WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University track and field teams don't have many home meets during their indoor season.

In fact, they have just one — the Saint Mary's Invitational.

So when the Cardinals toed the starting line, tossed the hammer, and cleared the high jump bar Saturday afternoon in the Gostomski Fieldhouse, they wanted to make sure to be at their best.

After all, Saturday was their one shot to show the home crowd just what they could do.

And the home crowd didn't leave disappointed.

Maria Roche (New Prague, Minn.) and Ellen Koranda (Blue Earth, Minn.) each set new school records and SMU recorded five first-place finishes in the six-team, nonscored event.

"I couldn't be happier about our performance," said SMU coach Kirk Nauman. "To break two school records, and have the majority of our competitors set PRs, it was a great meet for us."

"Everyone was pretty fired up about getting to have a meet at home," continued Nauman. "The fact that we didn't have to travel anywhere to compete was nice. It allowed everyone to feel a bit more relaxed — relaxed but focused is a good way to describe our mentality today."

Roche set her school mark in the 600, where she stopped the clock in 1:40.7, winning the event by nearly two seconds. Koranda, meanwhile, trimmed five more seconds off her own record-setting mark in the 1,500, crushing the rest of the field with a time of 4:54.40.

Koranda also added a first-place finish in the 1,000 (3:08.38), while Jim Baertsch's (Winona, Minn.) time of 2:46.27 in the 1,000 and Renee Willkom's (Cadott, Wis.) 11:06.31 in the 3,000 accounted for the Cardinals' other first-place efforts.

Jenny Folgers (McHenry, Ill.) chipped in a pair of second-place times of 8.83 in the 55 hurdles and 1:03.61 in the 400, while Dan Hertzner (Ottawa, Ill. / 55, 6.85), Patrick Polasek (Glendale Heights, Ill. / 800, 2:15.11), Andy Lee (San Francisco, Calif. / 400, 56.61), Megan Mason (Rochester, Minn. / pole vault, 9-6), Jordan Ruchotzke (Rochester, Minn. / long jump, 18-9 1/4) and Amanda Weinmann (Rochester, Minn. / shot put, 39-5 3/4) also finished second.

"We've steadily gotten better with each meet we've competed in," said Nauman. "Hopefully that trend can continue."