Minnesota Scene: Loons take Atlanta defender in MLS re-entry draft

Min­ne­so­ta Unit­ed se­lec­ted de­fend­er Ty­rone Mears, 34, with their fourth pick in stage one of the MLS re-en­try draft Fri­day. Mears had 16 starts and 20 ap­pear­an­ces with At­lan­ta, scor­ing one goal and add­ing an as­sist.

In 2016, Mears start­ed all 32 match­es played by Se­at­tle, which won the MLS Cup. He also led that club in min­utes in 2015.

Be­fore that, the full­back played in more than 200 Pre­mier League and championship match­es in his na­tive Eng­land.

Stage two of the re-en­try draft is next Thurs­day.

MEG­AN RYAN

After losing for the first time at the U.S. Olympic trials for mixed doubles curling, John Shuster and Cory Christensen finished Friday's competition with a victory to earn a place in Saturday's playoffs.

Shuster, a Chisholm native, and Christensen, of Duluth, lost 8-6 to Matt and Becca Hamilton in Friday's afternoon session of round-robin play at Fogerty Arena in Blaine. They came back to defeat Nina Roth and Kroy Nernberger 9-3 in the evening session to push their record to 5-1. The Hamilton siblings are tied with Roth and Nernberger with a 4-2 record.

RACHEL BLOUNT

• A new Gophers golf practice facility next to Les Bolstad Golf Course was approved by the University of Minnesota's Board of Regents. It will be largely funded by a $1 million gift from the John W. Mooty Foundation and have heated indoor hitting bays and indoor practice greens.

• The MIAC named Rich Mies the re­cipi­ent of the con­fer­ence's Mike Au­gus­tin Award. From 2002 un­til Au­gust of this year, Mies, a na­tive of Watkins, Minn., wrote a se­ries of ar­ti­cles on MIAC stu­dent-ath­letes called "Pro­files of Excellence." The a­ward, named for longtime St. Paul sportswriter Mike Au­gus­tin, who died in 1997, recognizes out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions to the MIAC in the areas of me­di­a and sports in­for­ma­tion.