MINNESOTA YEAR IN REVIEW: 2007-2008

	GOLDEN GOPHERS: YEAR IN REVIEW

Team	Big Ten finish
W Soccer	Season: T-5th Record: 9-8-2, 5-5-1
Cross country	Men: 2nd Women: Big Ten Champs
Football	Season: 11th Record: 1-11, 0-8
Volleyball	Season: 3rd Record: 18-13, 11-9
Swim. & diving	Men: 3rd Women: Big Ten Champs
Indoor T&F	Men: 5th Women: Big Ten Champs
Wrestling	Big Tens: 10th
M basketball	Season: 6th Record: 20-14, 8-10
W basketball	Season: T-3rd Record: 20-12, 11-7
Ice hockey	Season: 7th - WCHA Record: 19-17-9
Gymnastics	Men: 5th Women: 6th
Outdoor T&F	Men: 5th Women: 3rd
Golf	Men: 2nd Women: T-8th
Tennis	Men: T-7th Women: T-6th
Rowing	Big Ten's: 4th
Baseball	Season: 9th Record: 20-35, 10-21
Softball	Season: 3rd Record: 29-16, 9-7

Cross country
The Minnesota men's and women's cross country teams, like usual, compiled impressive campaigns in the fall.

The women won the Big Ten and Midwest Regional titles before placing 12th in the NCAA Cross Country Championships, their third straight national appearance. The men, who placed second in the Midwest Regional, placed eighth in their 10th NCAA Championships appearance in the past 11 years.

Women's soccer
Any talk of the 2007 Minnesota soccer season must begin and end with the Gophers' 1-0 double-overtime upset win over No. 8 Penn State. With the victory, Minnesota snapped perennial power Penn State's 11-match unbeaten streak and 15-match Big Ten winning streak.

As sweet as that monumental win was, the entire season was also rather enjoyable. In 2007, behind the offensive prowess of Lindsey Schwartz and Katie Bethke and the netminding of Chelsey Turner, the Gophers experienced the greatest win-loss improvement in the Big Ten, and their nine overall victories tied for the second-most wins in the program since 1999.

And it could have been even better. Six of the Gophers' eight losses came at the hands of NCAA Tournament participants, with five of those defeats coming by a single goal.

Brighter days could await the Gophers. Minnesota expects to return 10 starters from a group that finished 2007 with the team's second Big Ten Tournament appearance in the last three seasons.

Football
Tim Brewster's first season at the helm of Minnesota didn't go quite as planned. The Gophers went 1-11, and in a way, their record didn't portray just how rough of a season it was.

Minnesota ended the campaign on a 10-game losing streak following its lone win, a 41-35 triple-overtime triumph over Miami (OH). The Gophers were in their three nonconference defeats, losing the three games by a combined 10 points, but Big Ten play was a different story.

In Minnesota's eight conference games, it was outscored 304-183, including five double-digit defeats.

But, believe it or not, there's plenty of reason for optimism entering 2008. Not only are the Gophers entering their final season in the Metrodome (they'll move to the state-of-the-art TCF Bank Stadium in 2009), but they welcome the 17th-best recruiting class, according to Rivals.com. Brewster inked a total of 31 players, who figure to play a big role in turning the Minnesota program back around.

Volleyball
A season that started so promising, perhaps ended as disappointingly. Minnesota dominated out of the gate, winning 16 of its first 21 matches, including a 5-0 start to the Big Ten slate.

The Gophers, however, were stuck on five conference wins for quite some time -- 25 days, to be exact. Following the torrid start, Minnesota lost its next seven conference tests before bouncing back to sweep Iowa, a victory that sparked a run of six wins in its final eight. But, as they say, the damage had been done.

Minnesota, which was ranked for much of the year, drew a very difficult test in the NCAA tournament's opening round in Sacramento State, which disposed of the Gophers in a 3-1 decision.

Men's swimming & diving
Like clockwork, the Minnesota men's swimming and diving team placed third at the Big Ten Championships. Minnesota, which has finished in the top three at the event every year since 1989, parlayed its strong performance into an 11th-place finish at the NCAA Championships -- the program's 17th straight top 15 national finish.

Junior Mike Holmes and David Plummer led the way earning their second and 14th All-America honor, respectively. Holmes placed 12th overall in the 1650 freestyle with a time of 15:04.44 to become just the second Gopher to be a two-time All-American in the 1650 free. Meanwhile, Plummer capped his successful Minnesota career with an 11th-place finish in the 200 backstroke.

Women's swimming & diving
Behind the impressive work of freshman Jillian Tyler, the Minnesota women's swimming and diving team brought home its third Big Ten Championships. The Gophers, who won back-to-back titles in 1999-2000, set 14 school records in the conference event, headlined by Tyler, who earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year accolades.

Though the Gophers placed 13th at the NCAA Championships, they earned 37 more points than they compiled the previous year. Again it was Tyler who led the way, as the freshman picked up three first-team All-America honors to pace the Gophers.

