Complete Men's Results / Complete Women's Results

WINONA, Minn. — Before the season started, Saint Mary's University track and field coach Paul Thornton predicted the school would have its first national qualifier this year.

When Thornton made that prediction, however, he left out one key word: Automatic.

Ashley Dingels (Gibbon, Minn.) shattered the school record in the high jump, clearing 5-feet-7 at the inaugural Saint Mary's Open Saturday afternoon to automatically qualify her for the upcoming NCAA Division III Indoor National Championships.

"I had a good feeling that we would get Ashley into the national meet, but I honestly didn't expect her to automatically qualify — that was above and beyond anything I expected," said Thornton of Dingels, whose jump was four inches higher than the previous SMU mark and matched the NCAA's automatic qualifying standard. "That was an outstanding performance."

One of many for the Cardinals.

Jenny Folgers (McHenry, Ill.) broke the school mark in winning the 55 hurdles, stopping the clock in 8.90, while Amber Liss (Onalaska, Wis.) set a team record with her second-place time of 61.20 in the 400, then added a first-place finish in the 55, breaking the tape in 7.83. Theresa Miller (New Berlin, Wis.) chipped in a first-place time of 5:15.52 in the 1,500. Assumpta Mbele (Northfield, Minn.) led a 1-2 SMU finish in the long jump with a leap of 16-4 1/4, while Dingels followed up her record-shattering high jump performance with a second in the long jump (15-5) and a sixth in the shot put (31-5 1/4).

Not to be outdone, the Cardinal men also turned in a number of stellar performances, led by Chris Beach (Maple Grove, Minn.), who broke the school record with his second-place effort of 12-0 in the pole vault, then added another second in the high jump with a leap of 5-10 3/4.

Jim Baertsch (Winona, Minn.) notched the Cardinals' lone first-place finish, breaking the tape in 2:04.30 to win the 800, while Shawn Stewart (McHenry, Ill.) was second in the 55 hurdles (8.46), B.J. Klenke (Jordan, Minn.) was third in the 1,500 (4:27.07), Karl Hattenberg (Waltham, Minn.) was fourth in the 3,000 (10:52.01) and Dwyane Smith (Burnsville, Minn.) was fourth in the long jump (18-9 1/4).

"Overall, I'm very pleased with our performance," concluded Thornton. "It was really nice to have a meet at home. Our athletes really enjoyed the opportunity to run on their own surface, in front of family and friends. It was a great meet, and hopefully it will be a good stepping stone for us as we continue to strive to improve."