As Big Ten play intensifies, the Gophers are unfazed by their recent matchups but will face a tough stretch of games ahead.

Minnesota men’s basketball started the new calendar year building their Big Ten resume with wins against Michigan and Maryland. Since then, hope dwindled among fans after the Gophers dropped three of their following conference matchups (Indiana, Iowa and Michigan State) and will face Wisconsin, the No. 1 team in the conference, on Tuesday.

Despite the final scores of the last three games, forward Dawson Garcia hit a total of 52 points in the aggregate against Iowa and Michigan State while guard Elijah Hawkins is currently leading the NCAA in assists with 132 on the season.

Garcia said the team “can’t take [their] foot off the gas” when they are down five or six points like they were against Iowa and Michigan State.

Gophers assistant coach Dave Thorson knew the Gophers were having an off game in the first half against Iowa. Head coach Ben Johnson said Thorson gave players a pep talk to remind them not to lose their sense of identity as a team when there is a stretch of basketball that does not go their way.

“We got to find a way to dig deep and be more of who we are,” Johnson said. “I think that goes back to stretches where we lose our way a little bit just from our identity.”

The Gophers managed to have a better second half against Iowa, scoring 54% from the field compared to 43% in the first half. 

Some of the adversity the Gophers faced isn’t entirely in their control. Hawkins suffered an ankle injury against Iowa but played through the second half before fouling out with just over a minute left to play. 

Hawkins did not see the court against Michigan State due to his ankle injury and the point guard role fell to Cam Christie and Mike Mitchell. The role became solely Mitchell’s after Christie fouled out in the second half.

Center Pharrel Payne played 15 minutes against Iowa and only scored three points, a sharp contrast from his performance three days prior against Indiana where he played 30 minutes and put up 17 points. After their Iowa matchup, Johnson couldn’t put his finger on the status of Payne’s health.

“I don’t know if he was cramping or what, but he wasn’t one hundred percent today,” Johnson said. “It hurts when he’s not out there.”

Payne was among the starters against Michigan State. He has averaged 9.6 points per game, shot 64% from the field and 39% at the free throw line.

Even when their opponent had momentum, the Gophers refused to let the score margin get higher than 12 against both Iowa and Michigan State. Forward Joshua Ola-Joseph attributes much of the team’s resilience to last season’s setbacks.

“If you saw what we’ve been through last year, we’ve been through a lot,” Ola-Joseph said. “So when we want to win, we’re desperate to win.”

Garcia said much of the team’s grit this season stemmed from their “Warrior Week” before the season. The week involved intense conditioning every morning beginning in the early hours of 5:30-6 a.m. On the last day of the week, the team spent the night at Williams Arena.

“I actually slept on the court and my air mattress deflated so I was sleeping on the hardwood throughout the night,” Garcia said. “I was pretty sore when I woke up to finish up that last day.”

Last season, the Gophers ended with a 2-17 conference record. They surpassed that win total this season when they defeated Maryland on Jan. 7.

While selection day is still a ways away, the Gophers will need to remember the feeling of winning with the remainder of conference play left.

University of Minnesota researchers at the College of Biological Sciences Kennedy Lab detail the role dead fungi play in balancing carbon within the soil. 

The Kennedy Lab studies fungi both dead and alive to better understand carbon cycling in the soil. Researchers at the lab continually study the impact of fungi on the environment, particularly how to balance the release and storage of carbon in soils.

Katilyn Beidler, a researcher at the Kennedy Lab, studies what happens to fungi in the soil once they die. 

“It feels very special that I get to spend as much time as I do just digging holes to see what’s going on,” Beidler said. “It’s a weird job, but it suits my version of creativity and problem-solving.”

Living fungi explore the soil using microscopic thread-like cells called hyphae, Beidler said. These threads bring nutrients to plants and can bind the soil together, giving the soil structure. 

When fungi die, the carbon and nutrients contained in their hyphae become valuable resources for the food web by feeding other microbes and soil fauna, according to Beidler.

Peter Kennedy, a professor in the University’s Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, said a lot of carbon that sticks around for extended periods in soil comes from dead fungus. 

The Kennedy Lab studies dead fungi and their contributions to the balance of carbon in soils or how much carbon is stored versus lost to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide while fungi decompose, Beidler said. 

Currently, soils are the most important storage of carbon on land and a large fraction of this carbon comes from dead fungi, Beidler added. 

