WINONA, Minn. — As individuals, Emily Bartusek (Albert Lea, Minn.), Ashley Dingels (Gibbon, Minn.), Autumn Valk (Appleton, Wis.) and Maria Roche (Eden Prairie, Minn.) made their fair share of ripples at the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships Saturday afternoon.

As a group, however, the SMU quartet made one huge wave — racing to a second-place finish in the 4 x 400 relay, clocking a time of 4:01.11 and leading the Cardinal women to a seventh-place finish.

Bartusek chipped in a sixth-place effort in the 400 (59.43) and tallied a nine-place showing in the 200 (27.36), while Valk was sixth in the 100 hurdles (15.43), Roche placed fourth in the 800 (2:20.75) and Dingels joined Valk, Roche and Megan Moran (Burlington, Wis.) for a fifth-place performance in the 4 x 100 relay (50.39).

Beth Cleveland (Wausau, Wis.) was a double-finalist for SMU, taking sixth in the hammer throw (129-4) and ninth in the discus (114-0), while Jenny Folgers (McHenry, Ill.) chipped in a ninth in the 100 hurdles (16.78).

On the men's side, Rob Friendt (Ogden, Utah) made the most of a busy day, placing fifth in the 100 (11.50) and fourth in the high jump (6-2 1/4), then teaming with Dan Hertzner (Ottawa, Ill.), Dan Gerber (Belvidere, Ill.) and Jon Pace (Minoqua, Wis.) in Saturday's 4 x 100 relay, clocking a time of 43.63. Gerber also placed eighth in the 100, posting a time of 11.66.

"It was a tough, tough day to compete, pretty much like every other day we've had this spring — cold, blustery and rainy," said SMU coach Kirk Nauman, whose men's squad placed 11th in the two-day event. "It really hasn't been a great spring for us from a weather standpoint, but we still managed to have some great performances — which makes you wonder what we could have accomplished had the weather cooperated a bit.

"I'm very pleased with our effort, no question about that," continued Nauman. "We had several very nice performances, and others that we wished could have been a bit better, but that's why we run, throw and jump — you never know from day to day what you are going to get."

On Friday, Dingels — winner of the MIAC's pentathlon title last week — chipped in a second in the high jump, clearing 5-4 1/2, while Amanda Weinmann (Rochester, Minn.) placed third in the shot put with a toss of 40-7 1/2, Tera Bollig (Cambridge, Minn.) tallied a seventh-place time of 39:26.34 in the 10,000 and Friendt placed fourth in the long jump (21-4 1/2) and 13th in the pole vault (14-0 1/2).

"All-in-all, it was a good weekend," conlcuded Nauman. "We've still got a couple of (last-chance) meets to go. Hopefully we can put together some solid performances and maybe get a few more individuals into the (national) championships."