The defending national champion Minnesota wrestling squad hosted Boise State in its first dual meet of the season on Sunday.

In national champion form, they trounced the Broncos 42-0.

“We thought we should win every weight class,” coach J Robinson said. “When you’ve got nine returning All-Americans (eight Division I, one Division II), they should all be winning a majority of their matches.”

The Gophers posted four major decisions, a technical fall, and a pin in the shutout.

“We wanted to come out and show to the rest of the country it doesn’t matter who we’re wrestling,” junior Luke Becker said. “We’re going to come at them and just try to punish people.”

Owen Elzen set the tone of the match early with the technical fall over Josh Ward 17-1 in the second period.

But the meet was highlighted by Luke Becker’s pin of Mitch Morgan just 1:33 into his match.

“I think we (wanted to make a statement),” Robinson said. “We’re the national champions, we want to make it exciting and we want people to see we’re aggressive and dominating.

“I think we did that today.”

-Anthony Maggio, Staff Reporter

Women’s hoops fifth

Minnesota women’s basketball defeated Weber State 76-67 on Sunday, to finish fifth in the Rainbow Wahine Classic in Honolulu.

Before beating the Wildcats, the Gophers were on either end of a pair of blowouts.

Minnesota (4-1) began the weekend losing 96-65 to No. 7 Stanford on Friday. The Gophers were led by freshman Janel McCarville’s 19 points and eight rebounds.

Early in the second half, with the Gophers trailing 46-37, the Cardinal went on a 11-0 run to close the door on any hopes of a comeback.

On Saturday, Minnesota’s Lindsay Whalen scored 25 points to lead five Gophers in double figures as the team cruised to a 92-66 victory over Wyoming.

Minnesota shot 59-percent for the game setting up Sunday’s first ever meeting with Weber State.

Plasencia honored

Minnesota cross country coach Steve Plasencia was named Midwest Region Coach of the Year, the second time in three years he has received the honor.

The Gophers won the regional title earlier this month and placed 25th at the NCAA Championships, the fifth consecutive season the squad has gone to Nationals.

Plasencia was a five-time All-American for the Gophers in the late 70’s before taking over the head coaching reigns in 1996.