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The St. Catherine University track and field team has been off to a strong start to the 2015 season and hopes to enter this weekend's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Championships with the energy and momentum it ended the regular indoor season with last weekend.
 
At the Wildcats' final meet of the season, the team collectively set a school record and had three other performances that made the St. Kate's top 10 performance list – as well as multiple personal record (PR) performances across the board.
 
With sprinters Shakeela Wells-Johnson (St. Paul, Minn./Harding) and Brittany Moore (Maplewood, Minn./North St. Paul) leading the way with some of the top MIAC times in multiple events, the Wildcats should be set for one of its best finishes in recent year at the conference meet scheduled to begin Friday afternoon in Moorhead, Minnesota.
 
In her first meet of the season, Wells-Johnson ran a 7.84 in the 60-meter hurdles that hasn't been beaten by anyone else in the MIAC this year. She heads into the event as the reigning runner up with her time just .04 seconds off her St. Kate's record of 7.80 that she set a year ago at the championship meet. The sophomore also ranks in the top 30 in Division III in the event.
 
Not only will Wells-Johnson have a strong chance at repeat All-MIAC honors in the 60-meter dash, she will join Moore in the 60-meter hurdles – an event in which both have the top five seed times. After Wells-Johnson broke Moore's record earlier in the year with a time of 9.26, Moore ran a 9.19 in the prelims of the event Friday at Macalester College to set a new school record. Her time is also the second-fastest in the MIAC this season and just .03 behind Carolyn Saulsberry of Hamline University.
 
In addition to Moore and Wells-Johnson, junior Ashleigh Ackley (Gilby, N.D./Grand Forks Central) will also compete in the 60-meter hurdles. She ran a PR time of 10.36 Friday at Macalester to earn her place in the conference meet.
 
Moore will also represent the Wildcats in the long jump at the MIAC Championships for the first time in her career. At the Wildcats' first meet of the season in January, Moore qualified for the event with a mark of 4.95 meters (16-3) that ranks No. 5 all-time at St. Kate's. She is the lone Wildcat to compete in the event with the 10th-best seed mark heading into Friday.
 
The Wildcats will also have representation in two other jump events as Abigail Palmer (Pequot Lakes, Minn./Pequot Lakes) will compete in the triple jump and seniors Sarah Manning (Page, Ariz./Page) and Makayla Skluzacek (Le Sueur, Minn./Le Sueur-Henderson) qualified for the high jump. Early in the year, Palmer set a new school record in the triple jump with her best jump of the year coming at Bethel University in early February. Her mark of 10.42 meters (34-2.25) is the ninth-best in the MIAC heading into the event scheduled for Saturday.  
 
Manning – who boast three career Honorable Mention finishes in the high jump both indoor and outdoor – enters the meet with a height of 1.51 meters (4-11.5) that she cleared at Macalester Friday in her first competition of the season. Skluzacek will compete in the high jump at the MIAC indoor meet for the first time individually in her career.  She enters with a mark of 1.47 meters (4-9.75).
 
The Wildcats' final participant in a field event will be Megan Pohlmann (Grey Eagle, Minn./Long Prairie-Grey Eagle) who qualified in the weight throw with a mark of 11.71 meters (38-5) that she threw at the Macalester meet Friday.
 
In the remainder of the sprint events, first-year Megan Thoemke (White Bear Lake, Minn./Mahtomedi)qualified for the 400-meter dash with the 16th seed time of 62.67. She also ran on the Wildcats' 4 x 200-meter Relay squad – along with Moore, Palmer and Wells-Johnson – that owns the seventh-fastest time of 1:49.36 heading into the conference meet. Their time is also the sixth-fastest in program history.
 
The Wildcats will have strong representation in the middle distance and distance events. Johanna Wyrick (Gilbert, Minn./Eveleth-Gilbert) will compete as a rookie in the 800-meter run with a seed time of 2:29.64.
 
Shannon Strickland (Rochester, Minn./Lourdes) and Courtney Kirkeide (Greenbush, Minn./Greenbush-Middle River) will both represent the Wildcats in the 1,000-meter run with Strickland ranked in the top 15 heading into the race. She ran a PR time of 3:08.78 at the University of Minnesota Parents' Day open to capture the No. 3 spot on the St. Kate's top 10 list, while Kirkeide clocked her PR time of 3:11.42 on Friday – ranking sixth all-time at St. Kate's – to seal her spot in the meet.
 
Finally, senior Jenna McElroy (Champlin, Minn./Champlin Park) will compete in the 3,000-meter run after dropping nearly 20 seconds from her previous season best Friday with a PR time of 10:48.28 to earn the right to compete in her final indoor conference meet.
 
In addition to the Wildcats' strong 4 x 200-meter Relay, the Wildcats enter the meet with the fifth-fastest Distance Medley Relay time of 13:25.09 and the ninth-best time in the 4 x 400-meter Relay.
 
The meet is schedule to begin Friday with field events at 2 p.m. before track events kick off at 4 p.m. Saturday, field events are slated for a 10:15 a.m. start, while field events will follow at 12:30 p.m. Additional meet information can be found on the championships website. 

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