COLLEGE

Top-ranked Badgers cruise to victory

Special to the Journal Sentinel
Ice hockey

The top-ranked University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team ran into little resistance in its WCHA tournament opener on Friday.

The Badgers scored four goals in the second period and cruised to a 7-0 victory over Minnesota State at LaBahn Arena in Madison.

Sydney McKibbon opened the scoring at the 36-second mark of the second. She added another goal just under four minutes later. Annie Pankowski and Sam Cogan also lit the lamp for the Badgers (28-2-4) in the period.

Cogan also finished with two goals against the Mavericks (7-25-4).

UW goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens turned away 15 shots for another shutout.

MEN’S SWIMMING

Big Ten: UW placed seven swimmers among the 24 finalists in the 200-yard freestyle at the conference championships in Columbus, Ohio.

Brett Pinfold was fourth in 1:33.85 in the 200 as the Badgers piled up 87 points in the event.

Cannon Clifton was third in the 100 butterfly, setting a UW record in 45.81.

Horizon League: UW-Milwaukee’s Jacob Barson finished second in the 100 breaststroke in 55.37.

WOMEN’S SWIMMING

UW-Milwaukee sophomore Mandie Siehs won the Horizon League title in the 200 freestyle and Sarah Bentley took the crown in the 100 backstroke in Chicago.

The Panthers sit in second place with 449.5 points. Oakland is first with 539.5.

Siehs won her second straight title in 1:49.18 — two-hundredths of a second shy of the school record.

Bentley won her second straight 100 back title in 55.10.

TRACK AND FIELD

Morgan McDonald won the 3,000-meter title for the second straight year for the UW men and Taylor Amann won the pole vault for the Badgers women at the Big Ten indoor championships in Geneva, Ohio.

SOFTBALL

UW split two games at the Florida Golf Coast / Sheraton Invitational in Fort Myers, Fla.

In the first game, Kirsten Stevens struck out five to lead the Badgers over Florida International, 5-0, for their third shutout this season.

UW (9-2) managed just five hits in a 4-1 loss to Boston College.