All season, Shakeela Wells-Johnson (St. Paul, Minn.) has made a huge impact for the St. Catherine University track and field team. But no week has she shown brighter for the Wildcats than this last one at the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Indoor Championships. For her strong performances in three different events, Wells-Johnson has been named the Wildcat Athlete of the Week.Â
After setting a new school record in the 60-meter dash twice this season, Wells-Johnson continued in similar fashion Friday at the MIAC Championships. But this time, her record-setting time of 7.80 was good enough for the top Wildcat individual finish of the weekend as she placed second to earn All-MIAC honors and big points toward the team score. Her time was a tenth of a second faster than her previous best and was behind only that of Mallory Burnham of the University of St. Thomas who holds the top time in Division III (7.62). Wells-Johnson narrowly missed qualifying for the national meet and her time ranks in the top-20 in Division III this season.Â
But that wasn't the only highlight for the rookie at the MIAC meet. Wells-Johnson also ran the final leg of the 4 x 200-meter relay that placed sixth to earn All-MIAC Honorable Mention honors Saturday. The squad's time of 1:50.10 not only scored big points for the Wildcats, but it also ranks No. 6 all-time in St. Kate's history.Â
The first-year also just missed scoring points for the Wildcats in the 200-meter with her ninth-place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.82. Her time is just off her school record time in the event and was two-hundredths of a second from eighth place.Â
Wells-Johnson and the rest of the Wildcats will take a few weeks off before competing at the Trinity University Tiger Relays on March 28 in San Antonio, Texas.Â