“My passion for biology comes from being in awe of the belowground world and trying to understand how it works, which only adds to its magic,” Beidler said. 

The Kennedy Lab started to better understand how life on this planet works. Specifically, looking at the interactions between species and how ecosystems respond to the influence of broader environmental factors such as increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. 

The lab conducts field experiments at Cedar Creek in East Bethel where the team buries dead fungi to measure the decomposition rates of fungi, Beidler said.

Anahi Cantoran, a University graduate student in the lab, looks at how drought and warming impact the mass of dead plant material on the ground surface. 

Cantoran has done fieldwork at a field station called B4WARMED which looks at incubated dead fungi across time by using infrastructure that simulates warming above and below ground, along with plots that prevent rainfall to study environmental factors.

Fungi necromass has a rapid decomposition process, Cantoran said, adding most of the mass is lost within 30 days, compared to wood decomposition which can take years. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kennedy Lab dealt with several challenges to get the proper equipment. 

“You get creative in this type of work,” Kennedy said. “One of my favorite things is to go to hardware and surplus stores to find materials to assist in experiments.” 

One type of item Kennedy said he purchased from the surplus store is O-rings, which create a seal between two components to prevent leaks. 

There are big plans in the works for 2024, Kennedy said. One of the projects includes going to the Itasca Biological Station and taking about a 37-acre patch of forest and mapping each woody stem by location and name. 

“Fungi are these just really fascinating organisms, both when they’re alive, and also when they’re dead in terms of their consequences for how communities and ecosystems function,” Kennedy said.

After a campus shooting threat last week, safety is a growing concern at the University of Minnesota. University services like Gopher Chauffeur have long been integral in making students feel safe, but institutional problems are preventing their efficiency. 

As classes resume their previous pace, it is important students are aware of what safety protocols to take to avoid potentially dangerous situations. 

The University has various safety resources students can take advantage of. Campus programs such as 624-WALK, GopherTrip and the Rave Guardian app were all created in hopes students would use them to get home safely. 

Through these programs, students can calculate reliable public transit routes or even call a security team member to walk them home. But no system ever quite reached the popularity of the Gopher Chauffeur, a student-founded rideshare program for all University students. 

The Gopher Chauffeur has provided over 190,000 rides since 2008, delivered by a team of 55 employees and six vans. However, as the demand for Gopher Chauffeurs has risen, the ridesharing service has continued to leave students in the cold.

“It definitely is a really good idea,” said Joy Mitchell, a first-year student at the University. “It should be really convenient, but it honestly gets hard when you have to wait so long for a ride, especially at nighttime.”

For a system that has been commended for its efficiency, the Gopher Chauffeur is becoming increasingly hard to depend on. Many students on campus rely on the service to get home at night, whether that’s from class, hanging out with friends or anything else that might take them far away from home. As the weather has worsened, this system has faced an onslaught of demand but hasn’t shown much improvement in recent months. 

“It’s not unusual to wait an hour or two for a ride,” Mitchell said. “I personally stopped using it because of how long it takes. But I know people who have had to wait an hour and a half or even two hours just to get a five-minute ride home.” 

Contrary to popular opinion, Gopher Chauffeur isn’t stalling due to the number of students calling for the service. Rather, the issue that makes the service ineffective is an issue with the app itself. 

“It’s unfortunately just an app malfunction,” said Elle Smarzinski, a Gopher Chauffeur driver. “Instead of calculating how long people have been waiting, the app gives us pickups by distance, which often really sucks for students who have been waiting a long time.”

TransLoc, the app used to call Gopher Chauffeurs, has been known to malfunction for a long time, according to Smarzinski. Because the app categorizes rides by efficiency for the driver rather than the order of who requested one, getting a quick ride home is purely luck of the draw.

In a time where campus safety feels uncertain, the efficiency of services like the Gopher Chauffeur is more important than ever. Even empty threats such as Rongstad’s have continued to make students feel unsafe on their own campus. 

However, there are steps students can take to increase the likelihood of safety. 

“Definitely make use of all the resources you have access to,” Smarzinski said. “Call people to walk you home. Walk in groups. Be aware of your surroundings and try to walk where there’s light. [There are] definitely measures that you can take when the Gopher Chauffeur isn’t an option.”

