It’s gonna be a long few weeks…
The winter sport are almost complete—with the exception of the NCAA Gymnastics meet, and all that are left are the spring sports to close out the 2024-25 Minnesota Golden Gophers athletics schedule. Unfortunately for the Gophers and their fans, well there isn’t a lot to get excited about over the next few months (With the exception of Men’s track—-catch up on that here). The rest of the Minnesota squads have not been great this spring, and that carried into last weekend. Here is a look at home they faired and where they sit at the approximate midpoint of their seasons.
Baseball:
The Gopher baseball team is still trying to rebuild in their first season under head coach Ty McDevitt. Unfortunately it has been a bit of a rocky road once again this season. While Minnesota pulled off a pair of upsets of top 10-ranked schools in the non-conference, it’s been a much tougher road in conference play. Minnesota was swept at home by Penn State last weekend dropping their overall record to 11-17 and their Big Ten record to 2-10.
Minnesota has now lost six games in a row after being swept at home by Iowa the previous weekend. The Gophers pitching staff has not been as good as hopes and they have given up double-digit runs in four of their last six games including 16-7 and 13-0 losses to the Hawkeyes and 10-4 and 15-10 losses to Penn State,
The Gophers can hopefully get back on track as they head to Ohio State this weekend who is tied with the Gophers for last place in the conference at 2-10.
Softball:
To put it nicely—the softball season for the Gophers has been just short of an utter disaster. The hopes was this Gopher team was going to be ok and be able to withstand the loss of Jess Oakland. That has not been the case. Minnesota’s offense has been significantly lacking, and when they do hit, the pitching has been nearly as bad. Minnesota currently sits with a 14-23 overall record and a 3-10 record in Big Ten play.
The Gophers were at Purdue last weekend and narrowly avoided a sweep coming back from a 5-0 deficit in the series finale on Sunday to pick up an 11-8 win. This after the offense disappeared in the first two games that Minnesota would lose 2-1 and 4-0. The win snapped a nine-game losing streak that saw the Gophers get swept by Nebraska and Northwestern.
Unfortunately for the Gophers is gets no easier this weekend when first place Oregon who is ranked #4 in the country comes to Jane Sage Cowles Stadium for a three game series. Ooof.
Women’s Track:
The Gopher women have not has the early success that their men’s counterparts have had, but there have been high points. Redshirt sophomore Ali Weimer broke the Minnesota school record in the women’s 10,000m at the Raleigh Relays in North Carolina two weeks ago. Her performance helped her finish 11th overall in a field that included each of the top 34 times in the country this season.
The Gopher women picked up a trio of Top Ten performances in program history at the Florida Relays last weekend. Hadley Streit continued her great season in throwing by tossing the 6th furthest hammer throw in program history at 64.00m (210-0) Dyandra Gray ran the 9th fastest 400m hurdles in school history at 58.92, and the women’s 4x400m relay team of Gray, Kitania Headley, Kendra Kelly and Laubenra Ben ran the 10th fastest time in school history at 3:37.40.
Tennis:
The Gopher tennis team got off to a decent non-conference season early in the year, but since beginning Big Ten play it has been a harsh reality of where they sit. Minnesota is 9-13 overall but just 1-8 in conference play this season.
Most recently the Gophers are coming off their initial west-coast road trip where they were welcomes by a pair of 4-0 sweeps by #22 USC and #24 UCLA. The Gophers lone conference win has come over Rutgers this season.
The Gophers have four regular season matches left, hosting Indiana and Purdue at home this weekend before closing out the regular season at Ohio State and Penn State the following weekend. The top 12 teams make the Big Ten Tournament, so while it’s possible the Gophers could earn a berth, they have a lot of work to do.
Women’s Golf:
The Gopher women closed out their regular season with a 5th place finish at the Boilermaker Invitational last weekend. It was the best tournament of the year for Gopher sophomore Maria Mesones who finished in a tie for 5th place individually with a score of even par.
Minnesota junior Bella McCauley played in the event traveling to Indiana after missing the cut at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. McCauley missed the cut by one stroke, not getting to play the final two rounds.
The Gophers close out their season at the Big Ten Championships at the Bulle Rock Golf Course – Havre De Grace, MD from April 18-20.
Men’s Golf:
The Gopher men’s golf team has had a rough spring as well. Their most recent tournament was the Minnesota hosted Bell Bank “Pay It Forward” Collegiate Tuesday at Wigwam Golf Club in Arizona. Minnesota would finish in 13th place out of sixteen teams in the field with a score of +13.
Minnesota has two tournaments in the regular season left as they head to the Hawkeye Invitational in Iowa next weekend before playing in the Robert Kepler Invitational hosted by Ohio State the following weekend. They close their season out at the Big Ten Championships at the Baltimore Country Club; Baltimore, MD from April 25-27.
Rowing:
The Gopher rowing team officially kicked off their spring season last weekend at the Rocky Top Invitational hosted by Tennessee. Minnesota finished second with all four boats in which it competed during the final day of racing in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and improved its times for every crew from Friday to Saturday’s finals. The Maroon and Gold went up against No. 20 North Carolina and Clemson in three of the four races, while battling Duke and Clemson to cap the weekend.
Minnesota heads to Kansas City this weekend for the Big Ten/ Big 12 Double Duel. The Gophers will battle San Diego on Friday and Kansas on Saturday.