By: Jack Satzinger

Minnesota finished last year’s spring season sixth out of seven teams at the Big Ten championships.

But this year, the Gophers started their spring slate quite a bit better, placing near the top at the Oak Ridge Cardinal Invite in Tennessee earlier this month.

The team’s first varsity eight boat kicked off spring break with a bang, placing first in last Saturday’s morning race against UCF, Oklahoma and Michigan State. Later that day, the Gophers came out on top against Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama.

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By: Grant Donald

While their classmates were spending spring break in places like Florida or Mexico, the women’s track team spent the week training and competing in Alabama.

In between bowling parties and laser tag matches, the team participated in a dual meet against South Alabama in the first outdoor meet of the season.

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By: David Nelson

The Gophers’ trip to Michigan proved to be a forgettable ending to spring break.

After Michigan overpowered the Gophers on Saturday, Minnesota lost to Michigan State by one point on Sunday afternoon.

“We’re going to have to fight for every win we get in the Big Ten. It’s just [going to] be that way pretty much here on out,” head coach Chuck Merzbacher said. “We just came up short, but it wasn’t [because of] lack of effort.”

Redshirt junior Julia Courter put forth a consistent effort for the Gophers over the weekend.

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By: Ben Gotz

In their first series as a part of the Big Ten, Maryland showed it knows how to make an entrance.

The Gophers dropped all three games in Maryland — their first conference series of the season — losing in 5-1, 12-9 and 8-3 decisions.

“They just had the timely hitting,” senior third baseman Tony Skjefte said. “That’s really all it is. When they needed a big hit, they got it.”

One big inning doomed the Gophers in the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday.

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By: Matt Greenstein

With a sweep of Illinois over the weekend, Minnesota set a program record for most consecutive wins.

Stretching back to the beginning of March, the Gophers have won their last 13 games.

Much of their success has been due to the offensive outburst provided throughout the lineup. Two of the Gophers’ three victories against Illinois ended early due to Minnesota reaching the run rule.

“You can’t count on scoring eight runs every game. We’re getting a lot of runs up and down the lineup right now,” head coach Jessica Allister said.

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By: Brad Bobel

After a comeback last week that advanced the Gophers to the second session of the Big Ten championships, their momentum faltered on Saturday in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The Gophers finished 6th with a team score of 196.450, while the competition’s host, University of Michigan, won its second consecutive Big Ten title.

“We felt like we had more in us, but we were proud of the performances that night,” senior Cierra Tomson said. “We have little things to improve on before regionals.”

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By: Danny Chen

Even after posting the ninth-fastest performance in NCAA history in the 200-yard breaststroke during the preliminaries on Saturday, junior Kierra Smith didn’t stop there.

With a time of 2:04.56 in the finals, Smith not only became a national champion, but she also became the third-fastest 200-yard breaststroker on the NCAA all-time list.

Her victory in the event gave the Gophers 20 team points, helping them cement a 12th place finish with 118 points at the 2015 NCAA championships.

Head coach Kelly Kremer said Smith has continued to be consistent for the team.

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By: Danny Chen

After placing third in the Big Ten tournament and entering the NCAA championships as the fourth-ranked team in the nation, the Gophers’ expectations were high. They were following a three-year run of placing in the top three.

But this year, they took eighth.

Minnesota only scored 59.5 points at the 2015 NCAA championship over the weekend, after finishing with 104 points last year.

The Gophers finished 42.5 points behind first-place Ohio State.

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By: Alida Tieberg

Four finalists will make their cases for becoming the next University of Minnesota Police Chief at public forums this week.

The first candidate, Colleen Luna, is a senior commander in the St. Paul Police Department. Luna will be publically interviewed on Monday at 2 p.m. in the Best Buy Theater in the Northrop Auditorium.

The other three candidates will be announced the day before each of their interviews, which will run Monday through Thursday, according to an email from Vice President for University Services Pamela Wheelock.

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By: Barry Lytton

No University of Minnesota student has ever won the Minnesota Cup, a yearly competition for state-based entrepreneurs that’s hosted by the Carlson School of Management.

The admission process for this year’s competition starts on Monday, and in keeping with past years’ records, students have a small chance of taking home the $50,000 grand prize. Some say students’ slim chance of winning the competition is a symptom of their inexperience and fierce competitors.

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