ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Saint Mary’s University swimming and diving teams have only competed once — two weeks ago in a dual against MIAC powerhouse St. Olaf — since the teams returned from their winter training excursion to the Hawaiian Islands on Jan. 2.

And Friday, it showed.

The Cardinal men managed just three first-place finishes — two by freshman diver Erik Oksnevad (Blaine, Minn.) in falling to St. Thomas 53-45, while the SMU women got firsts from divers Ellen Meloy (Rochester, Minn.) and Holly Fujii (Elk Grove, Ill.) in the one-meter and three-meter competitions, respectively, but could only must a third-place finish behind St. Thomas and St. Catherine in the triple dual.

"It was a so-so meet for us," said SMU coach Eric Lindquist. "We got some really solid performances, but I would have liked to have seen a few more people perform at a little higher level.

"St. Thomas is a tough place to swim," said Lindquist of the Tommies' five-lane pool. "Add to that the fact that we didn't compete last weekend, we just weren't as sharp as I would have liked us to be."

Sean Gibson (Chicago, Ill.) won the 200 freestyle (1:56.62), while Logan Twedt (Hastings, Minn.) chipped in a second in the 500 freestyle (5:24.90). Heidi Andre (Fairbanks, Alaska) tallied a pair of seconds in the 100 butterfly (1:08.96) and 500 freestyle (5:589.03) to lead the way for the SMU women.

"There certainly were some bright spots today," said Lindquist. "But to be honest, there weren't enough of them."

Yet, while the Cardinal swimmers were still showing signs of rust from their competitive layoff, the SMU divers were razor sharp.

"Our divers were solid," said Lindquist, whose men swept the top two places in both the one-meter and three-meter competitions — with Kevin Jepsen (Downers Grove, Ill.) placing second to Oksnevad in both events. "Both Erik and Kevin on the men's side and Ellen and Holly on the women's side, had good meets.

"Now if we can just get everyone else to step things up a notch, we'll be right where we should be."

Maybe Lindquist will get his wish Saturday, when the Cardinals return to the Jul Gernes Pool for a dual meet against Macalester.

"I think part of our problem (Friday) was that we were worried about swimming meets on back-to-back days," said Lindquist. "Hopefully we can come back (Saturday) and put together a better overall performance."