| Results | MIAC Release|

ST. PAUL, MINN. – The St. Catherine University track and field team picked up right where it left off after day one of the 2016 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Indoor Track and Field Championships in Northfield, Minnesota. Led by record breaking performances from Rachel Hall (Mendota Heights, Minn.) and the 4x200 Relay team, the Wildcats finished ninth overall as a team on the final day of competition, their best finish in the conference meet since 2009.

Hall concluded her stellar indoor season by breaking the school record she set just one week ago in the 1000 meter run. Hall's final time of 3:01.92 was .44 seconds faster than her time at the Macalester Kilt Classic, which broke the 21-year school record by three one-hundredths of a second.  Hall took fifth in the race, as she finished less than a second behind the University of St. Thomas' Summer Ellefson.

The 4x200 relay team set the tone for St. Kate's, as they were competing in the first event of the day. The team, comprised of Brittany Moore (Maplewood, Minn. / North St. Paul), Megan Thoemke (White Bear Lake, Minn. / Mahtomedi), Ashleigh Ackley (Gilby, N.D. / Grand Forks Central), and Shakeela Wells-Johnson (St. Paul, Minn. / Harding), compiled a historical performance to record a top-10 time and finish seventh in the race.

Moore ran the first 200 meters for the St. Kate's, helping the team to a third place standing behind Bethel University and Hamline University. Thoemke and Ackley both held the pace in the second and third legs, and anchor Wells-Johnson sprinted to the finish for a final time of 1:49.62. The time in the No. 7 all-time in St. Kate's history, but the dramatics weren't over when the Wildcats heat was complete. The team had to wait to see if the College of Saint Benedict could beat their time in the final heat of the 2x400 relay. No matter what, St. Kate's was guaranteed a spot in the top eight thanks to their strong performance in the second heat. That spot ended up being the seventh, as the Blazers just edged the Wildcats score by .23 seconds.

Courtney Kirkeide (Greenbush, Minn. / Greenbush-Middle River) provided a highlight in the 3000 meter run, setting a personal record (PR) while running a top-10 time in the race. The junior middle distance specialist finished the second longest race in 10:43.62, nearly 12 seconds faster than her previous PR time of 10:55.07. Kirkeide finished sixteenth in the race overall and recorded the No. 3 time in St. Kate's history.

The Wildcats also had two performers in the field events. Katelyn Byers-Carter (Bloomington, Minn. / Jefferson) recorded a PR in the shot put with a top throw of 10.13 meters in the preliminary round. First year Kaylea Hoenigschmidt (Ramsey, Minn. / Anoka) also competed in the shot put, finishing with a top distance of 7.91 meters.

The 2016 MIAC Indoor Championships concluded with the 4x400 meter relay. Thoemke, Hall, Stacey Wherley (Osceola, Wis. / Osceola), and Marie Morrier (Hudson, N.H. / Academy for Science and Design) finished the race in 4:16.63.

St. Kate's finished ninth in the team standings with 29.9 points overall. St. Thomas won the meet for the seventeenth straight season with 182.4 overall team points, while Saint Ben's finished second with 101.2 team points.