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MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's 200 freestyle and 400 medley relay teams were in a record-setting mood during the opening day of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships Thursday evening at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.

The 200 freestyle relay team turned in a record-setting performance to kick things off Thursday evening, as the quartet of Nikki Farmer (Medford, Wis.), Linda Tierney (Cloquet, Minn.), Anna Smaron (Maple Plain, Minn.) and Abby Kratzke (Dent, Minn.) placed eighth with a school-record time of 1:43.98 — nine seconds faster than their qualifying time and three seconds better than the school mark, set in 1999.

The same four then closed out Day 1 with yet another school record, posting a time of 4:14.93 to finish seventh — knocking four seconds off the previous school record, also set during the 1999 season.

The men's 200 freestyle relay chipped in a sixth-place finish, as Mark Ross (Dubuque, Iowa), Jim Tandberg (Dayton, Minn.), Neil Schepers (Chaska, Minn.) and Neil Heacox (San Diego, Calif.) combined for a time of 1:41.23. The foursome then teamed to place eighth in the 400 medley relay, stopping the clock in 4:18.15.

Brian Baker (Wykoff, Minn.) got his first conference championships off to a roaring start, as the Cardinal freshman placed seventh in the one-meter diving, posting a 297.65 point total.

In Thursday's preliminaries, the times were the fastest of the season for the Cardinals. Unfortunately, as fast as those times were, they weren't fast enough to earn them a spot among the conference's top 16.

“I was very pleased with the way we've started,” said SMU coach Eric Lindquist, noting that the men are sitting in sixth place after the first day, while the women are eighth. “Everyone that swam today posted a season-best time — and that's all you can ask for.”

Heacox narrowly missed a spot in the 200 IM consolation finals, but the senior's time of 2:04.25 was three seconds off the 16th-place time. Tierney and Smaron chipped in times of 2:19.94 and 2:25.18, respectively, in the 200 IM, while Farmer and Kratzke added times of 25.72 and 26.64, respectively, in the 50 freestyle.

The Cardinals are back in the pool on Friday, with prelims starting at 10:30 a.m., with finals at 6:30 p.m. at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.