Minnesota Gophers Hire Gretta Melsted as New Softball Coach
Melsted has had a very successful career at DII Augustana
On Thursday Minnesota Athletic Director Mark Coyle announced that The University of Minnesota has hired Gretta Melsted as their new softball coach. Melsted comes to Minnesota from Division II Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota where she had been the head coach for the past 20 seasons. In her time with the Vikings, Melsted led Augustana to 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, the 2019 NCAA Division II National Championship and five consecutive NSIC regular season titles from 2021-25 and most recently helped the Vikings win the 2026 NSIC Tournament.
Melsted is an Albert Lea native who played college softball for Carleton where she still holds the school record for runs scored in a season. She would go on to be an assistant coach for both Robbinsdale Cooper and Armstrong high school and Carleton before being hired as the head coach at Culver-Stockton University. She stayed their for three seasons before taking over the Augustana program.
At Augustana, Melsted led the Vikings to an 813-313 overall record, including seven seasons with 50-plus wins, highlighted by a program-best 61-win season in 2019. She was inducted into the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame in December 2024. Melsted led Augustana to the 2019 NCAA Division II National Championship after guiding the Vikings to a 10-2 record in the NCAA postseason.
Augustana defeated No. 2 Winona State in regionals and No. 1 Central Oklahoma in super regionals, both on the road, before earning a pair of 6-4 wins against Texas A&M-Kingsville in the championship series.