WINONA, Minn. — John Skemp will be the first to admit that he's not a man of many words.

Fortunately, when it came to describing his Saint Mary's University cross country's performances at the SMU Invitational on Saturday, he didn't need many.

In fact, he summed up the Cardinals' efforts in just one word — solid.

"It was a solid effort for both teams, pretty similar to last week (at the Cardinals' first home meet of the season) — nothing too earth-shattering, but just good, solid performances," said Skemp, whose men's team placed second in the four-team field, while the SMU women were third among three teams. "The times are good, especially considering that this is a tough course, and it was pretty warm out there.

"I'm pleased with our showing."

Luther ran away with both the men's and women's titles, sweeping the top five spots in the women's race, while taking the top three, and seven of the top eight on the men's side. Winona State, meanwhile, was second in the women's race and third in the men's.

"Luther is just so deep and so strong," said Skemp. "They really took it to us."

For the second week in a row, Ellen Koranda (Blue Earth, Minn.) and Renee Willkom (Cadott, Wis.) led the way for the SMU women. Only this time around, it was Koranda who crossed the finish line first. The SMU sophomore clocked a time of 21:09 to place ninth, while Willkom was right on her heels, placing 10th in 21:11. Tera Bollig (Cambridge, Minn.) finished in 21:27, followed by Natalie Cossetta (West St. Paul, Minn. / 22:37), Anna Shields (Mendota Heights, Minn. / 22:39), Keri Drake (Sturgeon Bay, Wis. / 22:45) and Jenny Folgers (McHenry, Ill. / 23:47).

"Ellen and Renee were once again real solid (there's that word again) at No. 1 and No. 2," praised Skemp. "Tera Bollig was a huge surprise — she knocked nearly 40 seconds off her time from a week ago, which was great to see. Natalie was a strong No. 4, and Anna Shields and Keri Drake did a good job at No. 5 and No. 6."

On the men's side, Jim Baertsch (Winona, Minn.) was again the Cardinals' top runner, posting a time of 24:18 to place 10th overall. Keith Pieschek Sturgeon Bay, Wis.) was 11th, just one-tenth of a second behind Baertsch, while Jim Bansley (Chicago, Ill.) — who missed last week's race due to an injury — added a time of 25:19 for 20th. Karl Hatteberg (Waltham, Minn. / 25:25), Tom Smith (Rochester, Minn. / 25:37), Andy Boisjolie (Austin, Minn. / 26:04) and Patrick Polasek (Glendale Heights, Ill. / 27:18) rounded out SMU's top seven runners.

"Our guys did a nice job — they have been really getting after it in training for the last couple of weeks, but they have to keep it up," Skemp said. "Most of our times dropped a bit this week, which was good to see, now hopefully we'll have a good couple of weeks of training and be ready to go for the St. Olaf meet (on Sept. 20)."