With everything she's accomplished in her career, it seemed like only a matter of time before Kajsa Johansson earned a major honor for the Hillsdale College women's track and field team in 2020-21.
Sure enough, Johansson did just that on Tuesday. The Great Midwest Athletic Conference office announced this afternoon that Johansson has been named the G-MAC Women's Track Athlete of the Week for the week of Jan. 24-31.
The honor comes after Johansson earned her first individual NCAA Division II national meet provisional qualifying mark at Friday's Bill Clinger Classic in Allendale, Michigan. The senior from North Oaks, Minnesota won the 200 meter dash in 24.75 to put herself in contention for a spot at the national meet. That time was also one of the 10 fastest 200m times in the history of G-MAC competition, placing seventh in the nine-year history of the conference.
Johansson had already set a provisional qualifying mark earlier in the season as part of a relay, teaming with Alanna O'Leary, Dakota Stamm and Shura Ermakov in the 4x400m relay on Jan. 22 to run a qualifying time of 3:54.00. Currently, she holds the top time in the conference in both the 60m dash and the 200m dash for the 2020-21 season.
This is the second time the senior has earned a G-MAC Athlete of the Week honor, after being recognized as a sophomore on January 14, 2019. It's a small part of a storied career for Johansson, who holds four Charger school records in the indoor 60m dash (7.61), indoor 200m dash (24.39), outdoor 100m dash (11.67) and outdoor 200m dash (23.76).
Johansson also has won four G-MAC titles in the sprints, was named G-MAC Athlete of the Meet at the 2019 Outdoor Championships and Freshman of the Meet at the 2019 Indoor Championships, and qualified three times for the NCAA Division II national meet – in the outdoor 100 and 200m dash in 2019, and in the indoor 200m dash in 2020.
The Charger women's track and field team and Johansson will look to keep building toward the G-MAC Indoor Championships at the end of the month. Hillsdale returns home this Friday for its annual Wide Track Classic meet on Feb. 5 for its next action.
Photo by Gwen Buchhop