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A young Gopher softball team will rely heavily on all-star sophomore catcher Megan Higginbotham of Tallahassee, Florida. The team’s leading hitter and run producer from 2004 will have the added challenge of catching for a relatively inexperienced pitching staff. Minnesota graduated its best pitcher ever last year in Piper Marten and has a handful of part-time starters and incoming freshmen to take her place. But with Higginbotham’s help, co-head coach Lisa Bernstein is confident the Gophers can rise to the challenge. “She’s amazing behind the plate,” Bernstein says of her catcher, who became just the third freshman in University history to earn first-team all-region honors. “The pitchers really respect her. She knows the game and how the flow of the game goes. She really will help keep them calm.” Minnesota’s goal is to finish in the top half of the Big Ten and reach the conference tournament, where last year the eighth seed won the title and the automatic NCAA berth. “The conference is so close in
Men’s Track and Field Senior Travis Brandstatter of Ladysmith, Wisconsin, returns after setting a school decathlon record in taking fourth at the 2004 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. His 7,736 points were enough to earn him a place among the world’s 50 best decathletes in year-end rankings. Brandstatter leads a balanced team that loses two national-class sprinters but returns four high jumpers who leap over seven feet, all-American discus thrower Karl Erickson, a senior from Zumbro Falls, Minnesota, and three other seniors who bettered school records in 2004: Robb Merritt of Hopkins, Minnesota (60-meter dash and 4x400 relay); Trent Riter of Shoreview, Minnesota (800 meters); and Andrew Carlson, of Fargo, North Dakota (5,000 meters). A Spike for Volleyball A reconfigured lineup with an unconventional two-setter
Rowing While the Gopher rowing team uses the beautiful but
Women’s Track and Field The Gopher women’s track and field team is on its way up, looking to finish in the top half of the Big Ten in 2005 and then climb back among the top three teams in 2006, according to head coach Gary Wilson. A team still dominated by sophomores will “get more solid and strong in the next few years,” Wilson says. “This will be as good as the groups we had in the late ’90s and early 2000s when we were second or third every year.” Associate head coach Matt Bingle says the hallmark of this year’s team is balance, with “two or three pretty darn good student athletes in every event. We’re slowly filling the
Women’s Golf Junior Sarah Butler of Roseau, Minnesota, is emerging as a leader on the Gopher women’s golf team, having been the team’s top player in three tournaments last spring and another in fall. Minnesota has only one senior on this year’s roster, Terra Petsinger of Arvilla, North Dakota, who led the Gophers in three of their four fall tournaments. Despite their youth, Minnesota looks to have a chance to move up from 2004’s last-place Big Ten finish, as they tied for seventh among the 11 Big Ten teams in a fall tournament. Men’s Golf “One shot in golf means a lot,” says Gopher men’s golf coach Brad James, reflecting on Minnesota’s last two spring seasons. After winning the NCAA title in 2002, the Gophers returned to the national
But James should not have to worry about single strokes this year. He has seven golfers who look to compete for the five spots in the championship tournaments. It’s a young group—two freshmen, two sophomores (including all-American Bronson La’Cassie of Brisbane, Australia), two juniors including a transfer student, and just one senior, Ben Greve of Annandale, Minnesota. But it’s a team with plenty of experience playing in large amateur tournaments. Minnesota won its most prestigious tournament of the fall, the Big Ten/Pac 10 Challenge, topping six teams ranked ahead of them in one preseason poll, by getting solid showings up and down the lineup. The Big Ten, however, may be the best
Retirement Party Lindsay Whalen’s jersey number 13 was retired on January 2, and in honor of the occasion the school’s all-time leading scorer, three-time all-American, and player who led Minnesota to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and its first Final Four berth contributed a top-10 list of her greatest memories—of tournaments, victories, and on-court moments—for the game program. But her number-one memory was about people: “my friends, family, coaches, teammates, fans, classmates, teachers, and administrators that made a difference in all of our lives. I am truly blessed and thankful for all of the opportunities that I have had here at Minnesota and I will cherish them forever. So many people have thanked me for many great memories, but I also want to say thank you
Football Ends on a High Note The football Gophers stopped a late-season slide with a 20–16 win over Alabama in the Music City Bowl on December 31. It was Minnesota’s third straight bowl win, helping the Gophers end their season at 7–5. Although much of the team will return in 2005, Music City Bowl Most Valuable Player Marion Barber III, a running back, declared in January that he would leave school a year early to enter the 2005 National Football League draft. Quotebook “I told them, ‘A lot of people are going to talk about the NCAA tournament to you guys. Don’t get wrapped up in that because those are the same people that said we weren’t going to win a game all year.’” —Gopher men’s basketball coach Dan Monson after his team defeated 17th-ranked Wisconsin on February 5 to run their record to 16–6 overall, 6–3 in the Big Ten. Minnesota then was tied for third place in the league,after most preseason polls picked them to finish anywhere from eighth to 11th. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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