WINONA, Minn. — Before the start of his first three seasons as the Saint Mary’s University swimming and diving coach, Eric Lindquist tried his hardest, but the harder he tried, the more and more he sounded like a broken record.

“We’ve got some real talented swimmers,” he would say, time and time again.

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Having talented swimmers, in fact, is a good thing.

The problem was, when you are the head coach of a swimming and diving program, it helps to have a little of the latter to go with a lot of the former.

“We have not been blessed with a ton of talented divers in my time here,” admitted Lindquist, who opens his fourth season as the Cardinals head coach on Oct. 26, when SMU takes part in the Tommie Relays. “It seems like we’ve always been fortunate enough to bring in some very strong swimmers among our freshman classes each year, but with the divers, we haven’t been as fortunate.”

Until this year.

In fact, this year, when it comes to divers, Lindquist is doubly blessed – twice.

“Our biggest impact this year is going to be in diving, no question about that,” said Lindquist, noting that freshmen Kevin Jespen (Downers Grove, Ill.) and Erik Oksnevad (Blaine, Minn.) on the men’s side, and Holly Fujii (Elk Grove, Ill.) and Ellen Meloy (Rochester, Minn.) on the women’s side give the Cardinals something they haven’t had in the past — a potent one-two punch off the board.

Whether or not it will be a knockout punch, however, remains to be seen.

“I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen so far, that’s for sure,” admitted Lindquist. “What that will translate to, I can’t predict — but the potential is there for some great performances.”

In other words, Lindquist is being cautiously optimistic.

“Our diving has taken a big step forward over previous years,” he said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t make that same giant step with our swimmers. On the men’s side, we only lost two (to graduation), but we only brought in three freshmen — two of whom are divers — so we are going to have to find a way to fill in some of the holes.”

Lindquist will be looking to seniors Kyle Van Lith (Appleton, Wis.) and Scott Schultz (Cary, Ill.) to carry the brunt of the workload — both in the pool and out — for the SMU men, while juniors Heidi Andre (Fairbanks, Alaska) and Abby Huot (Lake Elmo, Minn.) will be leading the way for the Cardinal women.

“From a (dual-meet) won-loss standpoint, I’m not really sure what to expect this year,” admitted Lindquist. “I expect Kyle and Scott to both end their collegiate careers with a bang – and we’ve got some other people who could have breakthrough years.

“But in order for any of that to happen, we’ve got to stay healthy,” Lindquist continued. “Last year we had some nagging injuries that slowed some of our swimmers down. Hopefully we can stay healthy this year and continue to improve our times as the season progresses so that, when the conference meet rolls around, we’ll be ready.”