WINONA, Minn. — You couldn't tell a whole lot about the performances of the Saint Mary's University track and field teams at Friday's UNI Dome Open by looking at their individual place finishes.

In fact, with no finish higher than the sixth-place efforts of Megan Mason (Rochester, Minn.) and Ashley Dingels (Gibbon, Minn.), and a seventh-place showing by Jim Baertsch (Winona, Minn.), Friday's efforts might be labeled "unsuccessful" by some.

But not by the SMU coaching staff.

After all, when you look at the teams that the Cardinals were competing against — including NCAA Division I schools like the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Iowa State, Drake and Northern Iowa, not to mention NCAA Division III powers like Wartburg — sixth-place efforts are quite impressive.

"I was very pleased with our performance," said SMU coach Paul Thornton. "We had several great performances. In a meet like this, you can't put too much stock in what place we finished in each event. You have to look at what our times and distances were and judge by that.

"There's no question we are continuing to improve and things are beginning to shape up for us for the MIAC championships."

Dingels and Mason shared their sixth-place honor in the high jump, both clearing 5-1/2, while Baertsch clocked a time of 1:26.48 to finish seventh in the 600. It was a busy night for Dingels, who also chipped in eighth-place efforts in both the 400 (1:00.75) and the shot put (39-8 1/2). Mason, meanwhile, cleared 10-0 — equaling her own school record — in the pole vault to place 10th, while Daysha Schleip (Holyoke, Colo.) was eighth in the 1,000 (3:17.46) and Jenny Folgers (McHenry, Ill.) and Theresa Miller (New Berlin, Wis.) were 10th in the 60 hurdles (9.62) and 3,000 (11:39.72), respectively.

On the men's side, the 4 x 400 relay team of Shawn Stewart (McHenry, Ill.), B.J. Klenke (Jordan, Minn.), Jim Baertsch (Winona, Minn.) and Dwyne Smith (Burnsville, Minn.) broke their own school record, breaking the tape in 3:31.96 to finish seventh.

Eric Beck (Alden, Minn.) was 10th in the 1,000 (2:42.6), while Klenke stopped the clock in 2:01.19 to place 12th in the 800. Todd Yankowski (Chicago, Ill.), competing for the first time after spending the first part of the indoor season as a member of the SMU men's basketball team, tallied 14th-place finishes in the long jump (19-6) and the shot put (38-0), while Stewart posted a time of 54.13 to place 16th in the 400 and Smith added a 17th in the 200 (23.37).