DECORAH, Iowa — The Saint Mary's University swimming and diving teams could hardly wait for their season-opener against Luther on Saturday.

After weeks of preseason training, the Cardinals were eager to get their season off to a flying start.

Problem was, it was the Norse who got off to the fast start, leaving the Cardinals stuck on the starting block as Luther rolled to a 153-66 win over the SMU women and a 107-20 triumph over the Cardinal men.

The Cardinal women picked up two first-place finishes, as the 200 freestyle relay team of Toni Nigrelli (Kiel, Wis.), Danielle Braun (Cold Spring, Minn.), Margaret Walsh (Chicago, Ill.) and Lisa Salm (Chilton, Wis.) stopped the clock in 1:45.25, and Braun out-touched Luther's Betsy Gilbertson to win the 100 breaststroke in 1:14.86.

Nigrelli chipped in a third-place showing in the 200 IM (2:37.50), while the Cardinals also got third-place efforts from Salm in the 100 backstroke (1:10.98), Kasey Schultz (Cary, Ill.) in the 1,000 freestyle (12:53.67), Kelsey Ibis (Maple Grove, Minn.) in the 100 freestyle (1:10.18) and Sarah Ruether (Red Wing, Minn.) in the 200 freestyle (2:42.95).

A second-place performance by the 200 freestyle relay team of Brian Joyce (Chicago, Ill.), Gerry Lentino (Chicago, Ill.), DeAndrae Noble (St. Paul, Minn.) and Brandon Verbout (Rochester, Minn.) led the way for the SMU men, as the foursome stopped the clock in 1:59.62.

Joyce added a second in the 100 breaststroke (1:13.07) and a third in the 200 IM (2:22.56), while Noble was third in the 50 freestyle (27.55) and fourth in the 100 freestyle (1:05.44).