NORTHFIELD, Minn. — Saint Mary's University track and field coach Paul Thornton was hoping his teams' performance at the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference multievents Thursday and Friday would be a good spring board toward the season-ending conference championships.

Was it ever.

Not only did Todd Yankowski (Chicago, Ill.) and Ashley Dingels (Gibbon, Minn.) both set school records in the events — Yankowski placing fifth in the decathlon with 5,477 points, while Dingels placed third in the heptathlon with 4,268 points — but Dingels' total also earned her a provisional spot in the NCAA Division III national championships and qualified her for the USA junior nationals.

"This was a great way to kick of the MIAC Championships for us," said Thornton. "Placing two athletes like that helps set the tone for the rest of the team. Setting two school record and establishing another NCAA provisional qualifying mark also shows that we are beginning to gel at just the right time in the year."

Both Yankowski and Dingels actually broke two school records during their events. Along with his record-setting total, Yankowski also set the school mark in the javelin with a toss of 174-4 — the best throw of the season by any MIAC athlete. Dingels, meanwhile, made it a clean sweep of the SMU high jump marks, adding an outdoor school-record jump of 5-2 1/4 to go with her national-qualifying and school-record jump of 5-7 indoors.

"All in all, this was a great two days for our program," Thornton said. "Now we can turn all of our attention to the conference championships — and, hopefully, some more great performances."