ST. PAUL, Minn. — After watching his teams' performances at the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships, Saint Mary's University cross country coach John Skemp was faced with a daunting dilemma — what to do for an encore.

The Cardinals turned in their best performances of the season in their second-to-last meet, as the SMU women jumped up to the ninth spot in the MIAC standings, while the Cardinal men settled for 11th.

"This was a good day for us," understated Skemp. "Everyone ran well — it was a good solid effort."

Good? Solid? How about great.

Ellen Koranda (Blue Earth, Minn.) led the Cardinals' charge, touring the 5K terrain at the Como Park Golf Course in 19:30, while teammate Renee Wiillkom (Cadott, Wis.) was close behind in 19:56. Tera Bollig (Cambridge, Minn.) chipped in a time of 20:22, with Natalie Cossetta (West St. Paul, Minn. / 21:04), Alicia Hartung (Menomonie, Wis. / 21:20), Jenny Folgers (McHenry, Ill. / 21:28) and Keri Drake (Sturgeon Bay, Wis. / 21:29) rounded out the Cardinals' top seven.

"Ellen had an awesome race — she knocked a minute-and-a-half off her (MIAC) time of a year ago, which is great," said Skemp, noting that Koranda's 20th-place overall showing also earned the SMU sophomore honorable-mention All-MIAC honors. "Renee knocked a minute of her time from a year ago, and Tera also had a strong race. Add to that the fact that we had solid efforts from our four, five, six and seven runners, and I'm very pleased with our (women's) performance."

On the men's side, it was Keith Pieschek (Sturgeon Bay, Wis.) leading the way, clocking an 8K time of 27:41. Jim Baertsch (Winona, Minn.) added a time of 28:36, followed by Jim Bansley (Chicago, Ill. / 28:44), Karl Hatteberg (Waltham, Minn. / 28:54), Andy Boisjolie (Austin, Minn. / 28:59), Mike Marek (Winona, Minn. / 30:33) and Pat Polasek (Glendale Heights, Ill. / 30:44).

"All the guys ran great races," praised Skemp. "Keith had a knockout race in running a 27:41 and we had four guys in run 28s (28 minutes), which is a solid effort from these guys.

"Hopefully, we can put the same type of effort together in two weeks (at the NCAA Regional Meet)."