By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
ETTRICK, Wis. — With the most important two meets of the season looming on the horizon, Saint Mary's University cross country coach Niels Anderson was eager to see how his teams stacked up against the rest of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference as well as the Central Region.
 
Saturday morning, the Cardinal head coach got his wish.
 
And he liked how the Cardinals stacked up.
 
Danielle Franke (Mounds View, Minn.) turned in one of the best six-kilometer times of her career in leading the Saint Mary's women to a 19th-place showing at the UW-La Crosse Tori Neubauer Invitational, while the Cardinal men — only fielding a team of four runners due to injuries and illness — were led by Jordan Malikowski (Royalton, Minn.), who posted an eight-kilometer time of 28:08.3 at the UW-L Jim Drews Invitational.
 
Franke toured the 6K Ettrick Golf Course layout in 24:28.9 to place 82^nd among the 320-runner field. Anna Marinc (Carol Stream, Ill.) chipped in a time of 25:47, followed by Anna Swanson (Osceola, Wis. / 26:30.0), Amelia Sweet (Prescott, Wis. / 26:50.1), Emma Ririe (Darien, Ill. / 28:36.0), Tabby Fabin (Elk Grove Village, Ill. / 29:04.1), Julia VanWatermeulen (Ellsworth, Wis. / 29:36.7), Alyssa Thiel (Burr Ridge, Ill. / 31:03.4), and Rachel Simon ( / 34:15.9)
 
On the men's side, Jon Meaden (Rosemount, Minn.) chipped in a 28:26.8, followed by Axel Daood (St. Charles, Minn. / 28:42.8) and Caedon McCartney (Owatonna, Minn. / 29:20.3).
 
Iowa Central's Awet Yohannes took home the men's individual title, clocking an 8K time of 24:41.2 to edge out the UW-La Crosse pair of Josh Schraeder (24:43.4) and Tyler Nault (24:49.8). Hunter Lucas of the University of Minnesota and Luther's Tom Altier rounded out the top five with times of 25:07.4 and 25:08.0, respectively.
 
Iowa Central swept the top three spots in the women's race, led by Winnrose Chesang, who posted a winning time of 21:02.6. Eleonora Curtabbi added a 21:32.8 and Lillian Busienei finished in 21:49, with St. Olaf's Bryony Hawgood (21:54.6) and Gustavus' Tierney Winter (22:05) rounding out the top five.
 
Host UW-La Crosse won the men's Jim Drews team title, finishing with 54 points, well in front of runner0up St. Olaf (75). Iowa Central was third (105), followed by Luther (133) and Nebraska Wesleyan (169).
 
Fueled by its 1-2-3 finish, Iowa Central rolled to the Tori Neubauer team crown with 44 points, finishing well in front of St. Thomas (76), UW-La Crosse (82), Gustavus (125) and St. Olaf (136).
 
The Cardinals are now off until Nov. 2, when they head to Northfield, Minn., to take part in the MIAC Championships, hosted by Carleton.