WINONA, Minn. — After back-to-back meets the first two weekends of the season, Saint Mary's University cross country coach John Skemp gave his teams last weekend off — not off of training, but off of competition.

And it showed — in a very good way.

The Cardinals turned in some strong performances last Saturday, as the SMU men's team posted a ninth-place finish at the 14-team St. Olaf Invitational, while the SMU women placed 11th in a field of 19 teams.

"The races were a little longer than the first two weeks, so that was a bit of an adjustment for everyone," said Skemp, noting that the St. Olaf Invitational was the first eight-kilometer competition of the season for the men, while the women were running their first 6K. "I thought our women did a real nice job, while on the guys' side, I think we've still got some work to do — our (men's) times are not where they need to be. Now that we've got that first (8K) race out of the way, we need to start chopping some time off."

Jim Baertsch (Winona, Minn.) and Keith Pieschek (Sturgeon Bay, Wis.) led the way for the Cardinal men, touring the 8K course in times of 29:39 and 29:40, respectively. Not far behind were teammates Andy Boisjolie (Austin, Minn.) and Karl Hatteberg (Waltham, Minn.) who posted identical times of 30:18 to round out the Cardinals' top four.

On the women's side, Renee Willkom (Cadott, Wis.) crossed the finish line first, recording a 6K time of 24:24. Ellen Koranda (Blue Earth, Minn.) was close behind in 24:31, while Tera Bollig (Cambridge, Minn.) and Keri Drake (Sturgeon Bay, Wis.) chipped in times of 25:37 and 26:24, respectively, to complete SMU's top four finishers.