Playoff Roundup: Regional wrestling and district swimming cancelled; district basketball postponed to next week

Published 1:30 am Friday, February 8, 2019

There was a full slate of games and events planned for Friday and Saturday as the high school sports season hits the heart of the playoffs, but a huge Pacific Northwest snowstorm has wiped out everything.

The North Kitsap and Olympic boys basketball teams were set to tipoff their second round West Central District III tournament games tonight and Kitsap swimmers were ready to head to the district meet in Renton.

Saturday was set up to feature the 2A regional wrestling tournament at North Mason, as well as a loser out game for South Kitsap against Kennedy Catholic and day two of the district swim meet.

Regional wrestling and district swimming cancelled

While the basketball games have been postponed, with the possibilty of some sort of modified bracket if the poor weather persists through next week, the wrestling and swim meets were wiped out entirely.

The WIAA announced Friday that its staff and event managers would put together a 32-wrestler brackets for the Mat Classic, which is still scheduled for Feb. 15-16 at the Tacoma Dome. The brackets are scheduled to be released on Monday, Feb. 11.

The same fate befell the district swim meet. The Renton School District announced Thursday that it would close at noon on Friday, preventing the meet from being held at the Lindbergh (diving) and Hazen (swimming) pools.

Swimmers in the top seven on the district meet psych sheets will get the automatic allocations to the state meet from District III and wildcard slots will be determined by the WIAA, said Bryce Jensen, the pool supervisor at Lindbergh in an email to coaches and athletic directors.

“This has not been an easy decision for anyone involved,” Jensen wrote.

District basketball postponed

With all Friday and Saturday games postponed, the tournament could theoretically resume Monday or Tuesday. However, with the possiblity of more inclement weather on the way, District III and the WIAA could turn to more drastic measures.

Sumner Athletic Director Tim Thomsen said Thursday the district is working on a number of contingency plans.

One possibility is using a modified bracket to set up the regional tournament, which would skip games that are solely for seeding.

For example, if the Olympic and North Kitsap boys are able to win their next games, whenever they are played, and advance to the final four, the district could take those four teams and seed them by RPI for the regional round. However, teams on the left side of the bracket would likely have to face a compressed schedule in order to get those final regional spots.

— Mark Krulish is a reporter for Kitsap News Group. He can be reached at mkrulish@soundpublishing.com. Follow him on Twitter @MKrulishKDN.