Hopefully, students continue to prioritize safety as the Gopher Chauffeur team continues to work out app issues. The service has become a critical component of campus safety that students deserve to be able to rely on. I urge the Gopher Chauffeur to revise their system and ensure the ridesharing program provides what it promised: a safe ride, anytime. 

“Dreaming Our Futures: Ojibwe and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ Artists and Knowledge Keepers,” a new art exhibition highlighting the work of 29 Indigenous painters, opened at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery in the Regis Center for Art at the University of Minnesota Jan. 16.

The showcase is the inaugural exhibition of the George Morrison Center for Indigenous Arts, named after the influential Ojibwe painter and sculptor. This new research center will support “the creation, presentation, and interpretation of Indigenous art in all its forms and makes no distinction between the fine arts and Indigenous traditional arts,” according to the University’s College of Liberal Arts website.

The exhibition will run until March 16 before traveling to the Rochester Art Center and later the Tweed Museum of Art at the University of Minnesota Duluth. There will be an opening reception and public program on Feb. 3 starting at 4 p.m.

“Dreaming Our Futures” came about when Howard Oransky, director of the Nash Gallery and one of the curators for the exhibition, wanted to do an exhibit exclusively featuring painters. Afterward, Brenda J. Child, the Northrop Professor of American Studies at the University and another curator, persuaded Oransky to focus on Minnesota-based artists for the exhibit because of her connections in the region.

“I wanted to emphasize the richness of the place where we live and work because it is one of the great centers of American Indian art in North America,” Child said.

Two of the artists being highlighted, Thomasina TopBear and Moira Villiard, know the importance of showcasing Indigenous artwork in large exhibitions like “Dreaming Our Futures.”

TopBear, a Santee Dakota and Oglala Lakota muralist who grew up doing art, experienced homelessness when she was 12 years old and moved from the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska to the Twin Cities to live with an aunt. It was there that she found graffiti and began to tap into spray paint as a medium for her creations.

Now, TopBear’s work tends to focus on Indigenous healing and joy. 

“Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in being in that kind of [negative] mood and emotion that it’s really important for us [Indigenous people] to remind ourselves that we’re capable of healing, we’re capable of joy and we deserve happiness,” TopBear said.

At the exhibition, TopBear is displaying an 8 foot by 16 foot canvas titled “The Great Mystery.” The multicolor mural represents a great creator putting people on Earth and providing people with everything they need.

“It’s really [about] having an understanding that we don’t know why we’re here, but we’re here because the creator put us here,” TopBear said. “It’s finding our way, finding our path.”

Another artist in the exhibition is Villiard, a multidisciplinary artist who grew up on the Fond du Lac Reservation in Cloquet, Minnesota. While she considered her upbringing to be geographically, socially and financially isolating, she used art as a coping mechanism and eventually had her first art show when she was 18 years old.

Villiard led the Chief Buffalo Memorial project, a series of murals in Duluth that honor Chief Buffalo, an Ojibwe leader whose actions helped preserve the rights and homelands of Ojibwe people. Villiard, along with three other artists who worked on the memorial murals, painted a series of four 8-foot panels that are displayed in the exhibition.

Villiard’s painting is titled “Portrait of Tuffy,” which depicts an older man, nicknamed “Tuffy,” standing in front of the first Chief Buffalo Memorial mural that started in 2019. Tuffy would visit the mural site almost every day while it was being painted, and Villiard thought her portrait would be a meaningful way of honoring his visits.

“I thought it would be a cool way of honoring him and his presence at the mural site as almost like part of the art and being the representative of the community aspect of the mural project as a whole,” Villiard said.

Villiard believes there is an exciting movement of Indigenous art happening in the Midwest, especially in Minnesota and Wisconsin. She thinks exhibitions like “Dreaming Our Futures” will make Indigenous peoples’ stories more visible and acknowledged.

“We come from a region of the country that has this really interesting Native history, some of it good, some of it bad,” Child said. “I think that we should tell those stories in every kind of medium and in every opportunity.”

“Dreaming Our Futures: Ojibwe and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ Artists and Knowledge Keepers” runs until March 16.

The intensity of the Gophers women’s basketball team carried them to victories in their last few matchups, but not against top-ranked teams such as UConn, Iowa and Indiana.

Gophers women’s basketball head coach Dawn Plitzuweit led the youngest team in the Big Ten to a 4-3 conference record, ranking them fifth in the conference.

The Gophers still have much of their conference season left to play. With Plitzuweit’s desire to field a defensively-intense team and develop her young players, the Gophers have the potential to earn their first NCAA tournament berth since the 2017-2018 season.