Men's indoor track and field
Junior Ibrahim Kabia placed second in the 60-meter dash with a season-best and NCAA provisional qualifying time of 6.67 seconds to highlight the Minnesota men's track team's fifth-place finish at the 2008 Big Ten Men's Indoor Track & Field Championships.

The Gophers collected 77 points in the two-day event, but they weren't enough to deny Wisconsin its eighth consecutive Big Ten title.

True freshman Hassan Mead added another runner-up finish to the Gophers' point total. Mead's second-place showing in 14:26.63 broke up a Badger sweep of the top five places. Mead was third in the 3,000 meters (8:11.73) on Saturday. Chris Rombough finished sixth in 14:34.06 and Mike Torchia eighth in 14:35.02.

Women's indoor track and field
There was plenty to be happy about for the Gophers indoor track and field team in 2008. Minnesota, the reigning Big Ten champions, defended its crown by winning the 2008 Big Ten Indoor Championships. They did so in interesting fashion, though, as the Gophers had no individual champion but garnered eight top-three finishers.

Minnesota's fate was even better at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, where the Gophers compiled 16 points to place in a tie for 15th overall, the second-best point toal and finish in school history.

Wrestling
It says something about a wrestling program when a 10th-place finish at the NCAA Championships is viewed as a down year. But that was exactly the case with Minnesota, which suffered its worst national finish since 1996.

Perhaps making the result even more unbearable was the fact Big Ten rival Iowa ran away with the title. But all was not lost for the Gophers in 2008. After all, Jayson Ness, Minnesota's lone representative in the finals at the NCAA Championships, came home with the silver medal from the 125-pound division. Ness, who went 4-1 in the national tournament, fell to Indiana star Angel Escobedo, 10-3, in the title bout.

Even more encouraging was Minnesota's second-place finish at the Big Ten Championships. Though the Gophers were unable to hold onto their Day 1 lead in the event (Iowa rallied to win), they were strong enough to qualify nine wrestlers, including Ness, Manuel Rivera, Dustin Schlatter and Gabe Dretsch, for the NCAA Championships.

Men's basketball
Tubby Smith didn't experience any growing pains in Year 1 as the Gophers' general. In fact, under Smith, the Gophers stormed out to a 10-2 record to surpass their win total from the previous season before the start of the conference slate.

Minnesota cooled off a little once Big Ten play opened, but still went on to rack up 20 wins, becoming just the eighth team in school history to do so and the first since 2004-05.

Leading the turnaround was a solid mixture of youth and experience in veterans Spencer Tollackson, Dan Coleman and Lawrence McKenzie and youngsters Blake Hoffarber, Al Nolen, Lawrence Westbrook and Damian Johnson.

The team came together so well toward the end of the season that it won two games in the Big Ten Tournament, including a thrilling last-second victory over favored Indiana, to earn a berth in the NIT Tournament. There, the Gophers met up with Maryland in the first round, where they were ousted in a 68-58 decision at Williams Arena.

Women's basketball
The Golden Gophers didn't get as much publicity as their male counterparts, due in large part to the arrival of Tubby Smith, but one could argue they had the superior season.

Behind sparkplug point guard Emily Fox, the Gophers finished just two games out of first place in the Big Ten, and that's despite losing their final two conference contests.

Minnesota, which also went on to lose its Big Ten Tournament opener, was so strong early that the late-season slide wasn't enough to keep the Gophers out of the NCAA tournament. Making its fifth NCAA appearance in six seasons, the No. 9-seeded Gophers struggled in a first-round loss to an athletic Texas club.

Three Gophers, Fox, Leslie Knight and Ashley Ellis-Milan, went on to earn All-Big Ten honors. The accomplishment marked the fourth time in Minnesota history that three players earned Big Ten accolades, and the first since 2005.

Ice hockey
You could say the Golden Gophers had a flair for the dramatic. Or you could say they finally learned how to win the close game at the most opportune time.

Minnesota, which lost every overtime game it played until the postseason, made a miraculous run in the playoffs, which finally ended in a 5-2 loss to eventual national champ Boston College in the NCAA Northeast Regional semifinals.

In the Gophers' seven postseason games, four went to overtime and six of them were decided by one goal.

The season-ending loss to Boston College, which was the reigning back-to-back national runner-up, turned out to be Minnesota's largest margin of defeat in an NCAA game since 1997.

Men's gymnastics
Mitchell Mays is one of the best vaulters in the nation, and the Minnesota senior proved it this season. Mays led the Gophers to a fifth-place finish at the Big Ten Championships and then went on to claim All-America honors in the National Collegiate Men's Gymnastics Championships.

Mays, who struggled a little in the finals, placed eighth on the vault to close his Gopher career. Sophomore Cole Storer also earned All-American honors, claiming second on the high bar.

Women's gymnastics
The Gophers placed sixth at the Big Ten Championships, then went on to take third at the NCAA North Central Region Championships. Minnesota saved one of its best performances for the regional event, compiling 195.275 points, its third-best score of the season.

