WINONA, Minn. — OK, so maybe the Saint Mary's University cross country teams didn't save their best for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships two weeks ago.

As good as the Cardinals' performances were at the conference championships, they were even better last Saturday at the NCAA Midwest Regional.

Led by a 38th-place finish by Ellen Koranda (Blue Earth, Minn.), the SMU women placed 15th in the 23-team field, while the Cardinal men, led by Keith Pieschek's (Sturgeon Bay, Wis.) 78th-place effort, were 18th among the 22 teams.

Koranda, an honorable-mention All-MIAC pick after placing 20th at the conference meet, toured the six-kilometer course in a time of 23:28, easily her best time of the season. Renee Willkom (Cadott, Wis.) was the second SMU runner across the finish line in 24:19, followed by Tera Bollig (Cambridge, Minn. / 24:26), Natalie Cossetta (West St. Paul, Minn. / 25:13), Keri Drake (Sturgeon Bay, Wis. / 25:52), Alicia Hartung (Menomonie, Wis. / 25:58) and Jenny Folgers (McHenry, Ill. / 26:37).

"Ellen had an awesome effort," said SMU coach John Skemp, noting that Koranda just missed all-region honors, which are awarded to the top 35 finishers. "Tera and Renee also had good efforts, helping us move up a couple of places (as a team)."

On the men's side, Pieschek posted a time of 26:56 on the 8K course, while Andy Boisjolie (Austin, Minn.) was close behind in 27:43. Jim Baertsch (Winona, Minn.) chipped in a 27:50, with Jim Bansley (Chicago, Ill. / 27:53), Karl Hatteberg (Waltham, Minn. / 28:36), Mike Marek (Winona, Minn. / 30:56) and Pat Polasek (Glendale Heights, Ill. / 31:52) rounding out SMU's top seven.

"The guys did a good job — Keith had an excellent time, and everyone else stepped it up a bit," said Skemp. "Overall, I was very happy with everyone's effort.

"It was a good grande finale for us."