Minnesota’s women’s swimming and diving team sat

in sixth place after a brief first day of the Big Ten Championships on Wednesday in Bloomington, Ind.

The Gophers took seventh place in the 200-yard medley relay and sixth in the 800 freestyle relay to earn 50 team points.

In the first event, Jenny Hasling, Bridget McCoy, Sarah Perrott and Katy Coombe swam a 1:43.41, which was less than a half-second faster than their seeding time of 1:43.90.

Penn State won the 200 medley relay with a Big Ten-record mark of 1:39.06.

Then, in the 800 free relay, Kate Hardt, Valerie Tukey, Coombe and Erin O’Neil clocked an NCAA provisional time of 7:20.48 – just more than 11 seconds behind first-place Michigan’s pool-record 7:09.42.

The Wolverines and Lions sit 1-2 in the team rankings with 73 and 72 points, respectively.

Alvarez gymnast of week

Minnesota men’s gymnastics senior Guillermo Alvarez was named Big Ten gymnast of the week for the second-straight week. He shares the award this time with Ben Newman of Illinois.