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.

U to open baseball season

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.

Softball showdown set

The No. 14 Gophers will face No. 8 Florida State at 5:30 p.m. Friday in Tallahassee in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Both teams are 5-0 this season.

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

Etc.

• 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.

• In women's basketball, three NSIC team made the top eight in the Central Region: Minnesota State Mankato (21-3) was third, Augustana (21-2) fourth and Northern State (21-4) fifth.