WINONA, Minn. — They came on to the scene like gangbusters, earning national-qualifying scoresin their first-ever collegiate meet.

Last weekend at the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships, Saint Mary's University divers Erik Oksnevad (Blaine, Minn.) and Kevin Jepsen (Downers Grove, Ill.) exited their freshman season in much the same fashion — like gangbusters.

Oksnevad placed second in the one-meter diving copmetitoin, earning all-conference honors with his school-record 442.90 finish, while Jepsen settled for fourth with a score of 416.75. The Cardinals' dynamic duo swapped places in the three-meter competition, with Jepsen earning the all-conference honors — finishing third (426.70) — while Oksnevad was fifth (397.60).

"It might not seem like it on paper, but this was a very, very good meet for us," said SMU coach Eric Lindquist, whose men's team placed seventh with 229 points, while the women were 10th with 79. "Our men improved their score by 67 points over last year, while our women improved by 10 points."

Add to that five school records — and 43 season-best times — and its no wonder Lindquist was feeling pretty good about his teams' performances.

Senior Scott Schultz (Cary, Ill.) closed out a stellar career, placing eighth in both the 100 (55.52) and 200 (2:02.84) backstrokes. Schultz's time in the 200 backstroke earned him the school record he has been chasing since he arrived on campus as a freshman.

Logan Twedt (Hastings, Minn.) also etched his name in the record books, touching the wall in 17:43.86 to finish 10th in the 1,650 freestyle, while Holly Fujii's (Elk Grove, Ill.) ninth-place total of 335.80 in the three-meter diving was also a new school record. The Cardinal men's 200 medley relay team of Schultz, Steve Sadorf (Chicago, Ill.), Chris Lundeen (St. Paul, Minn.) and Sean Gibson (Chicago, Ill.) set a new school mark with a time of 1:42.38, while the 800 freestyle relay team of Schultz, Tony Gruenke (Sheboygan, Wis.), Twedt and Gibson shattered the old school mark of 7:35.98, posting a time of 7:28.75 en route to its sixth-place finish.

Fujii was also 13th in the one-meter diving (278.30), while Gruenke was 13th in the 200 butterfly (2:17.84) and Sadorf was 14th in the 100 (1:04.08) and 200 (2:26.06) breaststroke

"I was proud of the way we performed," said Lindquist. "Iin our conference championship, the top 16 in each even score points — we had four 17th-place finishes in the first two days. Most of those were great swims on our part, but they just weren't quite good enough to get us into the finals in those events."

Bobby Bruggeman (Elmwood Park, Ill.) posted a career-best 19:51.27 to place 16th in the 1,650 freestyle, while Twedt (5:10.52, 500 freestyle), Lundeen 1:00.97, 100 butterfly), Gibson (1:50.31, 200 freestyle) and Louise Turnquist (Woodbury, Minn. / 1:18.39, 100 breaststroke) all chipped in 17th-place efforts.