Three Gophers won two matches on the first day of the NCAA wrestling championships in Tulsa, Okla., to reach Friday's quarterfinals.

Advancing were Aaron Nagao at 133 pounds — he got a pin in the second round — Bailee O'Reilly at 174 and Isaiah Salazar at 184.

Minnesota, with four other wrestlers still going in the consolation bracket, is in fourth place in the team standings with 16.5 points. Penn State is in first place with 26 points and seven wrestlers in the quarterfinals, followed by Iowa with 21.5 points and Missouri 17.5.

The Gophers went 6-3 in the first round. Jake Bergeland had Minnesota's only upset that round. Bergeland, seeded 20th, beat No. 13 Carter Young of Oklahoma State 5-0.

The three Gophers who lost faced higher-seeded foes. At 165 pounds, Andrew Sparks lost 12-4 to Princeton's Quincy Monday, an NCAA runner-up last year. At 197, Michial Foy lost 5-3 to Maryland's Jaxon Smith, seeded 11th. And heavyweight Garrett Joles lost 12-2 to top seed Mason Parris of Michigan.

In the second round, Minnesota went 3-3. The closest of those losses was by Michael Blockhus, the Big Ten runner-up at 149 pounds. His match with Northwestern's Yahya Thomas went to overtime and Thomas got the first points there for a sudden victory.

Bergeland, Blockhus, Patrick McKee at 125 and Andrew Sparks at 165 are all still alive in wrestlebacks. Only Foy and Joles are done after each losing twice.

Whitecaps stun Boston

Jonna Albers scored three goals — two in the third period — to lead the visiting Minnesota Whitecaps to a 5-2 victory over the two-time defending champion Boston Pride in the first game of their best-of-three Premier Hockey Federation playoff series.

Albers' first goal — shorthanded in the first period — gave the Whitecaps a 2-0 lead. Boston responded with two goals to tie the game 2-2 after the first period.

Amanda Leveille had 30 saves for the Whitecaps, who ended an eight-game losing streak.

The second game of the series will be played Saturday. If a third game is necessary, it would be Sunday.

JOEL RIPPEL

Etc.

  • Northwestern (St. Paul) baseball coach Dave Hieb will coach his 28th season this spring and then step down. Hieb, whose teams have won 505 games, will remain at the college as an athletic trainer and faculty member. The Eagles had their best season in program history in 2021 when they were 35-12.
  • Redshirt senior gymnast Maddie Quarles of the Gophers was named the Big Ten's co-event specialist of the week. She had a score of 9.950 on vault last Friday against Arkansas.
  • The Gophers baseball team (3-15) will host Houston (5-11) in a three-game series starting at 6 p.m. Friday at U.S. Bank Stadium. This will be the last stadium series this year.
  • St. Cloud State's Nick Novak was named the NSIC Wrestler of the Year. The sophomore from New Prague, Minn., won the NCAA Division II title at 157 pounds and was 27-0.
  • Minnesota State Mankato junior defenseman Jake Livingstone was named the CCHA Defenseman of the Year for the second consecutive season.
  • Mike Schultz of St. Cloud won two medals at the FIS para snowboard world championships, which concluded Thursday in La Molina, Spain. Schultz, a two-time Paralympian, took silver in the men's dual banked slalom and bronze in snowboardcross.
  • Fifth-year senior diver Joy Zhu of the Gophers took eighth place on the 1-meter springboard at the NCAA women's swimming and diving championships in Knoxville, Tenn.