For photos of SMU Invite / click here

WINONA, Minn. — The final team places were of little concern to Saint Mary's University cross country coach John Skemp.

The fact that the Cardinal teams both placed fifth at the season-opening SMU Invitational Saturday morning was almost an afterthought to the Cardinal head coach.

What he was focused on were the individual times — times that would give him a little better idea of what to expect the rest of the way.

"I was pleased with the effort today," said Skemp. "We had some pretty good times for a first meet, and now we've got some markers for these guys to work to improve off of."

SMU alum Mark Bolster '99 won the men's four-mile race, clocking a time of 22:46. From there, however, it was all Luther, as the Norse had the next five finishers en route to the overall team title. Luther finished with 20 points, while Gustavus was second with 58. The Cardinal Alumni squad was third (69), following by St. Scholastica (110), Saint Mary's (136) and Winona State (144).

Luther's Natalie Retrum led a 1-2-4-5 finish for the Norse in the women's race as Luther made it a clean sweep of the team titles by totaling 27 points — besting runner-up Gustavus by 10 points. Winona State was third (90), with St. Scholastica (103), Saint Mary's (137) and the SMU Alumni (171) rounding out the six-team field.

Andy Boisjolie (Austin, Minn.) led the way for the SMU men, clocking a time of 25:21 to place 20th overall. Karl Hatteberg (Waltham, Minn.) posted a time of 26:09), followed by Aaron Raulin (Madison, Wis. / 26:21), Pat Polasek (Glendale Heights, Minn. / 26:39), Steve Adams (Roseville, Minn. / 26:47) and Mike Marek (Winona, Minn. / 27:35).

Tera Bollig (Cambridge, Minn.) led the way for the SMU women, placing 16th overall with a 5K time of 21:38. Alicia Hartung (Menomonie, Wis.) added a time of 22:21), while Jenny Folgers (McHenry, Ill. / 23:22), Ashley Davis (Hugo, Minn. / 23:29) and Keri Drake (Sturgeon Bay, Wis. / 23:35) rounded out the top five.

"Our goal for this (first) meet was to get some times out there that we can work from," said Skemp. "We've had a good (preseason) of training, but it's always nice to get that first meet under your belt so you can gauge where you are at.

"We've still got a lot of work to do — on both the guys and gals side — but at least now we have some times to work to improve off of."