Cardinal 'M' Club
Weekend of Champions

There was a first during Saint Mary’s third annual Cardinal ‘M’ Club weekend, held Sept. 17-18, 2005.

It wasn’t the characteristically warm weather, which made the golf outing Saturday afternoon near-perfect, once again.

It wasn’t the lively audience that attended the awards banquet Saturday evening, though a record turnout filled the gymnasium.
And it wasn’t the annual alumni games and picnic on Sunday, which served as another great opportunity to link past SMU athletes with our current athletes.

This year’s first was the fact that the 2000 SMU fastpitch softball team became the first-ever team inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame. It was a fitting tribute for the university’s first-ever national championship team, which swept through the regional and eight-team NCAA Division III national championship field in 2000.

Additionally, members of all 38 Saint Mary’s teams that have captured Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships shared the spotlight during Cardinal ‘M’ Club festivities — making it a true “weekend of champions.”

Ashley Dingels and Mark Leeder (left) were named this year’s Outstanding Female and Male Athletes. Amy Edge and Matt Rink were named SMU’s Outstanding Scholar Athletes.

Outstanding Athletes
Two-sport standout Ashley Dingels ’05 (Gibbon, Minn.) and Mark Leeder ’05 (Greenfield, Wis.) of the men’s tennis team were named Outstanding Female and Male Athletes, while Amy Edge ’05 (Montfort, Wis.) and Matt Rink ’05 (Rochester, Minn.) were SMU’s Outstanding Scholar Athletes.

Dingels was a first-team All-MIAC selection and an honorable-mention All-Region pick in volleyball. Dingels finished the 2004 season as the MIAC’s leader in kills (4.51 kpg) and attack percentage (.353), and posted a team-leading 448 kills in SMU’s 31 matches, which ranked her third all-time in school history.

But that was just the start for Dingels, who won the MIAC track and field pentathlon (indoor) and heptathlon (outdoor), while also qualifying for the NCAA indoor and outdoor national championships, where she placed 13th in the high jump (indoor) and fourth in the high jump and ninth in the heptathlon (outdoor). Her fourth-place effort in the high jump earned the Cardinals’ standout All-American honors.

Leeder closed out a stellar four-year tennis career with his best season last spring, earning All-MIAC honors when he teamed with Tyler Stevenson to post a 6-3 conference record. Leeder also earned one of the most prestigious honors in MIAC men’s tennis, when the SMU senior was presented with the Arthur Ashe Award — given to a senior player who has demonstrated sportsmanship, high academic performance, tennis achievement and humanitarian concern.