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SMU at Macalester Sat., Nov. 18, 2006 |
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Fox, Braun lead the Cardinals' charge at Macalester Invitational
ST. PAUL, Minn. — After spending the first month of the season watching his teams go head-to-head against the opposition in dual-meet competitions, Saint Mary's University swimming and diving coach Eric Lindquist finally got a chance to see what his Cardinals could do in an invitational setting.
And he liked what he saw.
The Cardinals picked up three first-place finishes at the Macalester Invitational Saturday, as the SMU women placed fifth in the eight-team field, while the men finished fourth among five teams.
"This was a great weekend for us — we were so close to coming away with a couple of wins (on Friday), and then turned around and put together another awesome effort today," said Lindquist, whose team narrowly missed knocking off the Scots in a pair of dual meets on Friday. "Macalester has been a team we have been trying to catch for years, and we came so close this weekend — we just couldn't quite catch them."
Jon Fox (Winona, Minn.) led the way for SMU, dominating the breaststroke events, as the Cardinal freshman won both the 100- (1;11.15) and the 200-meter (2:44.56) events. Danielle Braun (Cold Spring, Minn.) chipped in the Cardinals' other first-place effort, clocking a time of 1:21.73 to win the 100 breaststroke.
Curtis Kempton (Owatonna, Minn.) added a pair of seconds in the diving competition, totaling 186.85 points in the three-meter and 185.60 points in the one-meter. Brian Joyce (Chicago, Ill.) chipped in a second in the 200 breaststroke (2:50.97) and a third in the 400 freestyle (4:52.67), while David Ballard (Ramsey, Minn.) finished fourth in both the 400 freestyle (4:57.75) and the 100 butterfly (1:13.61), and Braun stopped the clock in 2:59.12 in the 200 breaststroke to place fourth.
"This is already the third time this season that we have competed on back-to-back days, and everyone is really responding," said Lindquist, whose team is now off until Dec. 2, when the Cardinals host the SMU Invitational. "I thought everyone swam well, but the performances in the breaststroke by Danielle, and by Jon and Brian, we really outstanding.
"I'm extremely pleased with our progress — we seem to keep getting better every time we hit the water, which is great to see."