds.

Luther’s style allows players to have a lot of input in gameplans and the veteran players almost act as coaches on the floor.

“I would say I’m a very different player than I was in high school,” Holtz said. “Going to Luther has really opened my horizons a little bit. In high school it was very set basketball, we ran plays and sets and we were very scripted. In college it’s not like that at all. It’s almost like barn ball. It’s really free and we have a lot of personal agency.”

The Norse finished second in the IIAC behind Wartburg, which advanced to the Division III Final Four this past winter, and Holtz is hoping good things are ahead for Luther. She has plenty of big game experience from her days with the Athletics as Holtz was on the first LP team that ever went to state when the Athletics took fourth place in 2015.

“Losing at state is never fun; it’s hard,” Holtz said. “But I think it did fuel the fire a little bit to go into college and try to win a championship or go to the national tournament. I’m more determined than I was. I think we have a really good chance of winning the conference and making the national tourney this year.”

Holtz wasn’t able to attend any LP games this past season as the Athletics locked up their first state title in program history. But she was happy to see a lot of her former teammates strike gold on the biggest stage in Class A.

“It means everything (to have a state title here.)It’s been a long time coming for this community and the girls have worked so hard,” Holtz said. “They’ve been in the gym throughout the summer and some of those girls have been on the same team since fifth grade. It’s been so fun to see them grow up up as people and players and ultimately accomplish what they wanted to.”

While Holtz has kept herself busy in sports at Luther, she knows her future relies on her education. She’s currently majoring in International Studies and she is thinking about eventually getting into law school or pursuing a career in Human Resources.

“I take my studies really seriously and the majority of the team does too,” Holtz said. “I think at Luther it’s a really good balance between academics and athletics. Everyone’s involved in something, even if it’s a club sport or an organization, but we’re here to go to school and everything else is just secondary.”

Holtz will be a junior at Luther this fall.