WINONA, Minn. — Eric Lindquist will be the first to admit that he would have loved to see his Saint Mary's University swimming and diving teams battling for positions among the middle of the pack at the season-ending Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships last weekend at the University of Minnesota pool.

Instead, his Cardinal men had to settle for seventh out of eight teams, while the women were 10th out of 11.

But then, how could Lindquist complain about his teams' final placings when they shattered three school records, qualified for the finals in six individual events, and turned in more than 15 personal-best times?

The final team places may not be all that impressive — but the individual performances sure were.

"This may have been the best MIAC Championships we've put together in a number of years," said Lindquist. "We didn't have just one or two individuals excel — our successes were across the board.

"We knew going in that we weren't going to be competing for a conference championship, our goal was to make sure everyone had their best meet of the season — and we certainly did that," continued Lindquist. "I couldn't be happier with our performances."

Senior Heidi Andre (Fairbanks, Alaska), swimming in her final collegiate meet, finally etched her name in the school record books in the 500 freestyle, posting a time of 5:34.34. Sean Gibson (Chicago, Ill.) broke one of the oldest records at SMU, clocking a time of 49.77 in the 100 freestyle to finish 16th, while Logan Twedt (Hastings, Minn.) rewrote his own record-setting time in the 1,650 freestyle, touching the wall in 17:22.47.

Along with his school record-setting time of 17:22.47, which earned him an 11th-place finish in the 1,650, Twedt also qualified for the finals in the 500, where he finished 13th in 5:01.46. Other individual finalists included Tony Gruenke (Sheboygan, Wis.) in the 200 butterfly (12th / 2:17.26), Toni Nigrelli (Kiel, Wis.) in the 400 IM (5:22.59) and Brian Travers (Chicago, Ill.) in the 1,650 freestyle (17:59.79).

"We had some exceptional performances," Lindquist said. "For Heidi to finally get that 500 free record — something she's been chasing since her freshman year — in her final meet was awesome. And Sean and Logan had outstanding meets. It was a great way to end the season."