Buri led the No. 5-ranked Tommies to two victories and the championship of the MIAC playoffs as he averaged 24 points a game, six assists a game, four rebounds a game and two steals a game, playing all 40 minutes in both wins.

In the 86-77 semifinal win over Macalester, Buri had 22 points and five assists. In the 73-61 championship win over Bethel, he had 17 of his 26 points in the first half and made four 3-pointers.

In 104 career games, Buri has 1,469 points, 158 3-pointers, 380 assists, 335 rebounds and 253 steals. The Tommies are 65-15 in his three seasons as a starter. Buri ranks sixth in UST career scoring, just 18 points out of fifth. He is also first in school history in career steals and assists.

Buri also was voted to the Verizon All-District Academic team and is now on the national ballot for Academic All-America consideration. He has a 3.345 grade point average in marketing.

Women's hoops loses in MIAC playoff semis

Senior forward Renee Willette had 15 points, seven rebounds and four steals to lead Carleton to a 71-62 victory over host St. Thomas in the MIAC womenís basketball semifinal playoff game last week.

Carleton avenged a 77-64 loss to St. Thomas on the same floor seven days earlier. The Tommies pulled within 62-55 and were at the foul line with 3:37 to play but missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and never got closer.

Missy Pederson scored a career-high 36 points and had four steals for the Tommies (21-5), including five 3-point baskets. Alissa Case had 10 points and five rebounds for UST.

Tommie freshmen Kristi Huegel and Vel Williams combined for 36 points in last weekís win over Carleton but were held to a combined nine points last Wednesday night.

Carleton shot 60 percent from the field in the first half and finished 51 percent on the night. They outrebounded the Tommies 40-31 and both teams had 17 turnovers. The Knights' bench also outscored UST's bench 19-1.

St. Thomas had its streak of consecutive NCAA playoff appearances end at 15. Carleton won the MIAC's automatic berth and St. Benedict (23-4) received an at-large bid ahead of the Tommies.

Linn wins 200 back; Jackson breaks record

St. Thomas freshman Dave Linn cruised to a victory in the 200 backstroke in last Saturday's final day of the MIAC Swimming and Diving Championships.

Meanwhile, UST sophomore Missy Jackson broke her second school record of the meet, taking fourth in Saturday's 200 breaststroke.

Linn, who tied for first in the 100 backstroke Friday, just missed an automatic qualifying time and easily eclipsed the "B" qualifying standard for next month's NCAA meet.

He is nearly a lock to make it to the March 21-23 national meet in Oxford, Ohio, in at least the 200 backstroke and possibly the 100 backstroke.

In team results, the Tommies took sixth out of 10 teams in the women's division and sixth out of eight teams in the men's division.

Linn also led off the fifth-place 400 free relay joining John Kuykendall, Jon Waataja and Nick Schleder for a time of 3:15.77.

Six other UST men placed in the consolation round. Schleder was 11th in the 200 back (2:04.21); Kuykendall was 14th in the 100 free (48.98); Brian Privette was 13th in the 200 breaststroke (2:21.05); Thai Nguyen was 15th in the 200 breaststroke (2:31.15); and Kevin Schlabach was 13th in the 200 butterfly (2:14.23).

For the UST women, Jackson added a fourth-place in the 200 breaststroke to her third in the 100 breaststroke from the day before. She clocked 2:29.91 to shatter a two-year old record of 2:32 held by Kathy Vaughn. Jackson joined Kristen Murray, Bridget Worrell and Mary Kay Mohs on the sixth-place 400 free relay in 3:47.70.

Five Tommies placed in Saturday's consolationsóMurray was 10th in the 100 free (55.58); Amy Reichow was 14th (2:40.39) and Mohs was 15th (2:40.99) in the 200 breaststroke; Kim Smith was 16th in the 200 butterfly (2:35.98); and Katie Kirchgessner was 16th in the 200 backstroke (2:23.17).

Baseball ranked No. 2 in D-III preseason poll

The St. Thomas baseball team is ranked second in the 2002 Division III national top 30 rankings by the American Baseball Coaches' Association.

Marietta (Ohio), which lost 8-4 to St. Thomas in the 2001 national championship game, received the No. 1 preseason ranking. The only other MIAC team ranked is St. Olaf at No. 28.