WINONA, Minn. — So much for Saint Mary's University swimming and diving coach Eric Lindquist's concerns about a post-Thanksgiving letdown.

The Cardinals, who have not swam competitively since Nov. 22, turned in one of their best performances of the season last Saturday afternoon at the SMU Invitational.

Logan Twedt (Hastings, Minn.) and Brian Travers (Chicago, Ill.) posted a one-two finish in the 1,650 freestyle, leading the SMU men to a second-place effort in the three-team men's portion of the meet, while Lindsay DeLaRosby (Two Harbors, Minn.), Abby Huot (Lake Elmo, Minn.) and Becca Grube (Appleton, Wis.) all cracked the top 10 in guiding the SMU women to a fifth-place showing in the eight-team women's field.

"This turned out to be a great meet for us," said Lindquist. "I really didn't know what to expect from our swimmers. Thanksgiving break was so close to the meet, and we usually like to rest a bit during that break. It's good to be rested, but my concern was we may be a little over rested.

"Turns out, we weren't."

Twedt posted a time of 18:38.06 to win the 1,650 freestyle event — recording the Cardinals' lone first-place finish. Travers wasn't far behind, placing second in 19:09.97. Sean Gibson (Chicago, Ill.) chipped in a second and a third for the Cardinals, placing second in the 100 freestyle (50.62) and third in the 50 freestyle (23.27), while Tony Gruenke (Sheboygan, Wis.) added a fourth in the 200 freestyle, recording a time of 1:57.14.

DeLaRosby tallied ninth-place efforts in both the 50 freestyle (27.13) and the 100 freestyle (1:00.24), while Huot was ninth in the 500 freestyle with a season-best time of 6:22.69 and Grube was ninth in the 100 backstroke (1:12.76). Jennifer Moore (Richfield, Minn.) led the way for the SMU divers, placing sixth in the one-meter (157.65) and seventh in the three-meter (142.15).

"I'm very pleased with our performances," said Lindquist. "I had scored out both meets prior to (Saturday) based on seed times, and on paper, we should not have swam as well as we did.

"What that tells me is that we really stepped up and made some big improvements."