UW-Stevens Point has climbed to second place in the latest Sears Director’s Cup Standings, which recognizes the top overall athletics program in the country.

The Pointers have 531 points and trail defending champion Williams (Mass.) by 75 points. UW-La Crosse is in third place with 505 points. The standings include over 380 Division III schools, including 241 schools which have earned points.

The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference has five schools in the top 20 as UW-Eau Claire is currently 12^th, while UW-Whitewater is 15^th and UW-Oshkosh is 17^th.

Points are awarded through finishes in NCAA tournament competition. UW-Stevens Point’s latest additions were 77 points with a seventh place finish in men’s swimming and diving and 60 points for a fifth place finish in men’s basketball. The points are adjusted based on the number of teams in a particular tournament.

The Pointers finished 17^th in last year’s standings with a total of 230 points for the year, marking their third straight year in the top 20. UW-Stevens Point’s highest finish was seventh place in 1998.

The Pointers still have a chance to accumulate more points in the spring as the baseball and softball teams have each made three NCAA tournament appearances in the past four years. Outdoor track and field is only included if the result is better than the indoor performance, however, UW-Stevens Point finished fourth in the men’s indoor and 24^th in the women’s indoor.

Having won nine of its last 10 games, the UW-Stevens Point baseball team is ranked 23^rd in the latest NCAA Division III poll by the American Baseball Coaches Association.

The Pointers are 13-4 overall and have outscored their opponents 112-37 this season. All four of their losses are by two runs or less. Included in the record is a split with fourth-ranked Ohio Wesleyan and a 3-0 mark against Division II competition.

UW-Stevens Point plays at Augsburg (Minn.) Friday at 2:30 p.m. in Minneapolis and at Marian at 1 p.m. Sunday in Fond du Lac.

The Pointer softball team dropped out of the latest rankings by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. However, UW-Stevens Point is the top vote-getter not in this week’s poll with a 10-5-1 overall record and five votes.