Brett Pfarr earned a technical fall at 197 pounds to begin Sunday's Gophers wrestling dual vs. Rutgers, and the bonus points proved critical in a 17-16 upset of the No. 8 Scarlet Knights at the Sports Pavilion.

It's the first victory over a top-10 team in four attempts this season for the No. 21 Gophers (6-6, 2-2 Big Ten).

"To win matches like this, you need someone to step up and pull a big win. We had a handful of guys step up and get wins," head assistant coach Brandon Eggum said.

The teams split 10 matches, but Pfarr, with his 23-8 technical fall against Anthony Messner, was the only wrestler awarded a bonus point until the final match. The Gophers also got decisions from Tommy Thorn at 141 pounds, Jake Short at 149, Brandon Kingsley at 157 and Nick Wanzek at 174.

At 141, Rutgers' No. 4-ranked Anthony Ashnault is the highest-ranked wrestler that No. 10 Thorn, a redshirt freshman, has beaten. Ashnault needed a late escape to avoid a major decision, losing 8-1.

First winners at U.S. Championships

The first winners at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships were crowned over the weekend, as the nine-day competition opened with juvenile and intermediate competition at Bloomington Ice Garden.

Champions in the intermediate division were Alysa Liu (women's), Joseph Kang (men's), Jasmine and Joshua Fendi (pairs) and Elizabeth Tkachenko and Alexei Kiliakov (ice dance). Juvenile-division winners were Stephanie Ciarochi (girls), Ilia Malinin (boys), Isabelle Martins and Ryan Bedard (pairs) and Layla Karnes and Jeffrey Chen (ice dance).

Berit Cummings of Minnetonka (Lake Minnetonka Figure Skating Club) led the skaters with state connections who competed over the weekend, winning a bronze medal in intermediate pairs with partner Jabe Roberts. Other locally connected skaters to compete included Jonathan Yang of Woodbury (St. Paul Figure Skating Club), fifth in intermediate men; Wren Warne-Jacobson of St. Paul (St. Paul FSC), seventh in intermediate women; Anika Olson of Elk River and Mitchel Markkanen of Spicer (Northern Blades NSC FSC), ninth in intermediate pairs; Paulina Brykalova and Daniel Brykalov (St. Paul FSC), fifth in juvenile ice dance; and Samuel Hodman (Starlight Ice Dance Club), 10th in juvenile dance.

Rachel Blount

Etc.

• Team USA, boasting a roster of 16 Minnesota high school players, won the IIHF Under-18 Women's World Hockey Championship last week in Buffalo, N.Y., going 5-0. Eastview junior Natalie Snodgrass scored the tying and winning goals in a 3-2 overtime victory over Canada in Friday's gold medal game, scoring on a rebound at 1:47 of OT for her sixth goal of the tournament.

• The Gophers men's gymnastics team placed third out of six teams at the Windy City invitational at Illinois-Chicago with a score of 424.500. Illinois won at 429.950.

• The Gophers women's tennis team won twice to start the dual match season, beating Northern Illinois and North Dakota, both by 7-0 scores.