Plitzuweit transformed the identity of the Gophers to a defensively-driven team with 11 underclassmen. Over the last few conference matchups, she said her goal is to develop players by focusing on the little things.

“When we can continue to grow our games individually, collectively, then the big picture comes into play and then good things can happen for us,” Plitzuweit said.

Sophomore forward Mallory Heyer posted 18 points against Michigan State and matched her career-high 15 total rebounds, 12 of which were defensive boards.

After defeating Michigan State 69-50, Heyer said there were times when her team played tough defense and had performed better defensively in past games.

“I really do think we played hard on the defensive end today, but [Michigan State] also missed a lot of shots around the basket,” Heyer said.

Plitzuweit echoed Heyer on the team’s defensive performance against Michigan State, specifically in the first quarter.

It was not until the second half when Plitzuweit felt her team made adjustments to help each other.

Among the players stepping up and contributing to the Gophers’ success is Amaya Battle, who hit a three-point shot against Nebraska to give them a two-possession lead with nine seconds left in the fourth quarter. Battle is also a photographer with the Minnesota Daily.

When the shot the team originally drew up fell through, Janay Sanders, a guard on the team, knew Battle would hit the three.

Since joining the team, Sanders routinely invites Battle to the gym and acts as a supportive figure for her. Battle scored four shots from beyond the arc last season and now has made seven on the season, a testament to the work she put in with Sanders.

“She got ice water in her veins,” Sanders said.

The Gophers have players capable of stepping up in critical moments but have also experienced off-days.

Mara Braun, the No. 3 ranked scorer in the Big Ten, has been in a scoring slump herself after only putting up 10 points against Michigan State, 14 against Indiana, all of which occurred in the second half and nine against Nebraska.

Braun’s point totals are a sharp contrast to where she started the new year when she posted 20 points against Maryland and 17 against Michigan.

Freshman Grace Grocholski put up 19 points against Michigan. Four days later, she failed to put up any points against Nebraska.

Plitzuweit knows her players have off-days and said it is the goal for every college coach to figure out how to get their team to play at their full potential 100% of the time. Ultimately, when adversity hits players, she plans to find the gaps in the opponent’s defense.

“You’ve got to play and just take what the defense gives you,” Plitzuweit said. “That’s what you can control to the best of your ability.”

Junior Sophie Hart said she likes to act as a dominant presence below the basket because it is a key factor for what Plitzuweit looks for in creating a defensively intense team.

“She likes to play with a certain intensity on defense and so [I’m] trying to find ways that I can do that within myself,” Hart said. “I always just try to be more of a presence inside.”

For the young team, Plitzuweit said a win against a highly ranked team comes with experience, an understanding of the technical aspects of the game and the intensity required comes with more practice time together.

“Are we able to compete with [top] teams? Not for 40 minutes right now,” Plitzuweit said. “Are we working at getting to that point? Obviously, that is something our young ladies really want.”

Student Unions and Activities (SUA) at the University of Minnesota is accepting submissions for its second UMN Film Festival until Feb. 26.

The festival, which takes place on March 16, features a variety of student films, giving the University’s aspiring filmmakers a unique opportunity to showcase their work on a local stage.

Isabella Maldonado, head of the event, said participation in the festival can serve as great motivation for new filmmakers who may not know where to start.

The event allows filmmakers to get audience reactions for their films, see what their work looks like on the big screen and meet others going into the field, according to Maldonado.

Abdimalik Ahmed, co-winner of last year’s award for Best Performance, said the festival is a safe space for students to create work that does not need to be perfect or high budget to be accepted.

“Without all that pompousness, we can enter softly,” Ahmed said.

Prior to submitting his film to the festival, Ahmed said he had no experience in filmmaking, though he dreamed of pursuing it.

“I’d always felt that I needed to make the first thing perfect,” Ahmed said. “That kept me from making anything.”

Robbie Wichterman, winner of Best Film and co-winner of Best Performance at last year’s festival, said despite having experience with filmmaking, he still felt that he benefited from being a part of the festival.

Both Ahmed and Wichterman said they first heard about the festival from a classmate who suggested they make submissions. Ahmed added he received encouragement from his professor, who encouraged him to submit a film he made for class.

“She told me, ‘If you just make something, the next thing will be so much easier,’” Ahmed said. “Having that push really helped me finally get over myself and make something.”

