Men's No Limit Results / Women's No Limit Results / Photo Gallery

WINONA, Minn. — After what coach Ward Berndt termed two “tune-up” meets, he challenged his Saint Mary's University cross country teams to kick it into high gear Friday evening at the SMU No Limit Invitational.

And when Berndt talks, his Cardinals listen.

The SMU men, led by David Feather (Oak Creek, Wis.), placed second in the inaugural invitational, while the Cardinal women, fueled by freshmen Kristen Thelen (Rochester, Minn.) and Amy Spitzmueller (New Brighton, Minn.), collected a fifth-place finish.

“It was a great day all the way around,” said Berndt “We were coming off a couple of meets that we kind of just trained through, and so we talked before (Friday's meet) and I told them it was time to ramp things up a bit — to kick it into high gear and get after it.”

And kick it into high gear is what the Cardinals did — literally.

Feather found himself in a dual with UW-Eau Claire's Josh Wieland from the opening kilometer of the 8K men's event. With the two jockeying for the lead over the first half of the race, Wieland began to pull away, breaking the tape in 27:23, while Feather was four seconds back in 27:27.

UW-Eau Claire and SMU boasted the top 11 runners in the men's race, with Wieland leading the Blugolds to the team title with 22 points, while SMU was second (37), followed by UW-River Falls (105), Viterbo (111), Wartburg (113) and Buena Vista (152).

Peter Borash (Bowlus, Minn.) finished fourth overall in 28:04 for the Cardinals, while Jake Traxler (Le Center, Minn.) and Robby McGuire (Rochester, Minn.) gave SMU four runners in the top 10 with their eighth- and ninth-place times of 28:28 and 28:30, respectively. Michael Wolter (Rushford, Minn.) rounded out SMU's top five runners, finishing 14th with a time of 28:51.

“David ran a great race — as did all of the guys,” said Berndt. “They went out there today with the mind-set of winning the race, and they all ran outstanding — Eau Claire just had a little too much firepower.”

For the second week in a row, Thelen was the top Cardinal runner in the women's race, finishing 21st with a time of 25:18 in her first collegiate 6K race. Spitzmueller added a time of 25:28 to place 26th, while Brittany Kuehn (Sauk Rapids, Minn. / 34th, 25:50), Emily Dee (Racine, Minn. / 39th, 25:57) and Jill Spitzmueller (New Brighton, Minn. / 43rd, 26:12) rounded out the Cardinals' top five.

Oregon State ran away with the women's team title with 25 points, 26 points in front of runner-up UW-Eau Claire. Viterbo was third (62), followed by UW-La Crosse (105), Saint Mary's (143), Wartburg (178) and Buena Vista (225). Viterbo's Bea Foley ran away with the individual crown, winning in 22:20, more than a minute faster than runner-up Audrey Botti of Oregon State.

“I was very happy with the way the women ran,” said Berndt. “This was our first time running a 6K (this season), so it was good to see some solid performances — especially out of our freshmen.”

The Cardinals are back in action on Oct. 9, when they travel to Waverly, Iowa, for the Wartburg Invitational.