Saturday marks the final day of district tournament play in Classes 1A, 2A and 3A.  Regional tournaments are set for next week and results from today will greatly impact the brackets for those events.  Throughout the day, we’ll provide some insight and thoughts on regional bracketing as results come in.
For Classes 1A, the top three seeds in the Northeast and Southeast brackets receive first round byes.  #4 faces #9, #5 vs #8 and #6 vs #7 in the first round.  For Class 2A, the district champions earn the right to host and will be seeded 1-8 by RPI.  In Class 3A, district champions earn the right to host if they finish in the top 16 of RPI.
8:48pm:  Colorado Springs Christian and Pagosa Springs scored big wins over St Mary’s and Centauri respectively to win 3A district crowns today.  Those two are guaranteed to host regionals next week along with Sterling, Kent Denver and Moffat County.  Academy and Weld Central won districts but sitting outside the top 16 in RPI, they will be on the road next week.  Taking their place as hosts will likely be Centauri, St Mary’s and Cedaredge.  The Bruins are one spot ahead of Lutheran in the most recent RPI standings.
8:00pm:  1A Western regional pairings are set – the games will be Saturday at Glenwood Springs – times TBA – winners of both contests advance to the state tournament

  • North Park vs Cornerstone Christian
  • Dove Creek vs Belleview Christian

7:51pm:  The 1A Northeast bracket seems to be in better shape to lay out nicely based on RPI.  Fleming has overtaken Briggsdale in the standings so the Wildcats appear to be the #1 seed with Briggsdale second and Heritage Christian third.  Arickaree Woodlin and Idalia sit fourth and fifth followed by Genoa Hugo, Flagler-Hi Plains, Kiowa and the winner of Edison/Elbert.  With that in mind, the pairings could be this.

  • #4 Arickaree/Woodlin vs Elbert-Edison – winner faces #3 Heritage Christian
  • #5 Idalia vs #8 Kiowa – winner faces #2 Briggsdale
  • #6 Genoa Hugo vs #7 Flagler/Hi Plains – winner faces #1 Fleming

7:47pm:  Looking at the 1A Southeast regional bracket – Kit Carson, Kim/Branson and Antonito currently have the top three seeds.  This is based on RPI posted at 5:30pm this afternoon so the order could change.  The remaining order by RPI would be Holly, Sangre De Cristo, McClave, Eads, Sierra Grande and South Baca.  That order would result in three first round matchups of district pairings so there would be changes.  Right now we would have the bracket like this.

  • #4 Holly vs #9 Sierra Grande – winner plays #3 Antonito
  • #5 Sangre De Cristo vs #8 Eads – winner plays #2 Kim
  • #6 McClave vs #7 South Baca – winner plays #1 Kit Carson

6:27pm:  RPI for 2A girls was updated around 3:30pm this afternoon so not all of the results have been tabulated.  But using those standings and district champions the top eight seeds seem to be in this order.  This example is using Del Norte and Yuma as district champions but neither has played their game yet

  1. Yuma
  2. Simla
  3. Limon
  4. Swink
  5. Rangely
  6. Del Norte
  7. Clear Creek
  8. Ignacio

Second nine appears like this – but again not all results have been tabulated in the RPI that we’re using

