The Timberwolves made postseason changes to their coaching and basketball operations staffs Monday, releasing player development coach Vince Legarza, shooting coach Pete Patton and assistant video coordinator Wes Bohn.
Legarza worked extensively, particularly before games, with All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns. Patton joined the team in 2016. Bohn had been working for the team since 2014.
Division III qualifiers
MIAC softball champion St. Thomas will play host to a four-team NCAA regional on Friday and Saturday. The Tommies will play Upper Midwest champion Northwestern (St. Paul) in the first round Friday. Wisconsin-Oshkosh and Central (Iowa) will meet in the other first-round game.
MIAC runner-up St. Benedict faces Cornell (Iowa) in the first round of a regional in Decorah, Iowa, hosted by Luther.
The Gustavus men's tennis team will host a regional and face the Grinnell-Concordia (Wis). winner on Saturday. The regional also includes Upper Midwest champion Northwestern, which will face Coe in the first round.
• St. Thomas (automatic qualifier) and St. John's will be part of the Division III men's golf field May 15-18 in Greensboro, N.C. … Carleton and St. Scholastics will compete in the 25-team women's Division III tournament, which runs Tuesday through Friday in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla. The Knights are in the tournament for the third time in four seasons.
Winona State is softball host
Winona State was chosen as host site and top seed for the NCAA Division II Central 1 softball regional this weekend. Minnesota Duluth is seeded second, followed by Arkansas Tech and Emporia State.
Augustana and Minnesota State Mankato were seeded second and fourth, respectively, in the Central 2 region in Magnolia, Ark.
Medtronic Mile
Emily Lipari of San Diego will return to defend her women's title when many of the country's top milers take to the streets of downtown Minneapolis for the Medtronic TC 1 Mile on Thursday evening.
The runners will race for a $25,000 men's and women's prize purse, along with $10,000 bonuses for breaking a women's or men's record.
Lipari, who edged Sara Vaughn at the finish line last year, likely will face her toughest competition from 2013 Medtronic TC 1 Mile champion Sarah Brown of East Weymouth, Mass., in this year's event.
Last year's runner-up, Daniel Herrera, leads the contenders in the men's race, which includes former Gopher Travis Burkstrand (third in 2016), Brandon Hudgins of Jamestown, N.C. (fifth in 2016), and Kenyan Lawi Lalang.
The first runners will go off at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. The women's pro race will be at 7:52 p.m., the men's pro race will start at 8:01.
Etc.
• Hamline, which qualified for the NCAA tournament with an 8-7 decision over Augsburg in the Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference Championship game Saturday, will play a second-round game Sunday at lllinois Wesleyan in Bloomington, Ill.
• Wayzata graduate Sarah Burnham and Katie Sharp each shot 2-under-par 70 for Michigan State, and the Spartans were third as a team after one round of their 54-hole NCAA women's golf regional in Austin, Texas. The host Longhorns were first, with Arkansas second.
• The Minnesota State Mankato women's golf team is tied for 11th after the first round of their 54-hole NCAA Super Region 3 tournament in St. Charles, Mo. The Mavericks men were tied for 19th after the first round of their regional in Findlay, Ohio.
