RIPON, Wis. — The Saint Mary's University track and field teams kicked off a busy weekend on Friday, getting Top 10 finishes from all four members who competed at the Minnesota State-Mankato Massive Meet.
 
And the rest of the Cardinals picked up right where the quartet left off on Saturday at both the Ripon Invitational and a second MSU-Mankato Massive Meet.
 
Granton Schneider (Moorhead, Minn.) led the Friday night charge for the Cardinals, clocking a time of 4:30.87 to place third in the mile. Caroline Gearin (Osceola, Wis.) chipped in a fifth in the women's pole vault (3.24 meters) and Aiden Gatz (Elburn, Ill.) delivered a sixth in the men's pole vault (4.31m), while Chris Bulwa (Glenview, Ill.) stopped the clock in 50.80 in the 400.
 
And while Schneider returned to the Mankato track on Saturday, recording a time of 2:01.15 to place 14th in the 800, Gearin, Gatz, and Bulwa joined their teammates in Ripon, Wis. — where they were among the Cardinals' brightest-shining performers.
 
Gearin raced to a third-place finish in the 400 (1:03.08), and added an eighth in the 200 (28.0), while Gatz bettered his mark in the pole vault, clearing 4.34m, to place third, and Bulwa was fifth in the 200 (22.78) and
 
Abrianna Utgaard (Star Prairie, Wis.) and Samantha Kubes (New Prague, Minn.) added sixth-place efforts in the 400 (1:04.99) and shot put (12.24m, respectively, while Brady Johnson (Elburn, Ill.) and Ben Kritsberg (Rosemount, Minn.)) also had Top 10 finishes in the triple jump (ninth, 12.28m) and 60 (10th, 7.34).
 
The Cardinals get one final tune-up before the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships, heading back to MSU-Mankato next Friday to take part in the Maverick Invitational.