Minnesota Scene: Gophers swimmer Bowen Becker wins 50 freestyle in Big Ten meet

Swimmer Bowen Becker of the Gophers won the 50-yard freestyle in 18.93 seconds Thursday night in the Big Ten Championships at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center. The junior from Las Vegas set a meet record in the event with a time of 18.69 in the preliminaries.

Becker also anchored Minnesota's 400 medley relay, which placed second (3:06.90). It also included Tom Donker, Conner McHugh and Matt Thomas.

After seven events, the Gophers were in fifth place in the conference meet with 278.5 points. Michigan (538.5) and Indiana (529.5) held the top two spots.

Two state wrestlers win golds

Zach Sanders, a volunteer Gophers assistant coach, and Hayden Zillmer of the Minnesota Storm wrestling club won gold medals at the Cerro Pelado, an open freestyle wrestling tournament in Havana, Cuba.

Sanders, a four-time All-America wrestler at Minnesota, beat the No. 3, 1 and 8 seeds. He defeated Alexei Alvares of Cuba 6-1 in the final with three takedowns in the third period. Zillmer beat Ty Walz, a U.S. wrestler, 6-0 in his final.

Etc.

• Senior guard Carlie Wagner of the Gophers was selected to the CoSIDA Academic All-District 6 team for the third consecutive year. It recognizes student-athletes who succeed in the classroom while making significant contributions in competition. Wagner has maintained a 3.59 grade-point average in business and marketing education while ranking second on the Gophers in scoring (18.2 points per game).

• The University of Mary swept the top wrestling awards in the NSIC. Tate Barnhardt of the Marauders was named the wrestler of the year and Phillip Springsteen the rookie of the year and Adam Aho the coach of the year.

• Tyler Rudolph of Minot State was named the NSIC's men's basketball player of the year and Miranda Ristau of Northern State the women's player of the year.

• St. Catherine, coming off a school-record 28 wins and a trip to the NCAA Division III championship series, was picked to finish first in MIAC softball in a preseason conference coaches' poll. St. Thomas, the defending regular-season MIAC champion, was second.