Pointer basketball teams fall to Platteville in tourney The Pointers men's and women's basketball teams were bumped from the WIAC tournament by UW-Platteville, the men on Tuesday and the women on Wednesday. Men's Basketball Platteville's Bryan Stangel rebounded, missed a free throw with five seconds left and connected on a 30-footer at the buzzer to hand the Pointers a 57-56 defeat. The Pointers led, 51-40, with 5:36 left when Platteville went on 10-0 run. Brent Larson (Ladysmith) hit two free throws with 11 seconds left, but UW-Platteville's Bryan Stangel made an uncontested layup with six seconds to cut the Pointer lead to 56-54, setting the stage for Stangel's heroics. The Pointers' three seniors led the team in scoring. Jay Bennett (Rhinelander) had 22, including five of eight three-point attempts. Joe Zuiker (Port Edwards) added 15 and Larson 12. The loss dims the Pointers' prospects for appearing in the NCAA Division III Tournament with an 18-7 record. All the Pointers' losses came against WIAC opponents. The Pointers had completed their comeback over the past few weeks with a victory Saturday to finish as co-champions of the WIAC with UW-Whitewater. It marked UW-SP's second straight WIAC title. The Pointers earned the share of the title with a 76-61 road win at UW-Superior. Jay Bennett (Rhinelander) scored 16 points, grabbed nine rebounds and added five assists at Superior. Josh Iserloth (Plymouth) scored 13 points. The Pointers were eight-for-16 from three-point range in the game. Women's Basketball The women's team lost to UW-Platteville Wednesday night, 80-78, also in the final minutes of a WIAC semifinal game. Platteville's Buechel hit a running jumper in the lane with 5.9 seconds left for the game-winner. A jumper by the Pointers' Tara Schmitt (Brookfield) at the buzzer bounced off the rim. Platteville advances to the WIAC title game for the first time ever and will play at UW- Eau Claire Saturday. UW-SP had a 14-point lead in the first half but Platteville cut it to four, 41-37 at the half. Kari Groshek (Rosholt) and Carry Boehning (Auburndale) led the Pointers with 23 points each, and Andrea Kraemer (Waukesha) had 12. The Pointers were the No. 3 seed in the tournament and UW-Platteville, which knocked off second seed UW-Oshkosh on Monday, was the seventh seed. On Monday the Pointers won their first WIAC tournament game in three appearances, defeating UW-La Crosse, 68-46. The Pointers led 15-8 with 12:02 left in the first half and went on a 9-0 run over the next five minutes for a 24-8 lead and La Crosse came no closer than 12 points the rest of the way. Groshek led UW-SP with 15 points, Cassandra Heuer (Two Rivers) had 11 and Schmitt and Amie Schultz (Appleton) added 10 each. UW-Stevens Point entered the tournament coming off its best offensive week in school history, scoring over 90 points in back-to-back games for the first time ever. The Pointers beat UW-River Falls, 90-59, on Wednesday and UW-Superior, 93-45, on Saturday. UW-Stevens Point's average margin of victory in its last eight regular-season wins was 23.5 points. Schultz led the Pointers with 17 points against UW-Superior and Heuer added 16 points on seven-for-seven field goal shooting. Freshman Renee Schartner (Luxemburg) chipped in 11 points. Men's Hockey The Pointers bounced back from a tough regular season finish to make history last weekend, becoming the first-ever team to win an NCHA quarterfinal series on the road with 8-3 and 3-2 wins at UW-Stout. The Pointers are now 17-10 overall. UW-SP, the fifth seed, will now travel to top-seeded UW-Superior, which has won 17 straight games, for games Friday and Saturday, Feb. 23 and 24. UW-River Falls hosts St. Norbert in the other semifinal series. The road wins were nothing new for the Pointers, who are now 8-8-2 all-time in NCHA playoff games, despite the lack of postseason success of other road teams. UW-SP roared to an 8-0 lead after two periods on Friday as Ryan Maxson (Bloomington, Minn.) and Mikhail Salienko (Riga, Latvia) each scored two goals. Matt Interbartolo (Toronto, Ont.) had a goal and three assists. Nick Glander (Brookfield) also had a goal in Friday's game and scored two of the three goals in Saturday's win as the Pointers jumped out to a 3-0 lead. The Pointers lost both of their regular season meetings to UW-Superior, 4-1 at home and 6-1 in Superior, in a game that featured 173 penalty minutes. The Yellowjackets beat the Pointers in last season's NCHA championship series. Women's Hockey UW-Stevens Point plays its final regular season series this weekend in River Falls before beginning the NCHA playoffs the following weekend. The Pointers are 12-10-1 overall and 9-4-1 in the NCHA. The Pointers dropped two more close games last weekend, falling to UW-Superior 2-1 both nights as six of their 10 losses this season have now been by one-goal margins. Three