WINONA, Minn. — John Skemp figured there was an outside chance that his Saint Mary's University cross country teams could make a sizable leap up the conference standings at the MIAC Championships Saturday at Como Golf Course.

To do that, however, the Cardinals would have to run a picture-perfect race.

Saturday's performances were good, but not perfect as SMU settled for 11th place finishes in both the men's and women's races.

Keith Pieschek (Sturgeon Bay, Wis.) led the way for the Cardinal men, placing 51st overall with an eight-kilometer time of 28:03. Jim Baertsch (Winona, Minn.) chipped in a time of 28:53, good for 69th, while B.J. Klenke (Jordan, Minn.) was close behind, taking 70th in 29:00. Karl Hatteberg (Bloomington Prairie, Minn.) was 74th (29:25), followed closely by Andy Marter (Winona, Minn. / 75th, 29:26), Andy Boisjolie (Austin, Minn. / 76th, 29:40) and Patrick Polasek (Glendale Heights, Ill. / 77th, 30:55).

On the women's side, Renee Willkom (Cadott, Wis.) led the Cardinals' charge, placing 57th in 20:55. Ellen Koranda (Blue Earth, Minn.) was 58th (20:56), followed by Theresa Miller (New Berlin, Wis. / 60th, 21:05), Daysha Schliep (Holyoke, Colo / 65th, 21:33), Jenny Folgers (Johnsburg, Ill. / 69th, 21:53), Natalie Cossetta (West St. Paul, Minn. / 74th, 22:03) and Emilee Conley (Fennimore, Wis. / 79th, 22:54).

"Overall, we had some real good efforts," said SMU coach John Skemp, whose team closes out its season in two weeks, taking part in the NCAA regional meet in Grinnell, Iowa. "Keith Pieschek ran a huge personal-best time, as did Hatteberg. It was nice to see Karl crack into our top five for the first time.

"On the women's side, Renee and Ellen ran well, and Daysha was solid at No. 4, especially considering she's coming off a knee injury," Skemp continued. "We still have two weeks of training before the end of the season, so hopefully our times will continue to improve and maybe we can catch some of the teams that beat us (at the conference meet)."