BASKETBALL
CLASS 5A BOYS
2006-07 season nears final week
It’s the time of the season when the love runs high, and so does emotion toward securing a league title and top postseason seed. After the week, the regular season will be down to its final week. In Class 5A Jefferson County, Green Mountain at Chatfield, today at 7 p.m., figures to factor heavily into the league’s top placings. Two others on Friday at 7 p.m. can eventually cross league tapes to win by a nose if they have to – Doherty, which has a one-game lead in the 5A Colorado Springs Metro, will be at Wasson, and Smoky Hill, a game up in the 5A Centennial, will host Fairview. On Saturday at 1 p.m., the biggest city game should be Montbello at George Washington.
5A-4A GIRLS
Private or public
There’s nothing parochial about Holy Family at Faith Christian, today at 7 p.m., which goes beyond the Metropolitan League – it will be big for all of 3A. Friday’s Palmer at Air Academy, starting at 7 p.m., is top-flight 5A C.S. Metro play. And a 5A Continental standby, ThunderRidge at Heritage, will be Saturday at 7 p.m.
WRESTLING
5A-2A REGIONAL QUALIFYING
Four: fab number
It’s here … postseason wrestling. Y-E-S-S! For those of you not hip to the schoolboy rumble, it is annually the premier championship event for individuals. Don’t argue. No other sport draws more than 40,000 folks over three days. This weekend, keep in mind the number 4 for elimination rounds – each of the state’s four classes will have four regionals and four individual qualifiers by Saturday night for the Colorado tournament, Feb. 15-17 at the Pepsi Center. Of note, Limon’s Kevin LeValley will be wrestling for a chance at a fourth consecutive individual title.
SWIMMING
5A-4A LEAGUE MEETS
Two for the team
It’s all about a couple of meets. League gatherings, mainly throughout the Denver area and up and down segments of the Interstate 25 corridor, will be Friday and Saturday. Most worthy competitors have already qualified for state (Feb. 15-17, in Fort Collins), but this weekend and next will offer welcomed opportunities for schoolgirls to end their seasons and highlight their school-spirit ties to a team, the biggest difference year-round clubbers cite between their two pool choices.
ICE HOCKEY
FOOTHILLS CONFERENCE
Frozen finales
The regular season that grew to 25 teams, six more than in 2005-06, will be capped Saturday with a 10-game slate, notably Regis versus Standley Lake in higher-end Foothills at the Promenade in Westminster at 5 p.m. As with girls swimming and wrestling, ice hockey’s postseason seeding meeting will be Sunday at the Colorado High School Activities Association’s office in Aurora. Sixteen teams will have the chance for more pucks.
