Yankowski wins SMU's 1st MIAC Decathlon Todd Yankowski (Chicago, Ill.) headed into the final five events of the MIAC decathlon 32 points behind St. John's Matt Damlo. He exited ahead by 231 points – and the conference decathlon champion. Yankowski, who won three of the first five events during Day 1 of the 10-event competition, picked up two more first-place finishes on Friday — but more importantly, he picked up a two-day total of 6,033 points, good enough to provisionally qualify him for the NCAA Division III national championships. "This was an awesome performance," said SMU coach Kirk Nauman. "Going in we figured he had a very good chance to finish in the top three, and an outside shot at (the conference championship) and a provisional mark. "I guess he exceeded our expectations a bit." You guess? Yankowski, who shattered the SMU school decathlon record by nearly 400 points, opened the second day with a second-place showing in the 110 hurdles, breaking the school record with a time of 16.49. He then won the discus (117-8), placed eighth in the pole vault with a personal-best vault of 10-4 1/4, won the javelin (161.6) and clinched the title with a sixth-place time of 4:57.41 in the 1,500. "I always dreamed of this — it's always been a goal — but I never in a million years thought it would come true," said Yankowski, who placed fourth in the decathlon a year ago. "There were a lot of ups (in the last two days), and not many downs — everything just kind of fell into place. "It really hasn't sunk in yet," said Yankowski. "I can't even begin to put into words the way I'm feeling — it feels great."

WINONA, Minn. — This time around, Ellen Koranda's (Blue Earth, Minn.) performance in the 1,500 was a little better than just another school record.

Sure, the Saint Mary's University sophomore broke the SMU track and field record in the 1,500 with her third-place time of 4:41.13 at the UW-La Crosse Invitational last Friday evening.

But then, when you have broken an SMU record in every meet in which you've stepped on the track, record-setting performances havealmost become expected of her.

This time, however, a new school record was just the tip of the iceberg.

Koranda also provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division III National Championships — and that's something to get excited about.

"I am so happy for Ellen," said SMU coach Kirk Nauman. "She puts in so much time and effort, and it's really started to pay off for her."

Koranda's effort completed a three-day, Cardinal trifecta, as she joined Jenny Folgers (McHenry, Ill.) and Todd Yankowski (Chicago, Ill.) as NCAA provisional qualifiers. Folgers qualified in the 100 hurdles with a school record-setting time of 14.89 at the Tommie Twilight on Wednesday, while Yankowski became the school's first-ever decathlon champion, winning the MIAC event — and provisionally qualifying for nationals — with a school-record total of 6,033 points.

"It's been a pretty incredible couple of days," said Nauman. "Jenny had an excellent race — her time is very, very good. Right now it ranks her about 15th in the nation, and (the national championships) take the top 18, so she's got a pretty good shot.

"And Todd, that was an awesome performance," Nauman continued. "We figured he had a very good chance to finish in the top three, and an outside shot at (the conference championship) and a provisional mark.

"I guess he exceeded our expectations a bit."

Now, the Cardinal trio have a little waiting to do.

With the NCAA Outdoor Championships still nearly a month away, all three will have a few opportunities to improve their times in hopes of solidifying their chances of making it to nationals. Other than that, it's just wait-and-see if those times and point totals are good enough to hold up.

"We've still got some time to get in a couple more meets — including this weekend at the conference (championships in Northfield)," said Nauman. "All three of them have a pretty good shot, we'll just have to wait and see how good."