While many difficulties exist in planning a large-scale event like this, Maldonado said the most difficult aspect of the planning process is getting people to attend.

SUA has been diligently advertising the festival across Instagram and Facebook, as well as pushing for it to be advertised directly in film classrooms.

“We just want to make sure that as many people that are interested know that it’s happening,” Maldonado said.

Jay Radke, who had not pursued filmmaking until last year’s festival, got a group of friends together and collectively submitted a film to the festival.

Now inspired to pursue a future in film, Radke said students with even minimal interest in film should consider participating in the festival, whether it is to submit a film or just watch.

Maldonado said a Q&A session during last year’s festival gave filmmakers the opportunity to give the audience insight into their creative process.

During the Q&A, Radke said he remembered an audience member who asked several questions about the basics of filmmaking, and this experience showed him the simple power of making an event like this open to the public.

Maldonado said the festival is ultimately an exciting, once-a-year chance for University filmmakers to share their passion projects with members of their own community.

“It’s honestly just very inspiring,” Maldonado said.

All University students are welcome to make a submission or simply come watch the festival in March.

Nearly four years after releasing the critically-panned 2020 album “Father of All…,” Green Day has found their footing once again with a surprisingly good album.

“Saviors,” the fourteenth studio album from the rock trio, has a youthful, bombastic energy to it and is a return to form for the group. With a total of 15 tracks, the vast majority of the songs are memorable, energetic and packed with catchy guitar riffs.

The album opener, “The American Dream is Killing Me,” (probably the most Green Day-sounding song title on the album) is much more in line with the sounds of their 2009 blockbuster album “21st Century Breakdown” than “Father of All…” The song’s chorus is earworm-y, repetitive and is particularly reminiscent of the band’s 2009 single “Know Your Enemy.” Green Day are sticking to a tried and true formula with this song –– anthemic, repetitive, catchy pop-punk –– and, for the most part, it works.

While it is only three minutes long, the band were just a bit too ambitious with musical dynamics as there is an unnecessary orchestral breakdown after the second chorus. Overall, it is a good song, but there are certainly much better tracks on the album.

The strongest of the singles leading up to the album comes second in the track list, “Look Ma, No Brains!” The song sounds like classic Green Day, stylistically popping with Billie Joe Armstrong’s amazing crunchy guitar tone and flourishing bass lines from Mike Dirnt. At two minutes in length, the song is a well-crafted punk banger that does not overstay its welcome.

Next up is “Bobby Sox,” a more sentimental-sounding song showing Armstrong directly referencing his bisexuality in the lyrics, alternating between “Do you wanna be my girlfriend?” and “Do you wanna be my boyfriend?” in the choruses. “Bobby Sox” is essentially Green Day’s version of a ballad, still high tempo with loud distorted guitars but has an element of tenderness to it that is emphasized by the melodic backing vocals “ooo”s. It is an example of the band consciously escaping monotony by mixing up the vibe after a very high-tempo track.

The strongest track on the album, “Corvette Summer,” comes later. In a way it calls back to the band’s classic track “Brain Stew,” as it opens with an isolated electric guitar riff, yet another example of Green Day sticking to what they are good at as opposed to being super experimental.

What makes this song the best on the album is its infectious chorus, “Get around, I can get around. F— it up on my rock ‘n’ roll.” “Corvette Summer” is a simple song that shows that simplicity is part of the band’s appeal.

“Living in the ‘20s,” the twelfth in the track list, is yet another high point. While the chorus is strong, what makes the song stand out is its epic, momentous guitar riff. It is the best guitar riff on the album, which is notable as the LP is filled with catchy riffs.

While the album shines bright with its higher tempo tracks, relatively softer tracks like “Goodnight Adeline” and “Father to a Son” feel somewhat generic as they lack the blustering power of the album’s strongest tracks or the catchiness of a song like “Bobby Sox.”

A problem with many aging rock bands is that they do the same tired old thing decades into their career, but for Green Day this is not an issue because they still have the immense energy that has made them so appealing for so many years.

While the album is not innovative by any means, it shows the band sticking to their brand of pop punk, and it totally works. While it is assuredly not going to be the crossover mainstream moment in the band’s career like their classics “Dookie” and “American Idiot” were, Green Day have proved they can still churn out a solid record that stays true to their style.

