Gopher Sports: Non-Rev Recap

In this week’s Non-rev recap we look back at one of the best gymnastics performances in Gopher history, we take a look at the start of the Gopher softball season, and we check in on some teams trying to find their first Big Ten wins on the season. As a reminder this week’s list was shorter that expected due to a COVID cancellation of a women’s basketball game due to COVID with Minnesota, and the cancellation of a volleyball series against Michigan due to COVID issues with the Wolverines. Hopefully both teams will be back in action this weekend.

Women’s Gymnastics:

The Gopher women’s gymnastics team had their best performance of the season, and one of the best in school history this past weekend in winning the Big 5 Meet held at Maryland last Friday. The Gophers scored 197.375 as a team, tied for the second best score in program history.

The highlight of the meet went to Gopher senior Lexy Ramler. She shattered her own Gopher record in the all-around with a 39.850, 0.125 points higher than her previous record. That score included her first perfect 10 on the season in the vault.

Ramler swept the event titles and scored a 10.000 on vault, 9.975 on bars, 9.950 on beam and 9.925 on floor. For her performance she was named the Big Ten Gymnast of the Week for the fourth time this season and for the 16th time in her career!

The Gophers moved up in the rankings after their performances on Friday and now have the fifth best team score in the nation.

Ramler is the nation’s #2 ranked gymnast in the all-around, beam, bars, and vault. Sophomore Maddie Quarles is ranked #8 in the nation on vault. Ona Loper is #1 in the nation on vault, is #4 on floor is is #7 in the all-around. Freshman Mya Hooten is #8 in the nation on floor.

The Gophers will celebrate senior day this Friday when they host Nebraska in their final regular season home meet of the season.

Softball:

The Gopher softball team kicked off their season with a trio of double ehaders in Florida and split all three. On Friday the Gophers split a pair of 2-1 games win Maryland, on Saturday the Gophers lost 2-1 in 11 innings to Ohio State before beating them 8-0 in the second game, and on Sunday the Gophers beat Indiana 6-2 before losing 7-5 in the second game.

It was an early struggle for Minnesota ace Amber Fiser who went 1-2 on the weekend while Minnesota #2 pitcher Autumn Pease is 2-1. Katelin Kemmetmueller hit the first home run of the season for the Gophers in the win over the Hoosiers.

The Gophers have the week off before returning to Florida for two more doubles headers in two weeks.

Women’s Swimming and Diving:

The Gopher women competed in the Big Ten Swimming and Diving Championships last week and finished in 6th place in the conference. The Gophers best performance came from Sarah Bacon who finished in fourth place in the 3 meter diving event. Bacon and the rest of the Gophers did not compete in the 1 meter event due to a positive COVID test in Minnesota’s traveling party which kept the Gopher divers out as a precaution and may have cost Bacon a chance and a third Big Ten title.

Bacon will advance to the NCAA Championships based on prior scores and will compete in Greensboro, NC later in March.

Men’s Tennis:

The Gopher men got their first Big Ten win of the season this last weekend upsetting #24 Northwestern at home on Friday 4-3 before dropping a 5-2 result to #8 Illinois on Sunday.

Minnesota earned the upset over the Wildcats with four of six singles wins by Jackson Allen. Vlad Lobak, Siim Troost and the match clinching win by Sebastian Vile.

Vile would be the lone Gopher to win both matches with weekend as he and Daniel Martin were the only two to earn points for the Gophers in their 5-2 loss to the Illini on Sunday.

Women’s Tennis:

The Gopher women’s tennis team is still looking for their first win on the season after dropping a pair of matched 6-1 to #7 Northwestern and 4-3 to Illinois. Rachel Hanford was the lone Gopher to win her match against the Wildcats, and added an upset win over the #107 ranked singles player for Illinois on Sunday. Also winning matches for the Gophers against the Illini were Ekin Ercetin and Lucia de Santa Ana.

Soccer:

The Gopher women’s soccer team got their first win on the season this past weekend, but also dropped their first game of the year. Minnesota lost Thursday to Michigan 2-0, but beat Michigan State Monday 1-0 to move to 1-1-1 on the season.

The Gophers got six shots on goal against the Wolverines but could not get one into the net. Nikki Hernandez had both goals for Michigan in the 2-0 win.

Against the Spartans The Gophers peppered the goal putting eight shots on net in the first 35 minutes of the match. Minnesota finally got one in the back of the net when Sadie Harper took a cross from Sophia Boman and put her own rebound of her first shot into the goal. Megan Plaschko make both saves for the Gophers for the clean sheet.

Women’s Golf:

The Gophers had their best tournament of the season thus far finishing in 8th place at the Florida State Match-up Tournament in Tallahassee. Sophomore Grace Curran had her best tournament as a Gopher and finished in sixth place with senior Joanne Free in 34th place.

Men’s Gymnastics:

Senior Shane Wiskus was named the Big Ten’s Co-Gymnast of the week after a 4th place finish at the USA Gymnastics Winter Cup Event. Wiskus who has not yet competed for the Gophers this season and has been trailing with the US National Team locked down his spot on the national team headed into the US Olympic Trials later this summer.

Wiskus is expected back with the Gophers for their final home meet this weekend against Penn State Saturday, and then for the Big Ten and NCAA Championships.