WINONA, Minn. — After watching a pair of freshman divers steal the spotlight during the Saint Mary's University swimming and diving teams' first two meets, senior Scott Schultz (Cary, Ill.) decided to live up to the old adage — if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Schultz raced to a second-place showing in the 100 backstroke (1:05.33) and added a third-place effort in the 200 backstroke (2:24.14) to help lead the SMU men's team to a third-place finish in the seven-team Macalester Invitational.

"It was an interesting meet in that the pool that we competed in was 25 meters long — most pools are measured in yards, not meters," explained SMU coach Eric Lindquist. "Simply put, (the pool) is longer than ours and that can have a psychological effect as well as a physical effect."

If the change in distances had any effect on the Cardinals, they certainly didn't show it.

And while Schultz stepped into the limelight with his stellar showings in the backstroke, he certainly didn't act alone in helping SMU to its third-place finish — divers Kevin Jepsen (Downers Grove, Ill.) and Erik Oksnevad (Blaine, Minn.) once again did their part.

Jepsen tallied a second-place performance in the three-meter diving competition, totaling 200.80 points, while Oksnevad was second in the one-meter diving with 217.70 points. Steve Sadorf (Chicago, Ill.) and Logan Twedt (Hastings, Minn.) also recorded third-place times in the 200 IM (2:40.82) and 800 freestyle (10:03.57), respectively. The two also notched fourth-place times in the 100 breaststroke (1:15.97) and 400 freestyle (4:49.04), respectively, while Sean Gibson (Chicago, Ill.) was fourth in the 200 freestyle (2:12.22).

Lindsay Salisbury (Waukesha, Wis.) led the Cardinal women to a fifth-place finish, placing fourth in the 200IM (2:51.66) and sixth in the 50 freestyle (30.26). Divers Holly Fujii (Elk Grove, Ill.) and Ellen Meloy (Rochester, Minn.) were once again dominant, placing second in the three-meter (204.15) and third in the one-meter (191.10), respectively, while Louise Turnquist (Woodbury, Minn.) notched a fourth-place time of 1:29.02 in the 100 breaststroke.

"It was nice to see the men beat Macalester, especially in their home pool," said Lindquist. "But it would be that much nicer to be able to duplicate that feat at the conference championships.

"We had a lot of very good performances, which was nice to see," Lindquist continued. "But we weren't as consistent — top to bottom — as we need to be."