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3 Cardinals crowned conference champs to lead SMU's charge
NORTHFIELD, Minn. — The first day of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Indoor Championships was nice for the Saint Mary's University track and field teams.
No, make that twice as nice.
The Cardinals picked up a pair of individual conference champions during the first day of the two-day MIAC event, as Emily Bartusek (Albert Lea, Minn.) and Amanda Weinmann (Rochester, Minn.) captured first-place finishes.
And that was just the beginning.
The Cardinals picked up their third conference champion and shattered four more school records — including the eight-year-old 4x200 relay mark — to highlight Saturday's second day of competition.
"I'm very happy with our performance," 'said SMU coach Kirk Nauman, whose women's team placed eighth — five points out of sixth — while the men settled for 10th. "I figured out women's team could place anywhere from fifth to eighth and we took eighth — but could easily have caught Concordia for fifth.
Weinmann, competing in her final MIAC Indoor Championships, won the weight throw with a school-record toss of 16.71 meters — marking the second straight conference meet in which the SMU senior broke the school's weight throw mark — while Bartusek improved from her third-place finish from a year ago by winning 400 in a time of 59.05.
Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.) joined SMU's conference-champion parade, outdueling Weinmann to win the shot put with a toss of 13.29, with Weinmann placing second in 13.28. Bartusek followed up her first-place, record-setting effort in the 55 with a third-place showing in the 200, breaking her second record of the weekend by crossing the finish line in 26.51.
Chris Fisette (Elmhurst, Ill.) notched a third-place effort in the triple jump — to go with his sixth-place showing in the long jump on Friday — as the SMU sophomore shattered his own mark in the triple jump with a leap of 13.37 meters. Fisette was also a member of the Cardinals' record-setting 4x200 relay team, joining Josiah Ryks (Austin, Minn.), Joe Weinmann (Rochester, Minn.) and Dan Gerber (Belvidere, Ill.) to post a fourth-place finish with a time of 1:32.14 — more than a second faster than the previous record, set in 1999. John Vallez (Eagan, Minn.) also put his name in the record book, lowering his school-record time in the 1,000 with a time of 2:37.66.
"We had so many outstanding performances — to have three conference champions is outstanding, and something to be very proud of," said Nauman. "We broke some records that haven't been broken in a long time, which is always great to see."