#9 Denver Christian

#10 Meeker

#11 Holyoke

#12 Wray

#13 Calhan

#14 Soroco

#15 Highland

#16 Haxtun

3:30pm:  Limon picks up a district championship win over Denver Christian 43-35 and that result will have major implications in the regional bracket.  Denver Christian entered the game second in RPI points but will not be placed higher than ninth in the bracket as they will sit behind the eight district champions.  Most likely the Thunder will head to Ignacio for regional as the Bobcats are the likely eighth seed.
2:36pm:  Clear Creek won the 3A Frontier title during the regular season and dropped into 2A for the post-season.  Now the Golddiggers will host a regional after handling Dayspring Christian 65-41 this afternoon.  Clear Creek is most likely the sixth or seventh seed when the brackets are announced on Sunday.  That’s if most or all of the favorites continue winning.
2:03pm:  Ignacio, as expected, landed the District 3 title with a convincing win over Dolores.  The Bobcats are a very good ballclub but likely will land the eighth overall seed in the regional bracket and that means a first round matchup against the likes of Denver Christian, Limon, Wray or Holyoke.
1:38pm:  Continuing our 3A discussion on hosting regionals – we’ll project these eight teams will host regionals.  As we mentioned, several square off tonight so putting them in some semblance of order 1-8 is almost impossible at this point.  But we believe that Centauri, Pagosa Springs, Sterling, St Mary’s, Colorado Springs Christian, Lutheran, Kent Denver and Moffat County will host.
1:35pm:  North Park has beaten Dove Creek 53-38 to win the District 1 championship.  Both teams are headed to regionals next week and will cross bracket with District 8 for the pairings.  That means North Park faces the loser between Cornerstone Christian and Belleview Christian next week and Dove Creek gets the winner.  Winners of both regional games advance to the state tournament.
1:01pm:  Very interesting scenario in the 1A Northeast regional concerning seeding.  Fleming just beat Briggsdale 49-41 to win the district championship.  It was the third win for Fleming over Briggsdale this year but going into the game the Falcons were the higher ranked team in the RPI.  If RPI is strictly used for regional seeding, then Briggsdale could still be the number one overall seed.  Hard to believe that the committee though won’t put Fleming at number one based on the three head-to-head wins.  That would leave Briggsdale as the number two and Heritage Christian as the likely #3.
12:52pm:  Deeper look into the 3A RPI sees only three of the top six teams in the rankings guaranteed to play at home next week.  That’s because they square off for district title games.  #1 St Mary’s meets #5 CS Christian for the Tri Peaks crown; #3 Pagosa Springs vs #4 Centauri in the IML and #2 Kent Denver against #6 Lutheran in the Metro.  But it’s a good bet all six will get to host regardless of outcome as winners of the Frontier and Confluence leagues won’t host; opening two more available slots for top eight seeds.
12:30pm:  3A Western Slope championship game is underway between Moffat County and Grand Valley.  Grand Valley is 13th and Moffat County 15th in RPI today and the winner must stay in the top 16 to host a regional event next week.  It’s another game that many of the highest ranked RPI teams are watching to see if they might be able to bypass the winner to host a bracket next Friday and Saturday.
11:06am:  Norwood downed Telluride 55-44 to finish third and earn a regional berth from District 3.  The Mavericks have not broken the top 50 in RPI so they will be one of the lowest seeds in the 32-team field and will be moved for travel purposes.  We can see them headed to either the Del Norte/Sanford or Meeker/Hotchkiss regional events based on who wins those district titles.
10:45am:  Paonia grabs the fifth and final regional spot from District 5 by beating Hotchkiss 46-44.  The Eagles are the defending state champions but are 26th in RPI at this time and could be one of those final seven teams in the bracket which could be moved for travel purposes.  It may keep them out west to visit the likes of the Ignacio, Del Norte or Sanford regionals if those teams earn the right to host.
10:30am:  Want to focus on 3A a bit – Weld Central and Sterling have won district championships but only the Tigers will be at home net week.  They’re 7th in RPI today and must finish in the top 16 to host so the Tigers are safe.  Weld Central is 26th and won’t be able to climb into the top 16.  Another wildcard spot to host will open once the Frontier title is decided.  Middle Park and Academy battle for that crown but neither is in position to host next week.  Middle Park is 33rd and Academy 25th in the RPI.
9:50am:  Sierra Grande (District 6) and Heritage Christian (District 4) picked up wins this morning to finish third in their respective district event.  They also advance to regionals next week.  Heritage Christian appears to be in line for the third seed behind Fleming and Briggsdale in the Northeast with Sierra Grande likely in the 7-8-9 spot in the Southeast region.  Could be moved to seventh to avoid a first round pairing with league rival Sangre De Cristo and Antonito.
8:45am:  Looking at the early 1A brackets, Kit Carson, Kim and Holly seem to have nailed down the top three seeds in the Southeast region and they should earn first round byes next week.  Sangre De Cristo and Antonito sit fourth and fifth in RPI at this point and they square off later today for the District 6 crown.  McClave and Cheyenne Wells meet for third in District 2 and should McClave win that contest, the Cardinals likely go in as the number six seed.  Eads and South Baca are seventh and ninth currently with the winner between Sierra Grande and La Veta could end up eighth.  In the Northeast, it will be interesting what will happen if Fleming beats Briggsdale for the District 4 crown.  Fleming has already beaten Briggsdale twice but sits behind them in the RPI standings Saturday morning.  Fleming is number two and should be the top overall seed if they knock off Briggsdale for a third time today.  The rest of the bracket is starting to take shape as well.  Heritage Christian is currently playing Longmont Christian for third in District 4 and a win there should get the Eagles to the third seed.  Arickaree/Woodlin and Idalia are fourth and fifth.  AW is in the bracket already but Idalia must beat Otis later today to secure a berth.  Genoa Hugo and Flagler/Hi Plains are sixth and seventh currently and both are in the bracket.  Kiowa may end up as the eighth seed with the winner between Elbert/Edison as the ninth overall seed.  Those seeds would prevent district pairings in the first round leaving teams most likely in place.