WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University cross country teams headed into last Saturday's UW-Parkside Invitational having not run since opening the season at their home invitational two weeks ago.

Ellen Koranda (Blue Earth, Minn.) had been off even longer, having not competed at the season-opening meet due to a nagging injury.

And the time off paid off — for the Cardinals, and for Koranda.

Koranda posted SMU's best time of the season, covering the five-kilometer course in 20:08 to place 50th overall and lead the SMU women to a 14th-place finish. Andy Boisjolie (Austin, Minn.) led the way for the Cardinal men, placing 101st in an 8K time of 28:50 to lead SMU to a 25th-place showing.

"This was a very competitive meet — a lot of strong (NCAA) Division I, II and III schools competed," said SMU coach John Skemp. "It was a good meet all around. It was good to get Ellen back (into the lineup). She ran a strong race, especially considering it was her first of the year."

Tera Bollig (Cambridge, Minn.), SMU's top finisher at the SMU Invitational two weeks ago, was right behind Koranda, clocking a time of 20:21 to place 56th. Alicia Hartung (Menomonie, Wis. / 72nd, 21:02), Anna Curtis (Franklin, Tenn. / 92nd, 21:42) and Ashley Davis (Hugo, Minn. / 98th, 21:56) rounded out the Cardinals' top five. All told, nine of the Cardinals' 10 women runners improved their times from their first meet — some by more than two minutes.

Karl Hatteberg (Waltham, Minn.) finished second to Boisjolie, stopping the clock in 30:13 to place 136th overall. Pat Polasek (Glendale Heights, Ill. / 156th, 31:16), Steve Adams (Roseville, Minn. / 166th, 31:55) and Pat Marek (Winona, Minn. / 182nd, 34:44) rounded out the top five SMU men runners.

"We had a lot of good performances," Skemp said. "Hopefully that will continue again this week at our home meet."