With state tournament teams decided in Classes 1A and 2A, we can now start the bracketology process and take a look at how the state pairings may shape up.  Brackets will be announced by CHSAA on Sunday with first round games set for Thursday in both Greeley and Loveland.  RPI will play a major role in the process and the final and official standings won’t be published until Sunday morning around 8:00am, but we can still take a crack at potential pairings.  We also list the next round of games for the largest three classifications.
In Class 1A, we’re using RPI standings from Saturday afternoon published at 3:23pm.  The numbers do not include Kit Carson’s win over South Baca so that would move them back up to #1.  With the standings now, they are second behind Kim/Branson but the committee will make KC number one regardless in our opinion.  So with the updated pairings, the bracket shapes up in this manner.

  • #1 Kit Carson vs #8 Belleview Christian
  • #4 Fleming vs #5 Briggsdale
  • #2 Kim/Branson vs #7 North Park
  • #3 Holly vs #6 Heritage Christian

Now the glaring conflict there is #4 vs #5 pitting Fleming against Briggsdale in the opening round.  Like we’ve mentioned in our blog throughout the day, we believe the committee will avoid putting teams from the same district in a first round matchup.  So we flip Holly and Fleming and that forces us to move North Park and Heritage Christian in between spots as well.  And those moves gets us back to the bracket we’ve “pitched” most of the day.

  • #1 Kit Carson vs #8 Belleview Christian
  • #4 Holly vs #5 Briggsdale
  • #2 Kim/Branson vs #7 Heritage Christian
  • #3 Fleming vs #6 North Park

For Class 2A, new RPI standings have also been issued (3:23pm) and they seem to be quite a bit better from where we started the day and what we’ve been posting throughout the day in our regional tournament blog.  Using the new standings, team could then be seeded in this order.

  • #1 Yuma
  • #2 Simla
  • #3 Wray
  • #4 Holyoke
  • #5 Limon
  • #6 Rangely
  • #7 Clear Creek
  • #8 Ignacio

And that changes up the bracket quite a bit from what appeared earlier today….and it’s an improvement as head-to-head results are in order since Simla beat Limon and Wray beat Holyoke during the regular season.  I strongly believe this is what the pairings will look like on Sunday.

  • #1 Yuma vs #8 Ignacio
  • #4 Holyoke vs #5 Limon
  • #2 Simla vs #7 Clear Creek
  • #3 Wray vs #6 Rangely

Classes 3A, 4A and 5A play a straight bracket all the way through from start to finish so here are the pairings for the next round of games on Thursday.  Game times are already set for 4A and 5A and the 3A tip times will be released on Sunday.
 
CLASS 3A GIRLS — STATE QUARTERFINALS
Thursday March 8th — University of Denver
#1 Kent Denver (21-3) vs #8 Moffat County (19-5)
#4 Colorado Springs Christian (21-3) vs #5 Centauri (21-2)
#2 Pagosa Springs (20-3) vs #10 Lamar (20-4)
#3 St Mary’s (23-1) vs #6 Cedaredge (21-3)
 
CLASS 4A GIRLS — STATE SEMIFINALS
Thursday March 8th — Denver Coliseum
4:00pm:  #8 Mesa Ridge (23-3) vs #12 Pueblo South (17-9)
5:30pm:  #6 Evergreen (24-2) vs #15 Widefield (21-5)
 
CLASS 5A GIRLS — STATE SEMIFINALS
Thursday March 8th — Denver Coliseum
7:00pm:  #4 Grandview (23-3) vs #8 Fossil Ridge (20-5)
8:30pm:  #2 Lakewood (23-3) vs #8 Regis Jesuit (23-3)