WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University track and field teams are officially off and running — fast, very fast.

The Cardinal women broke three school records in their season-opening meet, as Maria Roche (New Prague, Minn.), Tera Bolig (Cambridge, Minn.) and Ellen Koranda (Blue Earth, Minn.) all etched their names in the SMU record book at the MSU-Mankato Invitational.

"For a first meet, I was very pleased with our performances," said SMU coach Kirk Nauman of SMU's showing at the non-scored invitational. "Breaking three school records in the first meet of the year was more than I could have expected."

Roche posted a time of 1:23.22 in the 500 for her school record, while Bolig became SMU's fastest ever in the mile run (5:47.85) and Koranda did the same in the 3,000 (10:55.61).

Jenny Folgers (McHenry, Ill.) just missed joining the record-setting trio, clocking a time of 9.64, just two-hundreths of a second off her own school record.

"We had a lot of very good efforts," said Nauman, noting that Andy Lee (San Francisco, Calif.) and Jordan Ruchotzke (Rochester, Minn.) led the way for the SMU men, posting times of 7.85 and 7.82, respectively, in the 50. "Hopefully, the performances from this meet put them in line for some very good things in the near future."