MSU Mankato baseball coach says he will retire

Minnesota State Mankato baseball coach Dean Bowyer announced on Thursday that he will retire at the end of this season.

Bowyer, who is in his 36th season as a collegiate head coach and in his 32nd year as the coach at Minnesota State Mankato, has a career record of 1,037-516-7.

His 1,037 victories rank third on the NCAA Division II active coaches wins lists and ranks fifth on the career Division II list.

Bowyer, a native of Ada, Minn., earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Mayville State. Bowyer coached at Minot State for four years before taking the Mavericks job in 1977.

Gophers will hold baseball tournament The Gophers baseball team (2-4) will play host to No. 18 California (6-1-1), New Mexico (7-3) and Northern Iowa (4-4) at the Metrodome this weekend.

The Gophers will play New Mexico at 6:35 tonight. California and Northern Iowa will play at 1 p.m.

On Saturday, New Mexico and Northern Iowa will play at 1 p.m. and the Gophers and Cal will play at 6:35 p.m.

On Sunday, New Mexico and Cal will play at 11 a.m., followed by the Gophers' game against Northern Iowa at 3 p.m.

Before each of their games, the Gophers will honor a Gophers team from the past. The 1958, 1968, 1988 and 1998 teams will be honored.

Wrestlers will host Big Ten championships The Gophers wrestling team will seek to defend its title this weekend at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships at Williams Arena. Competition begins at 11 a.m. Saturday and concludes with the championship finals at about 4 p.m. Sunday.

The championships are being held in Minneapolis for the first time since 1997.

Three Gophers -- Jayson Ness (125 pounds), Dustin Schlatter (149) and C.P. Schlatter (157) -- will be attempting to defend their Big Ten titles.

Ness, a sophomore, has a 33-0 record this season and has 18 victories by pin, two shy of the school record set by current assistant coach Marty Morgan in 1989-90.