By Donny Nadeau
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
LA CROSSE, Wis.  — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's and women's track and field teams hit the road on Saturday, traveling to UW-La Crosse to take part in the Phil Esten Challenge.
 
The Phil Esten Challenge Field:
• Bethel, Hamline, Ripon, Saint John's, Saint Mary's, St. Norbert, St. Olaf, Viterbo, Wartburg, Winona State, UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Platteville, UW-River Falls, UW-Stout, UW-Superior
 
GameDay Live On the Web:
• Live Results
 
Cardinals' Last Action:
• April 12, 2018 * Winona, Minn.: Becca Dup (Albert Lea, Minn.) broke her own outdoor record in the long jump, taking with a leap of 5.57 meters, and Ross Kinderman (Onalaska, Wis.) posted a first-place finish in the javelin with a toss of 48.90m to pace the Cardinals at the Spring, Sprung, Sprang Invitational at the Saint Mary's Track & Field Complex | Recap
 
Cardinals at Phil Esten Challenge—A Year Ago:
• April 21, 2017 * La Crosse, Wis.: Becca Dup (Albert Lea, Minn.) and Desmond Steward (Bayside, Wis.) continued their dominance in the jumps, as both collected first-place finishes in the triple jump, while Dup also added a second in the long jump at the UW-La Crosse Phil Esten Challenge. Steward uncorked a school-record leap of 13.99 meters in winning the men's triple jump for the second week in a row, while Dup—the school record-holder in the event—delivered a jump of 11.54 meters to capture the women's title, before adding a second-place showing in the long jump with a leap of 5.38 meters | Recap
 
Up Next:
• The Cardinals return home to the Saint Mary's Track & Field Complex next Saturday, hosting the 16-team Saint Mary's Open.
 
Scouting The Saint Mary's Cardinals:
2018 Men's Roster | 2018 Women's Roster | 2018 Schedule | Record Book
• Ross Kinderman (Onalaska, Wis.) and Becca Dup (Albert Lea, Minn.) led the way for the Cardinals at the Spring, Sprung, Sprang Invitational on April 12. Kinderman posted a first-place throw of 48.90m to win the javelin, while Dup placed second in the long jump with a school-record leap of 5.57m. … Dup also placed third in the triple jump ( 11.48m) and Rachel Ohde (Chetek, Wis.) chipped in a fourth in the high jump (1.50m) for the Cardinal women, while Desmond Steward (Bayside, Wis.) recorded a second in the triple jump (13.17m), and Jordan Malikowski (Royalton, Minn.) and Isaiah Olsem (Fulda, Minn.) finished fourth (10:33.21) and fifth (10:44.07), respectively, in the steeplechase to pace the Cardinal men. … Other top-five performances from the Saint Mary's men at the Spring, Sprung, Sprang included the 4x100 meter relay team—Andrew Allemann (Cochrane, Wis.), Noah Anderson (St. Paul, Minn.), Matthew Boone (Mindoro, Wis.), and Nathan Hoglund (Chippewa Falls, Wis.)—which added a third-place time of 43.61, the fourth-fastest time in school history. Anderson also placed fourth in the 200 (22.27), and Christian Beamer (Two Harbors, Minn.) added a fifth in the high jump (1.85m). … Natalie King (Houston, Minn.) posted the Cardinals' top place finish at the Dingels/Brueggen Invitational on March 29, placing second in the hammer throw with a toss of 45.03 meters. … The Cardinals picked up three first-place finishes at the outdoor season-opening Point Loma Invitational in San Diego, Calif., on March 24. King and Dup led the way for the women's team, taking first place in the weight throw (45.38m) and the triple jump (11.65m) respectively, while Steward won the triple jump (14.76m) to pace the Saint Mary's men. … The Cardinal men posted an eighth-place finish in the indoor season-ending MIAC Championships, while the Saint Mary's women placed ninth. … The eighth-place finish was the Cardinal men's team's highest indoor finish in program history. … Dup and Brandon Krogman (Owatonna, Minn.) each claimed a pair of indoor conference titles—Dup's in the long and triple jumps, and Krogman's in the 600 and 800—at the MIAC Indoor Championships. … Dup defended her MIAC indoor title in the long jump with a leap of 5.38 meters, while claiming her first conference triple jump title by equaling her school record with a leap of 11.74 meters. … Dup's 11.74-meter jump also earned the Cardinal junior her second straight NCAA national championship appearance. Dup, who placed 17^th in the triple jump at the 2017 outdoor national championships, narrowly missed All-American honors at the 2018 indoor championships, placing ninth with a leap of 11.67m. … Krogman joined Dup in standing atop the MIAC indoor podium twice, as the Cardinal senior followed up his conference-winning performance in the 800—where he won with a time of 1:55.87—by shattering his own school record in running away from the 600 field in collecting conference title No. 2 with a time of 1:21.50. … Steward chipped in a second-place All-MIAC showing in the triple jump at the MIAC Indoor Championships, notching a leap of 13.72 meters, while Connor Nicholas (Las Vegas, Nev.) also landed all-conference honors with a third in the 60 hurdles (8.58). … Maria Missurelli (Franklin, Wis.) put together the best indoor championships of her career, breaking her own school record in the pole vault—clearing an All-MIAC 3.45 meters—to finish second behind St. Thomas' Kendall Novak, who won the event with a vault of 3.55 meters. … Dup (long jump, triple jump), Missurelli (pole vault), Steward (triple jump), and Krogman (800) all earned USTFCCCA Indoor All-Region honors. … Four of Saint Mary's five first-place showings at UW-Stout's Warren Bowlus Invitational on Jan. 27 were, at the time, school-record performances—Missurelli in the pole vault (3.40m), Dup in the triple jump (11.03m), Krogman in the 600 meter (1:23.06), and Austin O'Hare (Rushford, Minn.) in the 3,000 (8:43.45). … Kyle Lichttenegger's (De Pere, Wis.) 6.84-meter leap in the long jump and Krogman's 2:44.10 in the 1,000 at the Saint Mary's Early Birdinal on Jan. 13 were both school records.