Gophers' Taylor Heise and Peyton Hemp earn WCHA honors

Senior forward Taylor Heise and freshman forward Peyton Hemp of the WCHA champion Gophers were named the conference's Offensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year, respectively, on Tuesday.

Heise, a Lake City, Minn., native, leads the nation with 64 points on 28 goals and 36 assists and is the first Gophers player to have 60 points in a season since 2016-17. Hemp, of Andover, has 32 points on 12 goals and 20 assists, plus five game-winning goals this season.

The other two WCHA individual awards went to Ohio State sophomore Sophie Jacques as Defensive Player of the Year and St. Cloud State senior Emma Polusny of Mound as Goaltender of the Year.

Big Ten honors Close, Meyers

After sweeping Wisconsin by scores of 5-0 and 8-0 to secure the Big Ten regular-season title over the weekend, the Gophers men's hockey team collected two of the Big Ten's Three Star awards. Goalie Justen Close was named First Star of the Week after making 44 combined saves for the first two shutouts of his career. Close leads the conference with a 1.73 goals-against average. Ben Meyers was named Third Star of the Week after notching a third-period natural hat trick in Friday's win and adding a goal and an assist on Saturday.

Notre Dame goalie Matthew Galajda, who stopped 59 of 61 shots in a sweep of Michigan, was the Second Star of the Week.

Randy Johnson

Augsburg led the way in MIAC women's basketball postseason awards, with senior forward Jen Masello named Player of the Year, Ted Riverso Coach of the Year and Anja Smith Sixth Player of the year.

Masello, a senior forward from Darien, Ill., averaged 14.1 points and 8.7 rebounds per game in conference play and led the conference in blocked shots with 32. Riverso coached the Auggies to a 19-2 record in league play and the program's first MIAC regular-season championship.

Bethel forward Hayden Glander was named Rookie of the Year.

Palmer, of Faribault, led the conference in scoring (20.8 points per game) and rebounding (8.7). McKenzie coached the Johnnies to a 17-2 MIAC record and the conference championship.

Augsburg junior guard Rayquan Moore was named Sixth Man of the Year.

Chase Stanke hit two home runs and drove in five runs to lead the Gophers baseball team to a 12-0 victory over St. Thomas on Tuesday at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The Gophers, playing their first home game after opening the season with eight games in Florida, improved to 3-6.

Easton Bertrand, Ronald Sweeny and Kyle Bork also hit home runs for the Gophers. Starting pitcher Jack Liffrig allowed three hits in 7 2/3 innings to earn his first victory of the season.

The Gophers will play host to South Dakota State (1-6) on Wednesday at U.S. Bank Stadium.