Minnesota scene: Gophers finish ninth in Big Ten wrestling tournament

Third-place finishes by 197-pounder Brett Pfarr and heavyweight Michael Kroells led the few highlights for the Gophers at the Big Ten wrestling championships on Sunday in Iowa City. Minnesota finished ninth in the team standings, its worst placing in J Robinson's 30 years as coach.

Joining Pfarr and Kroells as Gophers qualifiers for the NCAA championships on March 17-19 at New York's Madison Square Garden will be 141-pounder Tommy Thorn, who placed fourth, and 174-pouner Nick Wanzek, who placed ninth. Jake Short placed seventh at 149 but will need an at-large selection to wrestle in the NCAA meet.

Penn State crowned three individual champions and won its fifth team title in six years. The Nittany Lions finished with 150½ points, followed by Iowa (127), Ohio State (126), Nebraska (117) and Rutgers (106½). The Gophers had 51½.

Pfarr scored a 3-1 decision over Nebraska's Aaron Studebaker in the third-place match, and Kroells followed with a 4-1 tiebreaker victory over Rutgers' Billy Smith.

Ohio State's Micah Jordan pinned Thorn in 5:40 in their third-place match. Short scored a 4-2 decision over Ohio State's Cody Burcher for seventh. And Wanzek beat Northwestern's Mitch Sliga 8-3 for ninth place.

The Gophers had finished no worse than third in 18 of the previous 19 Big Ten tournaments.

Nick Schilkey scored 2:54 into overtime, giving Ohio State a 6-5 victory over Michigan in a Big Ten men's hockey game at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The Buckeyes led 5-1 with 6:49 left in the second period, before the Wolverines rallied and tied the score 5-5 with 4:53 left in the third.

• Eddie Estrada hit a three-run homer and Micah Coffey went 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBI as the Gophers baseball team beat Georgia State 11-6 in Atlanta. The victory gave the Gophers (7-3) their second consecutive nonconference series victory and matched their best start to a season through 10 games since 2009. Tyler Hanson got the victory, giving up four runs and 10 hits over five innings.

• Taylor LeMay hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning, leading the No. 19 Gophers softball team to a 4-3 victory over Georgia in Athens, Ga. Earlier Sunday, the Gophers beat Jacksonville 20-4, matching a team record for runs in a game.

• The Gophers women's gymnastics team posted its highest score of the year and winning a three-team meet against Denver and Air Force in Colorado Springs. Minnesota got individual titles from Lindsay Mable (vault), Hanna Nordquist (balance beam) and Bailee Holst (uneven bars) on its way to a score of 197.225.

• The Gophers men's golf team is in a third-place tie at Auburn's Tiger Invitational after Sunday's first round.

• Carolyn Ryba, Julia Courter, Paula Rincon-Otero and Camila Vargas-Gomez earned singles victories as the Gophers women's tennis team visiting Iowa State 5-2.