Meet Summary vs. UW-River Falls / Senior Salute

WINONA, Minn. — It was the last home meet of the season — and Saint Mary's University swimming and diving coach Eric Linquist was hoping his Cardinals had saved their best for last.

They did.

The Cardinal men, fueled by the efforts of Neil Heacox (San Diego, Calif.), closed out their regular-season schedule on a winning note, collecting a 138-122 dual-meet victory over UW-River Falls Saturday at the Jul Gernes Pool.

Despite stellar showings from several individuals, the SMU women weren't as fortunate, as they dropped their regular-season finale, 130-111.

“This was a great finish to our regular season,” said Lindquist, whose team is now off until the MIAC Championships on Feb. 19-21. “We got so many great swims — it was exactly what I was hoping for in a season finale.”

Heacox certainly saved his best for last, as the SMU freshman picked up three individual first-place finishes, while also swimming a leg on the Cardinals' 800 freestyle relay, which set a Jul Gernes Pool record with a winning time of 8:00.63.

Along with Heacox's three first-place efforts — a 2:03.09 showing in the 200 freestyle, a 2:32.64 effort in the 200 breaststroke and a 2:12.43 performance in the 200 IM — SMU also got a pair of firsts from Tim Tysk (St. Paul, Minn.) in the 50 freestyle (23.48) and the 100 freestyle (51.19), while John Fox (Winona, Minn. / 100 breaststroke, 1:02.53), Matt Ramey (Centennial, Colo. / 500 freestyle, 5:18.45) and Eric Hills (Lake Elmo, Minn. / 100 butterfly, 1:00.51) all recorded first-place finishes.

Jennifer Salzman (Hilo, Hawaii), led the charge for the SMU women, winning both the 100 freestyle (58.93) and the 500 freestyle (5:54.64), with Rachel Steinkamp (Lakeville, Minn. / one-meter diving, 180.35), Linda Tierney (Cloquet, Minn. / 100 butterfly, 1:09.95) and Liz Flynn (Mahtomedi, Minn. / three-meter diving, 200.55) also chipping in first-place efforts.

“This was a great final tune-up (for the MIAC championships),” said Lindquist. “We had a lot of very good swims, but I think we have a lot of even better swims in us.”