Gable Steveson will end his Gophers career as the most accomplished wrestler in the program's history. He's not the only athlete making that kind of mark at the U. Diver Sarah Bacon, swimmer Max McHugh, gymnast Lexy Ramler and runner Bethany Hasz also are among the greatest ever to compete for the Gophers in their sports, and all have the chance to add to their reputations in upcoming NCAA tournaments.
SARAH BACON, diving
The only woman in Gophers history to win four NCAA titles in any sport, Bacon is favored to build on that total in her final season. She enters this week's NCAA championships in Atlanta as the defending champion on the 1-meter and 3-meter boards, with a shot to win her fourth national crown in 1-meter.
An Indianapolis native, Bacon came to the U to train with coach Wenbo Chen, who coached her when she was younger. Last year, she became the first Gophers athlete to win a Honda Sport Award, which goes to the top women's college athlete in the nation in each sport. Bacon has won four Big Ten titles and swept the springboards at last month's conference meet, with scores that set school and Big Ten championships records.
Should Bacon win the NCAA title on 1-meter, she would be the second person to win that event four times and the first to do so at four consecutive NCAA championships. She registered the highest 1-meter score at the NCAA zone qualifiers, winning the Zone D competition by 61.05 points.
Watch her compete: ESPN3 will have live streaming coverage of the championships through Saturday, with preliminaries at 9 a.m. and finals at 5 p.m. each day. The 1-meter competition is Thursday, and 3-meter is Friday.
MAX McHUGH, swimming
It's been a long, long time since a Gophers men's swimmer won back-to-back NCAA titles. The last to do it, Walt Richardson, earned his championships in the 100-yard butterfly in 1963 and 1964.
Senior Max McHugh is in excellent position to end that 58-year drought. He will enter this year's NCAA championships in Atlanta, which begin next Wednesday, as the defending champ and top seed in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes. McHugh owns the nation's best times this season in the 100 (50.58 seconds) and 200 breaststrokes (1:49.45), and he repeated as Big Ten champion in both events last month.
Last year, McHugh swept the breaststroke events at the NCAA championships after placing second in the 200 and third in the 100 as a freshman. His five individual Big Ten swimming titles — three in the 100 breast and two in the 200 — are tied for second-most in Gophers history.
At the 2021 NCAA championships, McHugh set program records in the 100 (50.18) and 200 (1:49.02), becoming the first Gopher to win an NCAA men's swimming title since Richardson in 1964.
Watch him compete: ESPN3 will livestream finals (5 p.m.) all four days of the championships, beginning next Wednesday. The 100 breaststroke is March 25, and the 200 breaststroke March 26.
LEXY RAMLER, gymnastics
Ramler's name appears 64 times on the list of highest scores in Gophers history, far more than any other athlete. It's a testament to the all-around excellence and consistency of the St. Michael native, who will soon close out a remarkable five-season career at the U.
On five occasions, Ramler has scored a perfect 10, tying her with teammate Ona Loper for the most in program history. Ramler holds the four best marks ever by a Gophers gymnast in the all-around, and she's tied for the program's all-time top scores in balance beam (10.0), vault (10.0) and uneven bars (9.975). Four of those perfect 10s have come on beam, where Ramler has earned 13 of the 18 highest marks in Gophers history.
She has nine NCAA All-America honors, most of any Gophers women's gymnast. Ramler and Marie Roethlisberger are the only Gophers to be named Big Ten Gymnast of the Year three times, while Ramler and Lindsay Mable are the only ones to win the AAI award as the top college women's gymnast in the country.
Ramler will compete in her final Big Ten championships Saturday in Columbus, Ohio. That will be followed by the NCAA regionals March 30-April 2, where she and the Gophers hope to qualify for the NCAA championships April 14-16 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Watch her compete: BTN will televise the Big Ten women's gymnastics championships, with the Gophers competing in the evening session at 4:30 p.m.
BETHANY HASZ, track
No Gophers woman's runner has as many achievements across as many distances as Bethany Hasz. The native of Alexandria, Minn., holds school records in six events over three disciplines: cross country, indoor track and outdoor track.
During the 2020 season, Hasz became only the second Gophers runner to win an individual Big Ten championship in women's cross country. Last fall, she finished seventh at the NCAA championships in a program-record time of 19:36.4, equaling the best finish ever by a Gophers athlete.
On the track, Hasz has won two conference crowns in the 3,000 meters and one in the 10,000 meters. She excelled in the 5,000 last year, placing second at the NCAA indoor championships and third at the NCAA outdoor meet. A four-time Big Ten athlete of the year— twice in indoor track, twice in cross country — Hasz holds program indoor records in the 3,000 and 5,000, along with outdoor records in the 5,000, 10,000 and distance medley relay.
Watch her compete: The Gophers begin their outdoor track season this week and will play host to the Big Ten outdoor championships May 13-15.
ALSO NOTABLE
• Loper has five perfect 10s on vault, tying Ramler for the most perfect-10 scores in Gophers history. She's having an outstanding fifth gymnastics season, with two 10s on vault and a career-high 39.750 in the all-around, fifth-highest in program history. She is among the six finalists for this season's AAI award.
• Swimmer Megan Van Berkom is only a sophomore, but she's already set two school records and won a Big Ten title. Van Berkom won the 400 individual medley at the Big Ten meet and was runner-up in the 200 butterfly (program-record time of 1:53.89) and 200 IM (program record 1:54.92).
