TELEMARK, Wis. — John Skemp certainly can't judge his Saint Mary's University nordic ski teams' performances from the final team standings at last weekend's Gustavus Invitational.

After all, when the final results were tallied, the Cardinal men were 10th out of 10 teams, while the women were 11th out of 11 teams.

But then, it's pretty hard to compete with only one skier per team.

"I thought we were pretty competitive with the other teams in the conference who were there," said Skemp, noting that Garrick Holey (Mounds View, Minn.) was the only male SMU skier, while Missy Mollick (Hastings, Minn.) was the only female for the Cardinals. "Garrick skied a couple very good races, and Missy's performance in the freestyle put her in the top 10 MIAC skiers, so that was good to see."

Holey finished 24th in the 10-kilometer classic race, clocking a time of :33:17, then added a 1:03:14 in the 20K freestyle to place 22nd. Mollick, meanwhile, was 26th in the 5K classic with a time of :18:45 and 24th in the 15K freestyle with a time of :55:34.

The event was almost a preview of the MIAC Championships, which will be held in two weeks on the Cardinals' home course. Gustavus, St. Olaf, Carleton, St. Benedict and Macalester all had teams at the meet, giving Skemp and all the other MIAC coaches a taste of what to expect at the conference meet.

"It was a good meet for us, it gave us an opportunity to ski against the teams we'll be facing at the MIAC," Skemp said. "Our times were pretty competitive, so that's good to see."