WINONA, Minn. — During his three years as the Saint Mary’s University women’s golf coach, Dan Messmann has seen his teams continue to improve with every season.

The steps may have been small — and sometimes maybe even unnoticeable to the untrained eye — but they were always there, and they were always “walking” in the right direction.

Now, with a 10-woman roster — including senior captain Emily Nordstrom (Mendota Heights, Minn.) and sophomore standout Andrea Hanke (Janesville, Wis.) — Messmann figures it’s time for his Cardinals to stop walking and start running.

Right up the conference ladder.

“Every year since I’ve been here we have improved from the beginning of the season to the end,” said Messmann, whose team placed seventh at last season’s Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships, then followed that up with an impressive spring season, which included a third-place effort at the MCWGA state tournament in Woodbury, Minn. “Last year we had a pretty decent fall season, then really came on in the spring.

“(The spring season) was a good springboard for us heading into this year,” continued Messmann, whose team shot a single-day school-record 360 and a two-day school record 720 at the MCWGA state tournament. “Hopefully, that (season-ending) tournament was a sign of what’s to come this season.”

If the Cardinals are going to make any sort of a run up the conference ladder, however, they will have to do it without four-year letterwinner Kris Klimmek.

“Losing Kris (to graduation) hurts, but hopefully her great leadership qualities have been planted in the rest of the returners,” said Messmann. “Last year, with Kris and Andrea, we knew we had two golfers who could play with anyone in the conference.

“Now, with Kris gone, we are going to need some of our other golfers to step their games up a notch or two.”

And with three juniors, two sophomores and four freshmen battling for supporting roles behind Hanke and Nordstrom, Messmann is confident his team will continue its pattern of continued improvement.

“I’m excited about the season,” he said. “This is by far the deepest team I’ve had in my four years. Will that depth allow us to compete with St. Thomas, Gustavus, Concordia …?

“We’ll just have to wait and see.”

WHILE MESSMANN IS CONTENT TO TAKE THE WAIT-AND-SEE approach to this season, men’s coach Tom Farren isn’t so patient.

He’s tired of having the potential to make a run at the MIAC’s top dogs, only to come up lame when the pressure’s on.

“Every meet we played in last year, we had one good day, and then we had one bad day,” said Farren, whose team placed seventh in the MIAC Championships a year ago. “We have got to find a way to put the two rounds together.

“I think we have steadily earned the respect of the rest of the teams in the MIAC, but we still need to find a way to get the job done on the course a little better,” continued Farren, whose team returns its top two players from a year ago, seniors Eric Thom (Portland, Ore. / 76.6 scoring average) and D.J. Schweitzer (McHenry, Ill. / 82.0 scoring average). “If we are going to make any kind of noise (around the MIAC), we’ve got to get four or five players who can consistently shoot in the 70s. I thought we were there last year, but we let ourselves down a bit with our inconsistency from day to day.”

Farren does return a number of contributors from last year’s team — a luxury he is hoping will pay big dividends by season’s end.

“We’ve got 13 golfers back, and that depth is something we haven’t had in the past. We are going to be able to field a No. 2 team that will be as good — or better — than the No. 1 team we had when I took over (six years ago),” Farren said. “It’s been kind of a slow process, but I think that we have the potential to battle for one of the top five spots in the conference.”

Now all the Cardinals have to do is transform that potential into on-the-course results.