Minnesota women’s hockey added nine new players to their roster this season after several significant departures of long-time Gophers, like Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle.

Similar to last season, the Gophers have been ranked among the top teams on the U.S. College Hockey Online’s national poll. They started the season ranked No. 3 and have remained a top team in college hockey throughout the first half of the season.

Minnesota’s newcomers have been able to find their roles on the team during its success. Head coach Brad Frost said freshmen Emma Kreisz and Ava Lindsay have fit in well.

“They’re playing in all situations for us,” Frost said.

Kreisz and Lindsay have led first-years in scoring on the team, quickly adjusting to the collegiate pace. For example, Lindsay scored in her second game for Minnesota early in October.

Kreisz joined a group of three other international players in Minnesota, including another newcomer, fifth-year Solveig Neunzert.

Ella Huber, a junior forward for the Gophers, said the newcomers are bringing a lot of energy and skill to the team.

“I think Ava and Emma, in particular, have done a really good job with us,” Huber said.

Three of the nine players added to the roster this season are fifth-year players. Neunzert, Lucy Morgan and Taylor Stewart joined the Gophers after playing four seasons with other college teams.

Frost said the group of fifth years has provided steady and calm leadership for the team.

“It’s been fun to see them assimilate to our team and our culture,” Frost said.

Stewart, who transferred to the Gophers after four years with Minnesota-Duluth, said she acclimated to the team very well.

“The team has been incredibly welcoming,” Stewart said.

Frost said Stewart’s veteran experience has been helping the rest of the team. He added Stewart has paired well with another veteran defender, graduate Madeline Wethington.

“[Stewart] is a real steadying presence back there,” Frost said. “I think she’s actually been really good for Madeline.”

Wethington’s offensive-minded game compliments Stewart’s calm and reliable defensive capabilities, Frost said.

In their November trip to Washington, D.C. for the D1 in DC tournament, the Gophers allowed just two goals.

The Gophers defeated No. 9 Cornell in their second game in Washington, D.C., racking up five goals in the process. Minnesota’s defense allowed 13 shots on goal in the game as well, blocking 14 of Cornell’s shots in the 5-1 win.

Additionally, the Gophers’ defense successfully erased Cornell’s three power plays during the game, attesting to their top penalty kill in the NCAA.

“I think as D-pairs, we’re building a lot of chemistry back there,” Stewart said. “Everyone’s really working together for the same common goal and that’s shutdown defense.”

Early on in the season, No. 1 Ohio State was the only team that Minnesota seemed to struggle with, losing both their games against them on the road. Through their first 10 games of the season, Ohio State was the only team that scored more than two goals in a game against the Gophers.

Junior goaltender Skylar Vetter was in goal for both games and stopped a combined 98 shots over the weekend.

In a press conference Nov. 22, Frost said the team was able to bounce back well after the losses to Ohio State, sweeping both Minnesota State and Duluth before heading to Washington D.C. He said the losses encouraged the team to move forward.

“What I love about college hockey is you play your game, you turn the page and then you’re focusing on your next opponent,” Frost said. “That’s why the season tends to go really quickly. You have to have a short memory and just continue to build, which I think our team has done.”

The Gophers softball and baseball teams will enter their spring campaigns addressing key issues from the previous season and offseason.

The softball team will look to address its pitching void, whereas the baseball team will make a push to keep athletes healthy throughout the season. Both teams play a far more intense schedule than the previous year.

Softball 

The Gophers women’s softball closed its spring 2023 season with a third-place finish in the Big Ten, leading the program to its 10th-straight NCAA Tournament appearance.

After graduating Autumn Pease last season, Gophers head coach Piper Ritter said the biggest focus throughout the offseason was strengthening the pitching of her team. 

Pease ranked No. 1 in the Big Ten in strikeouts with 273, earning the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year title and a roster spot on the Texas Smoke in the Women’s Professional Fastpitch League.

Without Pease, Ritter said the team will need to proliferate to limit the amount of runs against some of the top teams they are expected to play against.

“The circle is the big piece of it, we’re going to play a tougher schedule than we did,” Ritter said. “We have 30 teams in the top 30 to 40 and 10 teams in the top nine.”

Sophomore infielder Jess Oakland said the Gophers’ preseason schedule will better prepare the team for what to expect when conference play rolls around.

“We have a good core group that went through it last season, so I think that momentum will carry over,” Oakland said. “We won’t have to start from the bottom, we’ll just keep going up.”

