Shannon Houlihan has been named the St. Catherine University assistant track and field coach and assistant sports information director.

Athletic Director Eric Stacey announced Houlihan's hiring and added that , "She is a fantastic fit and ideal candidate to help continue the growth and development of our track and field program that has been started under Coach Henderson. Shannon's knowledge and passion for the sport and desire to help the athletes, and the athletic department as a whole, reach new levels of success is something we are all very excited about."

Houlihan comes to St. Kate's after spending the past two seasons as an assistant track and field coach at Smith College in Massachusetts. At Smith, Houlihan was the event coach for the sprints, hurdles and jumps. She also was involved in recruiting, day-to-day team operations and meet management at Smith. While at Smith Houlihan also earned her Master of Science Degree in Exercise and Sport Studies.

Prior to her stint at Smith, Houlihan was an assistant track & field coach at Williams College in Massachusetts. As the jumps coach at Williams, she was a part of the of 2007 NCAA Women's Indoor National Championship team and coached four NESCAC Individual Champions and three NCAA All-Americans.

Houlihan's coaching career began in Pennsylvania where she had stints as an assistant coach at Washing & Jefferson College (2005-06) and Lafayette College (2004-05). Combined at both places Houlihan worked with five conference event champions and four national qualifiers.

As a student-athlete Houlihan was an All-Conference athlete in the 55 Hurdles, Long Jump, Triple Jump, Heptathlon and 4 x 200 meter relay while competing at Oberlin College. She was also an NCAA National Qualifier in the triple jump during a collegiate career. She graduated from Oberlin in 2004 with a degree in Art History.

A USATF Level II Certified jumps coach, Houlihan is set to begin her duties at St. Kate's in early August.