Minnesota Scene: Gophers' Sarah Bacon wins 1-meter diving title at Big Ten meet

Sophomore Sarah Bacon set a school record with 353.80 points to finish first in 1-meter diving on Thursday night at the Big Ten women's swimming and diving meet in Columbus, Ohio. Teammate Xiao Fu, a junior, was fifth (309.25).

Senior Danielle Nack of Minnesota placed second in the 50-yard freestyle final in 22.10 seconds. She also swam the second leg of the 400 medley relay (3:28.96) which took second and also set a program record.

The Gophers were in fourth place with 355 points after seven events at the end of the meet's second day.

The Gophers baseball team will open its 130th season — and 36th under coach John Anderson — when they play Georgia Tech at 3 p.m. Friday in the Atlanta Challenge.

Minnesota was picked to finish third in the Big Ten in a preseason coaches' poll released Wednesday.

The Gophers were 36-21 overall and 15-8 in the Big Ten last season.

College Baseball Daily. a website, named first baseman Toby Hanson (.319, 5 HRs, 57 RBI last season) and third baseman Micah Coffey (.340, 4 HRs, 46 RBI) of the Gophers to its preseason All-Big Ten team.

Minnesota is 1-7 all-time against the Seminoles. The Gophers will play FSU and Notre Dame twice each this weekend.

• St. John's goalie Andrew Lindgren was named to the D3hockey.com's team of the week. The sophomore defeated St. Thomas twice by 4-1 scores. His 1.89 goals-against average leads the MIAC.

• Four NSIC men's basketball teams were ranked among the top eight in the NCAA Division II's first Central Region rankings. Northern State (23-3 overall) was second, St. Cloud State (18-5) fourth, Southwest Minnesota State (18-7) sixth and Minnesota State Mankato (19-6) eighth. The top eight teams in the region advance to an NCAA regional tournament on March 10-11, 13 as well as the NSIC tournament champion.