True freshman Jessa Snippes will join the Gophers team in the spring. She was honored as the top softball player in the state and named Minnesota’s Ms. Softball in 2023.

Ritter said, throughout the fall season, Snippes’ main focus involved controlling her pitch and commanding it on the spot.

The team has depth at the pitcher position but, according to Ritter, since Pease pitched most games last season, few of the team’s pitchers could get reps in a game setting.

“We have a lot of pitching depth this year,” Ritter said. “We don’t have a lot of veterans in the circle, so the takeaway was to get as many people as many innings as possible.”

Oakland said she still has more to learn entering her second year on the team but will look to take on more of a leadership role for the underclassmen.

“I’m just hoping I can use what I know from last year to help the freshmen and still take advice from the older girls,” Oakland said. 

The team has their eyes set on the Big Ten title, as the Gophers use their knowledge from the fall to hit the ground running in the spring.

Baseball

Gophers head coach John Anderson announced on Dec. 12, 2023 the upcoming season will be his last. The 43-year head coach is the longest-tenured coach at the University and will bid his farewell following the conclusion of the 2024 season.

The Gophers men’s baseball team faced several injuries last season and had to rely on underclassmen to carry them through the end of their Big Ten campaign. 

Anderson said the adversity his team faced last season ultimately will help to enter the 2024 season since the younger guys had the chance to get gameplay experience.

“Over the course of the year the younger players did learn and grow,” Anderson said.

The injuries ultimately inhibited the Gophers’ depth on the mound. The team ranked third to last in the Big Ten with a 5.99 earned run average. Anderson said remaining healthy on the mound will be the biggest way his team can get wins.

Unlike in years past, the Gophers will not play at U.S. Bank Stadium in the early part of their season due to the turf being replaced.

The team will travel to warmer areas Thursday afternoons and will get home Mondays at midnight or two in the morning, according to Anderson. They would take Monday off and only get Tuesday and Wednesday to practice before traveling again on Thursday.

“It’s a severe blow compared to being in U.S. Bank Stadium and playing 12 to 15 games,” Anderson said. “It’s going to impact player development, especially for the younger guys.”

Junior infielder Jake Perry said team chemistry will go a long way toward being a competitive team throughout the season.

“We’re [on the field] for like four or five hours every day,” Perry said. “It helps when you like the people you’re around.”

The Gophers’ offseason regimen has been nothing short of intense as 20 current and future members of the team competed over the summer.

To combat the extent to which athletes play, Anderson said he kept players home for the summer and didn’t have them play as much, taking more time off than previous summers.

“We just decided we’re going to take a completely different look at this and be more proactive about how much the guys put into a year-round cycle,” Anderson said.

The Gophers added three transfer pitchers to the roster and will return six of the seven players who faced season-ending injuries last year. Jared Everson will transition into a student assistant coach role where he will coach first base.

Perry said the team was young last season but noticed growth after the team won two of the last three Big Ten series they competed in.

“We kind of expect to be more experienced this year, and with that, more wins,” Perry said.

With their season at the helm, the Gophers will field an increasingly experienced squad. They seek a heightened level of confidence while Anderson emphasizes the health of his players year-round.

After a cross country season filled with strong performances, the Gophers women’s indoor track and field season kicks off on Dec. 8. Reflecting on the achievements of the previous year, the track and field team secured a commendable fourth place at the 2023 Big Ten Indoor Championship.

In contrast, the men’s track and field team will commence their season in Texas on March 2, opting out of indoor competitions.

In the lead-up to the new season, athletes across disciplines have been undergoing rigorous training. For mid-distance and long-distance runners, the transition from cross country to track requires a nuanced approach.

Gophers cross country head coach and track and field assistant coach Sarah Hopkins said there is a wide variety of events athletes can participate in, so training will look significantly different between runners.

“From a coaching standpoint, you have to coach to those specific events,” Hopkins said. “So if we have a workout on the track, I might have to write five different workouts for that day for just the women.”

Erin Reidy, a mid-distance runner, finished fourth overall in the 800m race at the 2023 Big Ten Indoor Championship, running a 2:04:91, her current personal record just two seconds shy of the Minnesota record.

“We have a pretty good shot at getting another Big Ten championship,” Reidy said. “I know we were thinking of putting together a really stellar DMR (Distance Medley Relay) to try to make it to nationals, which I’ve never been to. So that’d be a really exciting goal to have.”

