Complete Men's Results / Complete Women's Results

WINONA, Minn. — With the indoor season reaching the halfway point at Saturday's John Skemp Invitational, the Saint Mary's University track and field teams began to let their thoughts drift into the future — and the season-ending MIAC Championships

And if their most recent past is any indication, the future looks very bright.

"All in all, I think our programs are continuing to make strides towards becoming a real factor in the MIAC Championships," said SMU coach Paul Thornton, whose teams set one school record and numerous personal-bests at last Saturday's John Skemp Invitational, their second home meet of the season. "It is very gratifying to watch our young student-athletes become individual leaders in their respective events."

Speaking of leaders … .

Jenny Folgers (McHenry, Ill.) and Ashley Dingels (Gibbon, Minn.) racked up SMU's lone first-place finishes, as Folgers posted a time of 8.96 in winning the 55 hurdles, while Dingels — who qualified for the NCAA Division III national championships in the high jump two weeks ago with a school-record leap of 5-7 — won the high jump Saturday, clearing 5-3. The two then teamed with Amber Liss (Onalaska, Wis.) and Theresa Miller (New Berlin, Wis.) to set a school record of 4:10.66 in placing second in the 4 x 400 relay.

And that was just the start for the Cardinal quartet.

Dingels also placed second in the 200 (26.65), fourth in the triple jump (32-2) and fifth in the shot put (32-7), while Liss was second in the 400 (61.32), Miller was second in the 1,000 (3:17.35) and Folgers was sixth in the 600 (1:46.51).

Speaking of busy, Shawn Stewart (McHenry, Ill.), Chris Beach (Maple Grove, Minn.), Todd Yankowski (Chicago, Ill.) and Dwyne Smith (Burnsville, Minn.) didn't have much down time for the SMU men, either.

Yankowski posted SMU's best finsh, placing third in the shot put with a toss of 35-2, then added a sixth-place leap of 19-1 1/2 in the long jump. Stewart posted a pair of personal-best marks in the 55 hurdles (4th, 8.56) and the 400 (53.53), whle also adding an eighth-place leap of 18-2 1/4 in the long jump. Beach placed fifth in the high jump (5-6), seventh in the pole vault (12-1 1/2) and seventh in the 400 (55.35), while Smith had personal-best times of 24.43 in the 200 and 54.83 in the 400.

Jim Baertsch (Winona, Minn.) chipped in a third-place effort in the 1,500 (4:18.87) and a seventh in the 1,000 (2:46.24), while Ethan Lane (Winona, Minn.) and Jon Bell (Ogden, Utah) went 3-4 in the 600 with times of 1:26.45 and 1:26.62, repectively.

"It was a very excting day," Thornton said. "Our athletes are competing very hard. We've continued to make several positive strides and we're beginning to turn our focus to the MIAC Championships.

"If we can continue to improve the way we have to this point, I'm looking for us to turn some heads at the conference meet."