EMMETT LAURENT: Welcome back everyone to the Gold Standard. My name is Emmett Laurent and this sports broadcast is brought to you by the Minnesota Daily. There’s a lot to get to as the school year looms closer. So let’s get right into it.
In a few short days, the Olympics will start in Paris where the Gophers will have eight athletes competing across seven different sports. On the team USA side, the Gophers will have Sarah Bacon competing in diving, Matthew Wilkinson competing in track and field and Summer Schmidt, who will be competing in the Paralympics in swimming.
Moving on from Team USA, the Gophers will also have Ava Stewart competing in gymnastics for Team Canada, Bar Soloveychik competing in swimming for Team Israel, Airi Miyabe competing in volleyball for Team Japan; Devin Augustine competing in track and field for Team Trinidad and Tobago, and finally, Erik van Rooyen competing in golf for Team South Africa. The Olympics this year will feature golf for the first time ever. More information can also be found about these athletes’ amazing and incredible careers at the Minnesota Daily website.
Coach Wenbo Chen will also be joining the Team USA diving staff as an associate coach. Formerly, Wenbo Chen coached Team USA in 2008 and 2012, and Chen is extremely excited to get back to the team for this year. Now, he is gonna be able to coach Sarah Bacon, and the two have worked together for many years preparing for this moment after Bacon just fell short of the Olympic Games in 2020. Bacon will be competing in the three meter synchronized event on July 27th, as well as the three meter springboard event on August 9. You can find more information with my story at the mndaily.com.
The Gophers hockey team has signed transfer defender Sydney Morrow. Previously at Colgate University, she scored 39 points as a sophomore, good for 13 goals and 26 assists. This will be Morrow’s return to the Big Ten. Her freshman year, she played at Ohio State before transferring. In other news, Wren Warne-Jacobsen won her second straight figure skating title this past weekend. She scored a 54.00 on her short program and a 120.52 on her free skate. The championship took place actually right here in Minnesota in Richfield and Andrew Cornelius of the Minnesota Daily details this event in his article covering her incredible finish.
The Gophers golf team has named a new head coach, Matt Higgins, who previously coached D2 at Regis University. He’s ready to take on the task of coaching a Division I program, and you can read more about his journey and personality in an article by Champ Howard.
Now, with MLB and NHL drafts concluding recently, the Gophers now are one of two schools to have a player drafted in the NHL, MLB, NFL, and NBA. Most recently in the MLB draft, Connor Wietgrefe was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 7th round and Tucker Novotny was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 18th round. The only other school to accomplish this was Boston College.
A former Gopher, Cam Christie, who was recently drafted by the Clippers, finished his summer league stint off averaging 11.4 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game while playing 25.5 minutes per game. Christie turns 19 years old soon and has a bright future ahead of him in the NBA where he’s just playing in the same city as his brother, Max Christie, who also played in the Big Ten at Michigan State.
The Minnesota Vikings are set to start training camp here soon and big news out of the TCL Performance Center is that both first round picks have signed their rookie contracts. Two of the last to do so in the NFL. J.J. McCarthy, formerly from Michigan and Dallas Turner, formerly from Alabama, have both signed four year contracts with fifth year options at the end. This comes as a surprise to no one, but it’s good that they got their guys signed up for its training camp so they can participate. The new rookie QB is ready to compete in training camp, but barring any out of this world performances, Sam Darnold who the Vikings signed to a one year contract this off season will be the team starting QB entering the season.
Christian Derrissaw, the superstar left tackle for the Minnesota Vikings, has also recently signed a four year extension worth up to $113 million, including $77 million guaranteed. He’s now under contract with the team for the next six seasons. Now, the Minnesota Vikings have officially locked up two of their best players in Justin Jefferson and Christian Darrisaw for this foreseeable future.
The Minnesota Lynx will look to continue their dominance in the WNBA after All-Star break. Competing in the All-Star break was Napheesa Collier, a forward from the Minnesota Lynx who was thick in the MVP race. She only played three minutes in the All-Star game because it looks like she’s ready to get back to the regular season. Also, Kayla McBride, the sharp shooter from the Lynx, also competed in three point contests. However, she did not win. They currently sit atop the Western Conference at 17-8 and find themselves in the thick of the race to the championship. They most recently won the Commissioner’s Cup, which saw them have a 500,000 bonus to spread across the team. They beat the New York Liberty in that game and have beat them a few times this year.
The Minnesota Twins also have just come off All-Star break, finding themselves in a tricky situation with two of their best players, Royce Lewis and Carlos Correa, on the injured list. They will attempt to weather the storm until they can get back their two electric players, but for now, Byron Buxton, Carlos Santana and all the rotational pieces will just have to make do.
Well folks, that’s all the time we have, and thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Gold Standard. Look out for episodes every week, and this episode was once again brought to you by the Minnesota Daily, voiced by me, Emmett Laurent, and produced by Kaylie Sirovy.