Reidy added she had some health concerns over the summer with a minor heart blip and a mild concussion. Despite her setbacks, she participated in the cross country season and is prioritizing her health this track season.

“Keep my health as my main priority, and just making sure that if I do get a little nick on the knee or a little cough, I really hone in on trying to take care of that,” Reidy said.

Sprinter Dalayni Etienne did not participate in cross country but has been training for the upcoming track season. Last year, Etienne’s best indoor finish was at the Cyclone Open, where she finished third overall in the 400 with a time of 56.92 seconds.

“I think the team dynamic has been great,” Etienne said. “Everyone on our team is just great individuals, great women and everyone just feeds off of the good vibes. It’s just been great at practice.”

Etienne added this year will be especially fun for her as she will return to her hometown of Miami, Florida, for the Hurricane Invite in March.

“That’ll be my first time competing at home in college,” Etienne said. “So I’m excited for that.”

Another athlete to look out for this season is Shelby Frank. Frank will be participating in the weight throw for the indoor season and discus and hammer for the outdoor season. She won a silver medal at the 2023 NACAC U23 Championships after reaching 56.96m in discus.

“I think especially the throws group has a great dynamic this year,” Frank said. “We’re all super supportive of each other, so I think that has been a positive thing training-wise.”

Last indoor season, Frank finished first overall in the weight throw at the Big Ten Indoor Championships, reaching 24.14m, and second overall in the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships, reaching 23.42m. She finished first or second overall in every meet that she competed.

Her goal this season is to prepare for the Olympic trials.

“For indoor, I kind of just want to have fun and see what happens,” Frank said. “Then for outdoor, do well at Big Tens, do well at nationals and then have some fun at the Olympic trials.”

Looking ahead to the men’s track and field season, the team acknowledged the challenges they faced in cross country and is determined to refocus for the outdoor track season.

“The guys have a little bit of downtime during indoor to just keep working on fitness and be ready for the outdoor season,” Hopkins said. “I think we’re excited to get a few more guys to the national meet and the regional meet and to score more points in Big Tens, but I think they’re ready to flip that switch [from cross country], to be able to train really hard and then also have it show up on race day.”

Though distance runner Emmet Anderson prefers cross country, he said he is looking forward to seeing what the track team will do during the outdoor season. Anderson finished in sixth place overall in the 10k at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships with a time of 30:25.54. At the same championship, he finished 13th overall in the 5k with a time of 14:46.88.

The transition to outdoor will be a time for the distance team to refocus and get healthy. Anderson believes the distance team has much to prove.

“We had a lot of illness, so I don’t think the [cross country] results represented our fitness very well, and I think that kind of left everybody with this hunger to try to prove the fitness they had,” Anderson said. “I think a lot of us feel like our results were severely misrepresenting our fitness. Looking forward to this track season, I think we got a lot of guys that are hungry to show where we belong.”

Sprinter Kion Benjamin is gearing up for his final season as a Gopher. Last season, Benjamin placed first overall in the 100m with a time of 10.18 and was a part of the first-place 4x100m relay team with a time of 38.87 at the Big Ten Outdoor Championship.

He previously ran the 4x100m men’s relay at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics representing his home country of Trinidad and Tobago. Additionally, he won a bronze medal in the 2021 NACAC U23 Championships.

This offseason, Benjamin has been working on increasing his strength.

“I’m a little smaller than other guys,” Benjamin said. “Getting stronger and slightly bigger will allow me to get more power. I’m already able to hold the speed that I bring. Once I am more powerful early on in the race, it will help me displace better.”

Benjamin was the first Gopher to go to nationals for the 100m but did not make it to the finals. His goal this season is to make nationals for both the 100m and 200m.

Another Trinidad and Tobago native, Jaydon Antoine, is equally excited for the season. Antoine, proficient in both sprinting and long jumping, holds a preference for the latter, finishing second on the team behind Michael Buchanan and 11th overall, reaching 7.31m, during the Big Ten Outdoor Championship.

“I think I have a lot of potential I have yet to show as a long jumper and a sprinter,” Antoine said. “I am looking forward to going out into a competitive atmosphere and showcasing what I am capable of. [I’m looking forward to] being able to expose the talents that I’ve been blessed with.”

Both the men’s and women’s teams are hungry to win. They are driven and focused, working toward getting stronger and faster for another promising season ahead.