WINONA, Minn. — After a pair of intra-squad meets over the past two weeks, Saint Mary's University track and field coach Jake Malm's Cardinals finally got the opportunity to square off against somebody other than themselves on Saturday.
 
And the Cardinals did not disappoint their first-year head coach.
 
Saint Mary's collected a combined 15 first-place finishes — including three by Matt Boone (Mindoro, Wis.) — in dominating the non-team-scored  COVID Classic in the Gostomski Fieldhouse.
 
Boone was unbeaten in the sprints for the Cardinals. He clocked a 6.69 in winning the prelims of the 55, before stopping the clock in 6.61 in winning the finals. The senior then added a time of 22.92 to edge out teammate Garrett Jackson (West Linn, Ore.) in the 200, while Jon Meaden (Rosemount, Minn.) delivered a first-place time of 4:23.93 to blow away the field in the mile.
 
In the field events, Coleton Strupp (Holmen, Wis.) cleared 3.96 meters to win the pole vault, with Jacob Homan (North Mankato, Minn.) and Sean Curran (Appleton, Wis.) winning the shot put (12.97m) and weight throw (15.9m), respectively; and Javon Kunkel (Rochester, Minn. / long jump, 6.57m) and Dan Cooper (Belle Plaine, Minn. / triple jump, 11.81m) sweeping the jumps.
 
On the women's side Caroline Gearin (Osceola, Wis.) collected a pair of first-place performances, clocking a time of 1:00.67 to take home first-place in the 400 and adding a winning vault of 3.20m in the pole vault. Anna Swanson (Osceola, Wis.) added a first-place time of 2:49.10 in the 800 and Amanda Tuvey (West St. Paul, Minn.) was first in the 3,000 (11:58.34).
 
Sydney Klausler (Lakeville, Minn.) was no match for the rest of the field in the long jump, easily winning the event with a mark of 5.32m, and Samantha Kubes (New Prague, Minn.) delivered a winning toss of 12.65m in the weight throw.