With district tournaments in 1A and 2A winding down today, we wanted to provide a quick breakdown of the most important games on the schedule in each class. Most of the qualifiers for regional tournaments next week have been decided so teams are now focused on positioning for those brackets.
In Class 1A, district titles are nice but honestly not that important these days as regional brackets are set by RPI. So, the focus turns to third place games as those serve as elimination games as only the winners keep their seasons alive. And those results will also impact regional tournament seeding as well.
For the boys’ bracket, the third-place games are as follows:
- District 2: Cheyenne Wells vs Cheraw
- District 4: Longmont Christian vs Fleming
- District 5: Stratton/Liberty vs Flagler/Hi Plains
- District 6: Sangre De Cristo vs Primero
- District 7: Kiowa vs Deer Trail
Fans also keep watch on the championship games in Districts 1 and 8 as those results will set the pairings in Region One. The champion from each district squares off against the second-place team from the other next Saturday in Glenwood Springs and winners of each contest receives a state tournament bid.
The same scenario exists in the girls’ bracket as Dove Creek meets North Park in the District 1 finals and Cornerstone Christian faces Belleview Christian for the District 8 championship. All four squads head to Glenwood Springs next week but results from today set the matchups.
Concerning third place games, here’s the list for 1A girls.
- District 2: McClave vs Cheyenne Wells
- District 4: Longmont Christian vs Heritage Christian
- District 5: Idalia vs Otis
- District 6: Sierra Grande vs La Veta
- District 7: Edison vs Elbert
The situation is the direct opposite in Class 2A as teams are scrambling for district championships as the clubs are rewarded with the right to host a regional event next week. Crowley County became the first boys team to earn a host seed with their District 6 championship win over Fowler on Friday. The Swink girls also beat Fowler on Friday to earn the same advantage in the girls District 6 bracket.
Today there are seven championship games in both Class 2A boys and girls and each winner will host a regional tournament next week. The district winners are seeded one through eight based on RPI and upsets by lower seeded teams will shake up the bracket quite a bit.
Every girls’ bracket still has their number one seed in position to land a district title except for District 7. That’s where #4 Dayspring Christian knocked out #1 Highland on Friday. The Eagles face #3 Clear Creek today as the Golddiggers beat #2 Lyons on Friday as well.
Number one seeds in the District 5 and 8 boys’ tournaments lost on Friday so those brackets will cause some disruption in the regional seeding. #2 Meeker and #5 Hotchkiss battle for the District 5 championship and Evangelical Christian and Ellicott meet for the District 8 crown. The Eagles and Thunderhawks beat the top two seeds, Calhan and Ellicott, in semifinal action Friday night.
Two of the 32 spots in the 2A regional bracket remain up for grabs today. In the boys’ division, Telluride faces Ridgway for the third and final berth from District 3 and in District 5, only the winner between Paonia and Plateau Valley advance to next week.
For the girls, the winner between Norwood and Telluride earns third place and a regional berth from District 3 and Paonia tangles with Hotchkiss for fifth place in District 5.
Colorado Preps will track all the action throughout the day on our Daily Scoreboards. We’ll also start to project out regional brackets in Classes 1A and 2A as district tournaments start to conclude.
