Gophers redshirt junior Tony Nelson, the defending heavyweight champion, was seeded No. 2 on Wednesday in the NCAA wrestling championships which will be held March 21-23 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.

The Gophers, for the first time since 2005, have a wrestler at every weight and seven of the nine others also are seeded between fifth and 11th. Fifth are☺Chris Dardanes at 133 pounds and Kevin Steinhaus at 184, sixth are Dylan Ness at 149 and Logan Storley at 174, eighth is Chris' brother Nick at 141, 10th is Scott Schiller at 197 and 11th is Cody Yohn at 165.

Unranked Gophers in the tournament are David Thorn at 125 pounds and Daniel Zilverberg at 157. Thorn has an especially tough opening match. He faces No. 1 seed Alan Waters (29-0) of Missouri.

Nelson, who won the Big Ten title for the second year in a row, is 28-1. Nelson had a 41-match winning streak before losing to to Missouri's Dominique Bradley in the Southern Scuffle finals on Jan. 2. Bradley is 35-1 and the top seed at heavyweight.

Etc.

• Four divers for the Gophers have qualifed for the NCAA swimming and diving championships later this month in Indianapolis, Ind. Maggie Keefer and Sarah McCrady made the cut for the women at NCAA Zone D diving while Mikey Ross and Jordan Lesser advanced from the men's field.

• The Gophers lost 10-9 in 11 innings to Nebraska Omaha in baseball at the Metrodome. Three players for Minnesota (11-6) hit home runs: Andy Henkemeyer, Matt Halloran and Michael Handel. UNO (2-7) rallied after trailing 8-3.