Results The St. Catherine University track and field team had one last meet on the schedule to fine tune and prep for the upcoming Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Championships a week from Friday. The Wildcats couldn't have had a better showing as the 60-meter hurdle record fell for the second time this season and multiple athletes had top 10 and personal record (PR) performances at the Macalester College Kilt Classic Friday evening in the Leonard Center in St. Paul.
After seeing her school hurdle record fall two weeks ago, Brittany Moore (Maplewood, Minn./North St. Paul) looked determined to get back to the top. And that's just what she did when she clocked the fastest prelim time of 9.19 to set a new St. Kate's top time. Her time was .06 better than the previous record set by Shakeela Wells-Johnson (St. Paul, Minn./Harding) earlier in the season.
Wells-Johnson ran the second-fastest time of the prelims with a 9.36 to also qualify for the finals. Then, Moore and Wells-Johnson finished 2-3 in the finals behind Carolyn Saulsberry of Hamline University who holds the top MIAC time in the event this season. They clocked in at 9.25 and 9.78, respectively.
In the distance events, Jenna McElroy (Champlin, Minn./Champlin Park) chose to have her best meet of the season just one week before the MIAC meet when she clocked the No. 3 St. Kate's time in the 3,000-meter run. The senior dropped 15 seconds off her previous best and 20 seconds from her season-best for a new PR when she crossed the line in 10:48.28. Her time was also good enough for second-place in the event.
Shannon Strickland (Rochester, Minn./Lourdes) also had a solid day with PR times in two different events. First, the sophomore moved up to No. 5 all-time in mile run when she clocked in at 5:29.09 finishing fourth overall. This was over a three-second drop from Strickland's season-best time. Then, later in the meet, she competed for the first time in her collegiate career in the 800-meter run and narrowly missed making the top 10 when she finished sixth with a time of 2:28.82.
Courtney Kirkeide (Greenbush, Minn./Greenbush-Middle River) also had a breakout performance for her sophomore season when she raced to a fourth-place finish in the 1,000-meter run. Her time of 3:11.42 was over four seconds better than her season-best time and is now ranked No. 6 all-time at St. Kate's in the event.
In the other sprint events, Megan Thoemke (White Bear Lake, Minn./Mahtomedi) had a PR in the 200-meter dash clocking in at 28.62, while Marie Morrier (Hudson, N.H./Academy of Science and Design) ran a PR time of 1:05.16 in the 400-meter dash.
Leading the way in the field events for the Wildcats was sophomore Abigail Palmer (Pequot Lakes, Minn./Pequot Lakes) who won the triple jump with a mark of 10.39 meters (34-1.25). Makayla Skluzacek (Le Sueur, Minn./Le Sueur-Henderson) had a PR in the long jump with a mark of 4.65 meters (15-3.25). The senior also finished sixth in the high jump with a mark of 1.46 meters (4-9.5).
Fellow senior Sarah Manning (Page, Ariz./Page) made her first appearance in the high jump this season and placed third in the event with a mark of 1.51 meters (4-11.50) to round out the Wildcats in the jumps.
Megan Pohlmann (Grey Eagle, Minn./Long Prairie-Grey Eagle) and Claire Vasilis (Northfield, Minn./Northfield) both turned in PR marks in the weight throw. Pohlmann threw 11.71 meters (38-5), while Vasilis was just behind with a mark of 11.70 (38-4.75).
The final highlight of the night came from the 4 x 200-meter relay team of Moore, Palmer, Thoemke and Wells-Johnson that turned in a third-place finishing time of 1:49.36 that was a season-best performance for the Wildcats.The relay performance now ranks No. 6 all-time at St. Kate's.
The Wildcats will compete at the MIAC Championships beginning Friday at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. Field events begin at 2 p.m. Friday, while track events are slated to begin at 4 p.m. More meet information can be found on the
championships site.
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