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Cardinals enjoy their time as the little fish in the big pond at UW
MADISON, Wis. — For the majority of the season, the Saint Mary's University track and field teams have enjoyed their season competing against other fellow NCAA Division III institutions.
Saturday afternoon, however, the Cardinals stepped out of their comfort zone — and went from the big fish in the little pond, to the little fish in the big pond.
And while the results may appear like SMU did little more than tread water at the Wisconsin Twilight, coach Kirk Nauman was very pleased with his teams' performances.
"This was definitely a 'big-school' meet — we were going up against a lot of Division I programs — so our place finishes don't necessarily look all that impressive," said Nauman, noting that the Cardinals were among the top non-Division I schools in several events "But the times we put up were very good."
Ashley Luehmann (Lewiston, Minn.) led the way for the Cardinals, placing second in the javelin (41.91 meters) and fifth in the shot put (12.47). Tera Bollig (Cambridge, Minn.) added a seventh in the 3,000 (11:06.69) and Katie Schultz (Alden, Minn.) was 10th in the high jump with a leap of 1.45 meters.
On the men's side, Kevin Hein (Zumbro Falls, Minn.) placed eighth in the discus (40.77 meters), with Joe Weinmann (Rochester, Minn.) posting a ninth-place effort in the 400 (50.60), and Dan Gerber (Belvidere, Ill.) and Chris Fisette (Elmhurst, Ill.) each adding 10th-place showings in the 100 (11.34) and long jump (6.47 meters), respectively.
"It's obvious that we are peaking at the right time, because we had a number of season- and career bests," said Nauman. "We needed a breakout meet like this right before (this weekend's) conference championships, so I feel good about where we are at."