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Last Week's Results:
Luther 107, Saint Mary's men 20 / Details
Luther 153, Saint Mary's women 66 / Details
Upcoming Events:
Sat., Nov. 12: Gustavus at Saint Mary's, 1 p.m.
Cardinals struggle to get out of the starting blocks
in opening season with dual-meet losses to Luther


Who's Hot?

Danielle
Braun

1st in 100
breaststroke,
1st in 200 free
relay
WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University swimming and diving teams could hardly wait for their season-opener against Luther last Saturday.

After weeks of preseason training, the Cardinals were eager to get their season off to a flying start.

Problem was, it was the Norse who got off to the fast start, leaving the Cardinals stuck on the starting block as Luther rolled to a 153-66 win over the SMU women and a 107-20 triumph over the Cardinal men.

"Luther had a great season last year, winning the Iowa Conference and Liberal Arts Championship titles, and they just seemed to pick up right where they left off," said SMU coach Eric Lindquist. "They are a very good, deep team, and we just couldn't keep up.

"Despite the final scores, I was pretty happy with the way we competed," continued Lindquist. "I wasn't too concerned about the score going in to the meet — this was a meet to kind of give us a gauge as to where we are at.

"I thought we had some nice times — which gives us something to build on."

The Cardinal women picked up two first-place finishes, as the 200 freestyle relay team of Toni Nigrelli (Kiel, Wis.), Danielle Braun (Cold Spring, Minn.), Margaret Walsh (Chicago, Ill.) and Lisa Salm (Chilton, Wis.) stopped the clock in 1:45.25, and Braun out-touched Luther's Betsy Gilbertson to win the 100 breaststroke in 1:14.86.

Nigrelli chipped in a third-place showing in the 200 IM (2:37.50), while the Cardinals also got third-place efforts from Salm in the 100 backstroke (1:10.98), Kasey Schultz (Cary, Ill.) in the 1,000 freestyle (12:53.67), Kelsey Ibis (Maple Grove, Minn.) in the 100 freestyle (1:10.18) and Sarah Ruether (Red Wing, Minn.) in the 200 freestyle (2:42.95).

A second-place performance by the 200 freestyle relay team of Brian Joyce (Chicago, Ill.), Gerry Lentino (Chicago, Ill.), DeAndrae Noble (St. Paul, Minn.) and Brandon Verbout (Rochester, Minn.) led the way for the SMU men, as the foursome stopped the clock in 1:59.62.

Joyce added a second in the 100 breaststroke (1:13.07) and a third in the 200 IM (2:22.56), while Noble was third in the 50 freestyle (27.55) and fourth in the 100 freestyle (1:05.44).