February is behind us and we say hello to March Madness. Madness it is too!!!  We have girls Regional Finals, boys sectional finals, the Memorial boys going for their first state hockey championship and the UW-Eau Claire Women going for a WIAC championship.

 

The Eau Claire Memorial boys hockey team will face Madison Edgewood at 2:30 for the state hockey championship. Memorial beat Superior 4-2 on Friday night to advance to the championship game. Memorial got goals by leading scorer Jefferson Dahl, Shayne McLaughlin, Ryan Falch and an empty netter by Mike Miettunen.  In the quarterfinal game on Thursday Memorial escaped with a 3-1 win over Janesville. Nate Verbracken scored two goals and Ben Kincaid scored the other goal for the Old Abes. One has to wonder what the Janesville coach thinks of the hockey talent in the north now after being beat by Eau Claire Memorial? On Wednesday this is what Janesville coach John Mauermann said to the Janesville Gazette newspaper.

“The word up north is that the overall hockey talent is down."

Here is the link to the article.

http://www.gazettextra.com/news/2008/feb/27/bluebirds-goal-make-eau-claire-memorial-sweat-fina/

 

The Memorial vs Madison Edgewood game can be seen on WQOW TV-18.

 

We have WIAA girls Regional Finals today as well. You can check out the schedule of area games on our website and come back for the scores.  Our picks include

EC Memorial over River Falls

EC North over Chippewa Falls

Amery over Hayward

Altoona over Durand

Neillsville over Northland Pines

Sparta over Pioneer Westfield

Colfax over Boyceville

Ladysmith over Park Falls

EC Regis over Prescott

Osseo-Fairchild over Mondovi

Flambeau over Prentice

Clayton over Frederic

Greenwood over Thorp

Eleva-Strum over Independence

Alma Center Lincoln over New Lisbon

 

We also have WIAA boys Sectional Finals today and Western Wisconsin could be very well represented down in Madison this year. Teams we expect to make the trip include Eau Claire North, Spooner, Eau Claire Regis, Luck and Eleva-Strum.

 

Eau Claire North fresh off their convincing win over Menomonie will face Wausau West in Marshfield at 8:00.

It's great to see sophomore Evan Anderson and junior Tyler Brown being aggressive and taking the ball to the basket like they are.

Eau Claire Regis fresh off their 50-30 win over Fall Creek will take on Webster at Eau Claire North. This is a rematch of last year's sectional final. Eau Claire Regis shot lights out from beyond the arc in last night's win over Fall Creek and their defense stifled the Crickets offense to just being a perimeter offense.

Will the Spooner Rails have anything left in the tank for their sectional final against Adams-Friendship at UW-Stout? Spooner had to play 2 overtimes before defeating Barron 51-47.

Luck escapes with a 48-46 win over Thorp and they will face Mellen in Spooner.

Eleva-Strum just keeps on rolling like a well-oiled machine. They defeated New Lisbon 73-38 and will now face Seneca in Onalaska.

Good luck to all the area teams and safe travels to all the fans.

 

The UW-Eau Claire Women's basketball team will be going for a WIAC championship at 3:00 at Zorn arena vs UW-Stevens Point. Michelle Burns and Missy Fremstad came up huge in the Blugolds 86-61 win over UW-Stout on Thursday night. Michelle Burns before the game was presented with the WIAC scholar-athlete of the year award.

 

Baldwin-Woodville basketball coach Scott Benoy and Lake Holcombe basketball coach Kent Kindschy were recently named head coaches for the WBCA Division 2 and Division 4 All-Star North squads. The All-Star games will be held at the Fieldhouse in Madison on June 21st.