Meet Results

ST. PAUL, Minn. — It was the final meet before the Christmas break for the Saint Mary's University swimming and diving teams, and Eric Lindquist was hoping his Cardinals would close out 2011 with a bang.

And they did.

The Cardinal men, led by Mark Ross (Dubuque, Iowa) and Neil Heacox (San Diego, Calif.), placed fifth at the St. Thomas Invitational Saturday afternoon, while the SMU women, behind the efforts of Linda Tierney (Cloquet, Minn.), recorded a seventh-place showing.

“This is one of those meets where the place finishes won't necessarily reflect how well we swam,” said SMU coach Eric Lindquist. “We had some great swims, tons of season-best times, but with teams like UW-La Crosse and St. Thomas — two outstanding programs that just dominated the meet — our individual place finishes may not appear all that good.

“The times we posted in almost every event were right where we want them to be at this time of year, so I was very pleased with our performance.”

Ross recorded a third-place finish in the 200 backstroke (2:03.56) and a seventh-place showing in the100 backstroke (57.26), while Heacox proved to be a very busy Cardinal, placing fifth in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.48), seventh in the 200 breaststroke (2:26.23) and ninth in the 200 IM (2:13.93).

Tierney led the way for the SMU women, placing eighth in the 400 IM (5:11.72) and 13th in the 100 freestyle (59.02), with Sarah Jansen (Manitowoc, Wis.) adding an 11th in the three-meter diving (134.75) and Anna Smaron (Maple Plain, Minn.) recording a 16th in the 100 breaststroke (1:18.91).

SMU's divers will compete in the St. Catherine Diviing Invitational next Friday, while the rest of the team will not compete against until they host Hamline in a dual meet on Jan. 14 at the Jul Gernes Pool.