Women's hockey advances to tourney The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point women's hockey team will take part in the first-ever NCHA women's championship this weekend, while two wrestlers compete in the NCAA Division III championships in Waterloo, Iowa. Both the men's and women's basketball teams failed to receive a bid to the NCAA Division III basketball tournament, despite the men finishing as WIAC co-champions and the women reaching the 20-win mark for the second time in history. Women's Hockey The Pointers, 12-12-1 overall and 9-6-1 in the NCHA, travel to River Falls this weekend for a game at 3 p.m. Saturday, March 3, against UW-River Falls. The Pointers will then play again at 3 p.m. Sunday in the championship contest if they beat River Falls or at noon in the consolation contest if they lose. They will face either UW-Superior or Lake Forest Sunday. UW-SP was swept last weekend by UW-River Falls, 5-0 and 6-2, to fall to the third seed. The Pointers will face a rematch with the second-seeded Falcons in the semifinals on Saturday Mandy Rhyner (Stevens Point) scored the first goal on Sunday and assisted on the other goal by Ashley Gregory (Stevens Point) in the 6-2 loss. Wrestling Nathan Preslaski (Pulaski) and Wes Kapping (Spring Valley) will both take part in this weekend's NCAA Division III championships in Waterloo, Iowa. It will be Preslaski's first appearance at the meet and the second straight trip for Kapping. Preslaski will compete at 157 pounds and Kapping will wrestle at 174 pounds. Swimming And Diving The Pointers had a week off to recover from their WIAC championships on both the men's and women's sides. UW-SP has another off weekend coming up before heading to Buffalo, N.Y. for the NCAA Division III championships. The women will compete March 8-10 and the men will swim March 15-17. On the women's side, the Pointers could surpass their 11th place finish from last season with some impressive relay seedings. The 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle are both seeded fifth, while the 200 medley is sixth and the 400 medley is seeded seventh. Alissa Bartz (Beloit), Erica Janssen (Oshkosh), Jen Randall (Wisconsin Rapids), Amy Rockwell (Zeeland, Mich.), Christine Sammons (Hastings, Minn.) and Mary Thone (Minneapolis, Minn.) will compete at nationals. The men's seedings will be released later. Men's Basketball The Pointers ended the season 18-7 overall and 10-6 in the WIAC with all their loses coming at the hands of conference opponents. The Pointers had their season come to an end on a long three-pointer at the buzzer for the second straight year and the third time in five years as UW-Platteville's Bryan Stangel sank a 30-footer as time expired for a 57-56 win Tuesday, Feb. 20, in the WIAC quarterfinals. UW-Eau Claire beat UW-Oshkosh, 76-63, in Saturday's championship game and is the only WIAC team advancing in the national tournament. Women's Basketball The Pointers reached the 20-win mark for just the second time in school history, but it wasn't enough to earn an NCAA Division III tournament berth. UW-SP's loss to UW-Platteville, 80-78, on Wednesday, Feb. 21, left the Pointers with a 20-6 overall record and an 11-5 mark in the WIAC. UW-Eau Claire beat UW-Platteville, 78-76, on a buzzer-beater in the championship on Saturday and will represent the conference in the tournament. UW-Oshkosh will also be in the tournament. Men's Hockey UW-SP saw its season end in the semifinals last weekend with 3-1 and 4-3 losses at UW-Superior. The Pointers end the year at 17-12 overall and will graduate 12 seniors from this year's squad. The Pointers were 7-7 in the NCHA. The Pointers fell behind 2-0 in Friday's game before Matt Interbartolo (Toronto, Ont.) scored with 1:20 left in the second period. However, UW-Superior came back with a goal with 38 seconds left in the period to push the lead back to two goals. On Saturday, the game was tied 1-1 as Interbartolo scored for the Pointers, but the Yellowjackets scored a second period goal and two third-period goals for a 4-1 lead. The Pointers scored twice in the final 1:32 on goals by Nathan Shasby (Eagle River, Alaska) and Mikhail Salienko (Riga, Latvia) to cut the lead to 4-3. UW-Superior will host UW-River Falls for the NCHA playoff title this weekend. Indoor Track And Field Jody Butkowski (Stevens Point) set a school record in the women's triple jump and Chris Horvat (Menomonee Falls) had the nation's fastest performance in the men's 800 meters this season to lead the Pointers at last weekend's UW-Oshkosh Invite. Butkowski had a leap of 37 feet, 3.75 inches to win the triple jump, and Horvat had a time of 1:53.42 in the 800 meters. The Pointers were second of nine teams in both the men's and women's standings and will host the WIAC indoor championships this weekend for the second time in three years at the Multi-Activity Center. Friday's events begin at 1 p.m. and Saturday's action starts at 9 a.m. with the awards ceremony set for 5:15 p.m. At the Oshkosh invite, both distance medley relay teams won titles as the women ran 12:11.96 and the men won in 10:07.74. Noah Eschenbach (Rosholt) also won the men's weight throw at 57 feet, one inch and was second in the shot put. Kyle Newman (Holmen) won the 200 meters in 22.78 seconds. Shane Suehring (Marion) was second in the mile. Nicki Van Gheem (Green Bay) was second in the women's 5,000 meters with a time of 20:05.34, despite running the event for the first time ever. Jenny Todd (Schofield) was second in the long jump and Lisa Brownie (Wisconsin Rapids) was second in the triple jump.