Minnesota Gophers: Non-Revenue Review 2/6/2019

Another week gone in the winter sports seasons for the Minnesota Golden Gophers and another busy week with lots of great performances from a ton of different athletes! We will try and keep you up to date with this week’s version of the Non-Revenue Review!

Gopher Women’s Hockey:

The Gophers hosted in-state rival Minnesota-Duluth for a series at Ridder Arena last weekend. While the Bulldogs beat the Gophers in overtime in the series opener on Saturday, Minnesota fought back to get a split on Sunday. That couples with Wisconsin’s loss to Bemidji State on Friday night was finally enough for a majority of the USCHO.com poll voters, and the Minnesota Gophers are the new #1 ranked team in the country for the first time since the end of the 2016 season!

The Gophers fell 3-2 in overtime on Saturday spoiling goals from Sarah Potomake and Grace Zumwinkle. US Olympic Goalie Maddie Rooney stood tall for UMD and stopped 42 shots in the win for the Bulldogs.

Sunday the Gophers got revenge when the squeaked out a 5-3 win. Minnesota got goals from Catie Skaja, Sarah Potomak, Amy Potomak, Taylor Wente and Nicole Schammel. Schammel’s goal with 3:23 left in the game would be the game winner.

Minnesota also picked up two WCHA monthly awards for January this week. Zumwinkle was awarded the WCHA Forward of the Month for January after recording eight goals and four assists to help Minnesota to a 7-1 record. Both those totals lead all WCHA scorers during the month of January. Sophie Skarzynski was named the WCHA Defender of the Month after scoring one goal and recording four assists. Her +15 rating led both the WCHA and the nation in January.

The Gophers will have one last weekend off this weekend before the final two weekends of the WCHA regular season and the WCHA and NCAA Tournaments.

Gopher Wrestling:

The #7 Gopher wrestling team made it four straight Big Ten duel meet wins with a 24-11 win over #19 Purdue at the Pav on Sunday. Seven Gophers won their matches including #6 Sean Russell at 125 pounds, #8 Ethan Lizak at 133, #10 Mitch McKee at 141, #19 Tommy Thorn at 149, #8 Steve Bliese at 157, and #1 Gable Steveson at Heavyweight.

Minnesota well have a double match weekend this weekend when the head to Lincoln to take on #10 NebraskaFriday night and then return home to host Maryland on Sunday afternoon.

Gopher Track and Field:

The Gophers were in action at the Power Five Invitational hosted by Michigan this past weekend. The Gophers won six individual events with the men picking up three and the women taking home three.

The Hasz sisters picked up right where they left off in the cross-country season. Bethany Hasz won the mile in 4:42, while her sister Megan won the 3,000 meters in 9:31. Amira Young won the 60- meter dash in 7;39 seconds—the second fastest time in Gopher history.

The men were paced by Owen Hoeft winning the 3,000 meters in 8:20, and Ben Psicihulis winning the 600-meters. He then helped along with Elliot Davis, Zach Nelson and Jonathan Webb to win the 4x400 meter relay for the Gophers.

The Gophers are in back action this weekend in the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa.

Gopher Women’s Gymnastics:

The Gopher women’s gymnastics team remained undefeated in the Big Ten win a 196.725-194.450 win over Michigan State at the Pav last Saturday. The Gophers are now 7-2 on the season and 3-0 in the Big Ten. The Gophers once again posted scores of at least 49.00 in all four events.

Sophomore Lexi Ramler continued her dominance in the all-around winning the competetion for the fifth straight meet with a score of 39.600. The Gophers won all four individual events as well with Ramler taking home the beam with a 9.95, the bars with a 9.925, and tied with Minnesota’s Ona Loper to win the vault with a 9.85. Paige Williams won the floor exercise with a score of 9.90.

Ramler was honored for her performance with her fourth consecutive Big Ten Gymnst of the Week honor.