From the regular season, to the Big Ten Championships, to the NCAA Championships, Carmelina Carabajal seemed to always be the star. Carabajal was the team's top scorer in three of the four events at the Big Ten Championships en route to tying for fourth and advancing to the NCAA Championships. On the biggest stage, Carabajal paced 14th overall, the best all-around finish among Big Ten gymnasts. 

Men's golf
Minnesota made a valiant run at eventual champ Michigan State, but, ultimately, had to settle for second place at the Big Ten Championships.

All five Minnesota golfers finished in the top 31 individually, headlined by Clayton Rask and Victor Almstrom, to help lead the Gophers to a second-place finish in East Lansing, Michigan.

Rask and Almstrom were so impressive that they earned invitations to the NCAA Central Regional.

Both golfers saved the best for last in the final round of the 2008 NCAA Central Regional golf tournament. Rask fired a 2-over 73, his lowest of the tournament and Almstrom carded a 3-over 74, his lowest of the tournament, but it wasn't enough to move on to the NCAA Championships.

Women's golf
Minnesota freshman Teresa Puga helped lead the Gophers to their best Big Ten Championships finish since 2004.

Minnesota (1,231) tied for eighth with Iowa to record its best finish since it placed seventh four seasons ago.

Puga, who finished sixth individually, carded a four-round total of 299 (77, 74, 75, 73), the third lowest 72-hole total for a Gopher golfer in school history. Fellow freshman Mary Narsizi shot her second consecutive 76 to finish in a tie for 23rd with a 306 (76, 78, 76, 76). By shooting 306, Narsizi tied former Gophers' Kate Hughes and Karyn Stordahl for the eighth best 72-hole total.

Men's tennis
Minnesota gave second-seed Wisconsin all it could handle before falling 4-3 in the Big Ten Men's Tennis Tournament quarterfinals in Iowa City, Iowa.

The match came down to the No. 5 singles contest, where Wisconsin's Felipe Bellido rallied past Minnesota's Chi Pham 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 to seal the outcome.

Minnesota advanced to the quarterfinals with its emphatic 4-1 win over Michigan State in the opening round.

Women's tennis
The seeding certainly wasn't in Minnesota's favor at the Big Ten Women's Tennis Tournament. Minnesota topped Purdue, 4-2, in the opening round, only to advance to play the nation's top-ranked team, Northwestern, in the quarterfinals.

As expected, the nation's top team was on top of its game when the Gophers came calling, recording a 4-0 victory.

Softball
Making their first Big Ten Tournament appearance since 2004, the Golden Gophers entered as the fourth seed set to face No. 5 seed Purdue. Malisa Barnes' bases-loaded single with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning broke a 4-4 tie, giving the Golden Gopher softball team a dramatic, come-from-behind win over the Purdue Boilermakers to advance.

Fresh off their first conference tournament win in nine years, the Gophers' title hopes were ended by top-seeded Northwestern, losing 12-0 in five innings.

Baseball
In his final outing of his career, senior Dustin Brabender produced one of hits best starts of the season, as he pitched the Minnesota baseball team to a 4-2 victory over Penn State in the 2008 season finale.

While the team did not play in any postseason action, three players were named All-Big Ten. Junior outfielder Matt Nohelty and junior third baseman Nate Hanson were each named First-Team All-Big Ten, while senior catcher Jeff DeSmidt was named Second-Team All-Big Ten.

Rowing
Reigning Big Ten champ Minnesota was unable to defend its crown, placing fourth at the Big Ten Championships.

The Golden Gophers earned 104 points, but Michigan State was the champion with 150 points, followed by Wisconsin with 114 points and Ohio State (112). Host Michigan followed the Gophers with 90 points and Iowa in sixth (40) and Indiana in last with 31 points.

Two of Minnesota's First Varsity Eight members were All-Big Ten selections. Coxswain Megan Flannery was named to the First Team All-Big Ten, while Jenny Barnes was named second-team All-Big Ten. Captain MaryAnn Weinzierl was named Minnesota's Big Ten Sportsmanship honoree. The Gophers, who graduated 14 rowers from last year's Big Ten championship team, advanced all six boats to the Grand Finals this year. 

Men's outdoor track and field
A trio of Golden Gophers Ibrahim Kabia, Hans Storvick and Hassan Mead captured Big Ten titles at the Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Minnesota finished fifth overall with 84 points.

Kabia collected his first Big Ten title in the 100-meter dash, crossing the finish line in a season-best time of 10.29 seconds.

Storvick led from wire-to-wire to capture the Big Ten title in the 809-meter run, clocking a time of 1 minute, 50.06 seconds.

Mead, a true freshman, dominated the 5,000-meter run to win the event in a time of 14:16.38. Mead took the lead after the first 1,500 meters and was never seriously threatened.

Women's outdoor track and field
Golden Gopher junior Heather Dorniden finally has another Big Ten title to celebrate. The six-time All-American ran away with the title in the 800-meter run. As a team, Minnesota finished third in the Big Ten Outdoor Track & Field Championships with a team total of 113.50 points.

Information for this report provided by gophersports.com and bigten.org.

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