Second-year women’s basketball coach Cheryl Littlejohn announced Friday the signing of two guards and a center to attend Minnesota.
Lindsay Lieser is a 5-foot-10 guard from New London, Minn. She averaged 17.1 points and 5.2 rebounds per game as a junior for New London-Spicer High School. She also won a state championship in 1997.
Kim Prince is a 6-foot-2 center from Montgomery, Ala. As a junior she averaged 16 points per game and was named to the Montgomery Advertiser’s All-Metro team.
Littlejohn’s final recruit is Detroit, Mich., native Natea Motley. The 6-foot-1 guard is currently averaging 20 points and 8.6 rebounds and was an all-league selection her first two years of high school.
Massura wins at swim meet
Sophomore Alex Massura won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 58.18 in the final day of the Big Ten All-Stars vs. the USA National Team Meet in Evanston, Ill.
Other Gophers fared well in the pool, as freshman Ricardo Dornelas placed second in the 50-yard freestyle. Junior Ryan Crosby finished fourth in the 100-yard backstroke. In the 400-yard individual medley, junior Bill Bishop placed third. Senior Martin Zielinski finished fourth in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 56.93.
Minnesota’s men’s swimming and diving team will host the Minnesota Invitational this weekend at the Aquatic Center.
Sloss and Svensson win
Minnesota sophomore and Kristianstad, Sweden native Jon Svensson defeated University of Oregon’s Memo Carter 6-0 and 6-4 in the Husky Fall Challenge in Seattle, Wash., on Sunday.
Freshman Karl Sloss also won his match, defeating Dillon Ruby of Washington 7-6 and 6-1.
Junior Martin Michalowski, sophomore Jorge Duenas, and senior Martin Kristoffersen all lost their matches in Seattle.
Tennis signs two recruits
Minnesota’s men’s tennis team signed two blue-chip recruits yesterday.
Eric Robertson of Milwaukee, Wis., is ranked as one of the top 50 players in the nation and won the Wisconsin state high school championship in singles play in 1998.
Nate McClain of Burnsville, Minn., is currently ranked No. 1 in the Northern Section for boys 18-and-under. McClain earlier won the St. Louis Gateway Invitation, which is a national 32-player tournament.
Bad touch
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin tailback Ron Dayne and offensive lineman Pat Daley have been placed on team probation after locker room horseplay that ended in a scuffle, university officials said Monday.
UW police are investigating the Nov. 5 incident, which happened before a practice, sports information director Steve Malchow said.
Daley claimed he was injured by Dayne in the incident.
Badgers’ coach Barry Alvarez, in his weekly news conference, confirmed Daley was injured in a scuffle that began with “horseplay in the locker room.”
Malchow would not elaborate on the nature of the incident.
“Much like a closed practice, what happens in a closed locker room stays there,” Malchow said. “It happened within the context of the team, and that’s where it’s going to stay.”
Both juniors were placed on team probation by Alvarez, but it would not affect their playing status because they were first-time offenders, Malchow said.
Their probations will be dropped unless the players are involved in a second offense, which will result in more severe penalties, he said.
Alvarez said he has already looked into the matter.
“The issue is closed, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
No more Naulty
(AP) — The Minnesota Twins have given up on injury-prone relief pitcher Dan Naulty, trading him to the New York Yankees on Monday for minor-league third baseman Allen Butler.
Naulty, 28, went 0-2 with a 4.94 ERA in 19 relief appearances for the Twins last season after going 1-0 in five games at Triple-A Salt Lake.
Butler, 23, hit .269 at Class-A Greensboro last season with 19 homers and 81 RBIs. He was the Yankees’ eighth-round draft pick in 1996.
