Two Gophers were named the Freshman of the Year in the Big Ten Conference on Wednesday in their respective spring sports. Jose Mendez received the honor in golf and Sara Groenewegen in softball.

Mendez, of San Jose, Costa Rica, was the co-medalist in the conference golf meet and led Minnesota to the team title. John Carlson, his coach, was named the Big Ten's Coach of the Year.

Groenewegen, of White Rock, British Columbia, was the third Gopher to be named the conference's top freshman and the first to be ever picked the conference's Pitcher of the Year. She was 7-2 in the Big Ten games with a 1.81 earned-run average.

Junior infielders Tyler Walker and Kaitlyn Richardson of the Gophers also made the All-Big Ten first team along with Groenewegen; senior pitcher Sara Moulton made the second team.

Academic success at U

Twelve teams at Minnesota teams have been honored with public recognition awards for their Academic Progress Rates (APR) for scoring in the top 10 percent in each sport based on their most recent multi-year APR. That's up from five last year.

The men's teams honored were baseball, gymnastics, tennis, indoor track and wrestling. The women's teams honored were basketball, cross-country, golf, gymnastics, soccer, swimming and diving, and volleyball.

Etc.

• Concordia (Moohead) beat the Gophers 3-2 in baseball at Siebert Field behind Devin Johnson, who had an RBI double in the first inning and scored the winning run in the fourth on a groundout. Austin Athmann had a two-run single for the Gophers.

• Gophers senior Zach Siegmeier was named the Big Ten's Field Athlete of the Week after winning the pole vault (18-1) at Iowa's Musco Twilight Invitational.

• North Dakota sophomore forward Rocco Grimaldi signed an entry-level contract with the Florida Panthers.

He led UND in goals (17) and points (39) this past season.