of their four losses to UW-Superior this season have been by 2-1 scores. Nicole Busse (Stevens Point) and Becky Humphreys (Roseville, Minn.) scored the Pointers' goals. Diane Sawyer (Stillwater, Minn.) made 23 saves on Friday and 29 stops on Saturday, while also assisting on the lone goal in Friday's game. UW-Superior clinched the top seed for the NCHA playoffs March 3-4 in River Falls with its two wins and will face fourth-seeded Lake Forest in one semifinal. UW-Stevens Point and UW-River Falls will meet in the other semifinal and will play this weekend, essentially to determine jersey colors. The Pointers would be the No. 2 seed with a tie, while UW-River Falls needs a sweep to earn second place. Swimming And Diving The Pointers made it two straight WIAC titles on both the men's and women's sides, winning both titles by wide margins at last weekend's conference meet in Oshkosh. In fact, the Pointers won all 10 of the relay events and had 13 individual champions for 23 of the 40 titles. The men's team had 966 points compared to 721 points for second place UW-La Crosse. The women's team totaled 836.5 points and UW-Eau Claire was second with 727.5 points. Randy Boelk (Embarrass, Minn.) won all seven events he entered over the weekend, taking the 400 individual medley, 200 individual medley and 200 backstroke as well as four relays he participated in. His 400 medley win was his fourth straight and he completes his Pointer career with a WIAC record 23 titles (10 individual, 13 relays), which is five more than any other swimmer in conference history. His 10 individual titles are also the most in WIAC history. He also has six WIAC titles, which is three more than any other WIAC swimmer in history. Boelk set the WIAC record in the 200 backstroke at 1:50.63 and joined Mark Hanson (Menomonee Falls), Eric Sands (South St. Paul, Minn.) and Anthony Harris (St. Paul, Minn.) to set the 400 freestyle relay record at 3:06.80. Tim Benjamin (Forest Lake, Minn.) also won two individual titles and a relay, while being named the WIAC scholar athlete. Harris won four relays and the 100 freestyle title, while Nick Hansen (West Bend) was on three relays and won the 50 freestyle title. Chris Hansman (Neenah) won the three-meter diving event. Christine Sammons (Hastings, Minn.) set two WIAC records and was a part of a record-setting relay for the women's team. Sammons set the records in the 100 breaststroke at 1:07.88 and 200 breaststroke 2:24.42 and was a member of the winning 200 medley relay at 1:48.47. Mary Thone (Minneapolis, Minn.) won the 100 butterfly and 200 butterfly, while also swimming on four winning relays. Alissa Bartz (Beloit) and Amy Rockwell (Zeeland, Mich.) were also on four winning relays. Jen Randall (Wisconsin Rapids) was second in three individual events and swam on three winning relays. Wrestling Nathan Preslaski (Pulaski) defeated top-seeded Josh Ernst of UW-La Crosse 3-2 at 157 pounds to earn an automatic berth in the NCAA Division III wrestling championships and led UW-Stevens Point to a second-place finish at Sunday's WIAC championships at the Quandt Fieldhouse. Preslaski, a junior, was the Pointers' lone individual conference champion, but will be joined at nationals by senior Wes Kapping (Spring Valley), who finished second at 174 pounds and earned one of three at-large berths to the national meet. The Division III championships will be March 2-3 in Waterloo, Iowa. The Pointers finished second to UW-La Crosse for the second straight year. UW-SP had 98 team points and UW-La Crosse had 156 points for its fourth straight title. UW-SP had two other wrestlers earn runner-up finishes in freshman Yan White (Antigo) at 197 pounds and senior Ben Kureck (Delafield) at 184 pounds. Brady Holtz (Oconto Falls) was third at 133 pounds. Indoor Track And Field UW-SP's women's team captured the team title and the Pointer men were second at last weekend's Pointer Invitational. This weekend, the Pointers travel to Oshkosh for their final tune-up for the conference meet, which will be March 2-3 in Stevens Point. Jenny Todd (Schofield) won both the 55 meter dash and the 200 meter dash for the women's team. Jen Hau (Glenbeulah) won the 55 hurdles and the pole vault. Noah Eschenbach (Rosholt) was the lone double-winner for the men's team, winning the shot put and the weight throw. The Pointer men also automatically qualified a pair of relays for the NCAA Division III championships, running the distance medley relay in a national-best time of 9:58.84 and also winning the 4x400 relay in 3:18.22, which is the second best time in the country this season. Matt Buska (Mosinee), Jesse Drake (Rhinelander), Chris Horvat (Menomonee Falls) and Ben Treptow (Viroqua) were on the distance medley relay, while Craig Gunderson (Waupaca), Horvat, Eric Miller (Green Bay) and Trevor Nobile (West Bend) were on the 4x400 relay.