WINONA, Minn. — It took a little longer than expected, but the Saint Mary's University track and field teams finally got their outdoor season off and running Thursday afternoon.

And it was worth the wait — every minute of it.

The Cardinal women showed no signs of early-season rust, breaking a pair of school records and picking up three event championships en route to a third-place finish at the Luther Invitational. The SMU men, meanwhile, won the 4 x 400 relay and placed fourth at the season-opening UW-La Crosse Quadrangular.

"It was a good opening meet for both teams," said SMU coach Paul Thornton. "It took a little while for us to finally get the season going, but now there's no looking back."

Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.) won the javelin with a school-record toss of 114-3, while the distance medley relay team of Ellen Koranda (Blue Earth, Minn.), Ashley Dingels (Gibbon, Minn.), Tara Jenkins (Owatonna, Minn.) and Theresa Miller (New Berlin, Wis.) broke the eight-year-old school record with a second-place time of 13:26.3.

Jenny Folgers (McHenry, Ill.) won the 100 hurdles in 15.41, while Koranda picked up a first in the 1,500, clocking a time of 5:04.16. Folgers also pitched in a second in the 400 hurdles (67.98), while Dingels was second in the high jump (5-0) and fourth in the 100 hurdles (16.79). Autumn Valk (Appleton, Wis.) recorded a third-place finish in the 100 hurdles (16.36) and a fourth in the 400 hurdles (68.25), and Miller was fourth in the 1,500 (5:12.0).

On the men's side, Todd Yankowski (Chicago, Ill.) was sixth in the shot put (37-1/4) and seventh in the 400 (53.05), while B.J. Klenke (Jordan, Minn.) was 13th in the 1,500 (4:20.80).