The Gophers will look to remain undefeated in the Big Ten when they head to Lincoln to face off with Nebraska on Saturday afternoon.

Gophers Men’s Gymnastics:

The #6 Gophers took home a tri-meet with Iowa and Illinois-Chicago in Iowa City last weekend. The Gophers scored 406.400 points as a team.

Minnesota took home event titles in all six events. Justin Karstadt took home the pommel horse, Vitali Kan won the vault, Eric Nakamura won the floor and Shane Wiskus took home the rings, parallel bars and high bar.

Nakamura’s 14.350 on the floor was good enough to be honored with the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Week award this week.

Minnesota will host their lone home meet of February this Sunday when Arizona State comes to the Pav at 2:30.

Gophers Men’s Tennis:

The Gophers went down to SEC country and came away with two huge wins this past weekend. Friday the Gophers upset #19 Alabama 4-3, and then Sunday the Gophers swept Auburn 7-0.

Against Bama, the Gophers got off to a good start picking up the doubles point with wins by the #2 and #3 doubles teams of Marino Alpeza and Stefan Milicevic and Eli Ogilvy and Jackson Allen.

In the singles matches the Gophers got wins from Ogilvy 1-6, 6-2, 6-4, Alpeza 7-5, 6-3, and then #1 singles player Josip Krstanovie upset #24 Masen Ozama 7-6, 2-6, 6-3 to clinch the match.

The Gophers had no trouble with the Tigers in Auburn on Sunday. It was an easy 7-0 win for Minnesota with Milicevic picking up a ranked win upset over #77 Brandon Laubser in No. 2 singles.

Minnesota moves to 5-1 on the winter season. They will host two matches at home at the Baseline Tennis Center this weekend against Dartmouth on Friday night and Marquette on Saturday evening.

Gopher Women’s Tennis:

The Gopher women’s tennis team won their first ever Courtside Classic Tournament this past weekend at the Baseline Tennis Center. The Gophers swept Montana 7-0 on Friday before defeating DePaul in the Championship match on Saturday 5-2.

Minnesota had no trouble against the Grizzlies winning in an easy 7-0 sweep. Minnesota easily won the doubles point and then got singles victories from Caityln Merzbacher, River Hart, Cammy Frei, #95 Tina Kreinis, Bita Mancera and Tiffany Huber.

In the final on Saturday the Gophers once again took the doubles point to jump to a 1-0 lead. Then Minnesota got singles wins from Huber, Mancera, Frei and Hart to get the 5-2 win.

The Gophers are now 3-1 in the spring season and will remain home this weekend as they host South Dakota and Northern Iowa in a doubleheader on Friday.

Gopher Women’s Golf:

The Gopher women started their spring season off right with a 7.5-6.5 win over Michigan in a match play format in Naples, Florida. The Gophers trailed 4-3 after the first day of the matches, but came back to win 4.5 points to clinch the match on day two. Edina native Grace Kellar made a key put to earn a half in her match that clinched the event for the Gophers.

Minnesota is back in action in two weeks at the Moon Golf Invitational in Melbourne, Florida. Meanwhile the Gopher men will begin their spring season this weekend at the Big Ten Match Play Tournament in Palm Coast, Florida.

Gopher Swimming and Diving

Both the Gopher men and Gopher women swept a Big Ten tri-dual over Northwestern and Purdue last Friday. The men’s team outscored Purdue 188-164 and defeated Northwestern 226-127 while the women topped Purdue 203.5-149.5 and bested Northwestern 202-151.

It was the last regular season meet of the season for the Gophers as they will now prepare for the Big Ten Championships later in February. The Women’s Big Ten Championships will take place in Bloomington, Indiana from February 20-23 while the men’s Big Ten Championships will take place in Iowa City, Iowa from February 27-March 2.

Gopher Softball:

The Gophers will begin their season on Friday in Orlando with games against North Florida, Central Florida, Mississippi and George Mason. Look for a longer season preview later this week.