WINONA, Minn. — If there's one thing Saint Mary's University track and field coach Paul Thornton never seems to get tired of, it's watching his athletes perform to the best of their abilities.

And this season, the Cardinals have been anything but boring for the SMU coach.

"We just continue to improve with each meet," said Thornton, after his teams both placed fourth in the six-team UW-River Falls Invitational. "Right now, I am very pleased with the improvements we are making. We had people attempting NCAA provisional qualifying heights in both the high jump and the pole vault — that tells me that our athletes are continuing to improve, and they are beginning to challenge themselves to do better and better every meet.

"And that's fun to watch."

Ashley Dingels (Gibbon, Minn.) took home a pair of individual titles, winning the long jump (5.02 meters) and the 200 (27.59), while Jenny Folgers (McHenry, Ill.) and Megan Mason (Rochester, Minn.) added firsts in the 55 hurdles (9.00) and pole vault (3.07 meters), respectively.

Along with her two firsts, Dingels also posted career-best marks in both the long jump (5.02 meters) and the shot put (11.70 meters).

Jim Baertsch (Winona, Minn.) recorded the lone individual title for the men, winning the 800 meters in a career-best time of 2:01.94.

The Cardinal men had several other career-best efforts, including B.J. Klenke (Jordan, Minn.) and Eric Beck (Alden, Minn.) in the 1,500 (4:15.26 / 4:18.21, respectively), and Eric Habberstad (Blooming Prairie, Minn.) in the long jump (5.84 meters), 55 hurdles (8.70) and the shot put (10.46 meters).

"This was a good meet, especially considering that we ran it without several of our top athletes," said Thornton, noting that a number of his athletes did not compete in order to keep them fresh for the upcoming MIAC Indoor Championships. "We had some people turn in some great performances, and hopefully that will continue as we keep preparing ourselves for the conference meet."