Perfect conditions bring out perfect
performances from Pederson, Liss

ST. PETER, Minn. — For the first time all season, Mother Nature decided to cooperate with the Saint Mary's University track and field teams.

Competing under sunny skies and temperatures soaring into the 60s — normal conditions any other year, but far from normal for this year's cold and damp spring — SMU's Kari Pederson (Hastings, Minn.) and Amber Liss (Onalaska, Wis.) took full advantage of the conditions at the Gustavus Invitational Friday afternoon.

Pederson, the school record-holder in the 100-meter dash, shattered her old mark, clocking a time of 12.59 to finish second overall, one-one hundreth of a second out of first. Not to be outdone, Liss rewrote her own record in the 200, crossing the finish line with a time of 26.63, good for sixth place overall.

Liss also chipped in a sixth-place showing in the 100 (12.96), while Pederson was eighth in the 200 (26.98, which also would have broken the old school record).

The Cardinals' dynamic duo weren't the only stars to shine, however. Theresa Miller (New Berlin, Wis.) placed 12th in the 1,500 (5:29.8), while Colleen O'Hearn (Champlin, Minn.) was 13th in the shot put (4.33 meters) and 18th in the discus (27.34 m), and Clara Setzer (Red Wing, Minn.) was 16th in the shot (9.90 m) and 17th in the long jump (4.33 m).

Joe Thompson (Lake City, Minn.) led the way for the Cardinal men, racing to a third-place showing in the 10,000, breaking the tape in 33:40.26. Ryan Hover (South St. Paul, Minn.) was 21st in the 110 high hurdles (16.50), while Chris Beach (Maple Grove, Minn.) (17.40, 110 high hurdles), Scott Becker (Orland Park, Ill.) (57.13 in the 400), Paul Jungbauer (White Bear Lake, Minn.) (2:01.57 in the 800), Jim Baertsch (Winona, Minn.) (2:09.03 in the 800 and 4:19.40 in the 1,500), Andy Marter (Arkansaw, Wis.) (4:21.70 in the 1,500), and B.J. Klenke (Jordan, Minn.) (4:27.60 in the 1,500) also fared well for the Cardinals.