BASEBALL
CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Pennant push to be capped
Cap-tipping will be in vogue Saturday, when Colorado crowns five champions, its most since 1994, back in the days of Class 6A. Teams play elimination rounds Friday, before moving on to Denver’s All-City Stadium (5A, 4A) and Pueblo’s Runyon Complex (3A, 2A and 1A, the latter being the newest group) for Saturday’s title games. There may be more than one game Saturday in the top three classes as an added bonus, depending on what happens in earlier double-elimination rounds, but baseball, a staple locally since sanctioning in 1950, has been competitive, interesting and worth watching in 2007.
SWIMMING
STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Water worlds
It will be cool in the pool at Edora Pool Ice Center in Fort Collins beginning today at 4 p.m. with the 4A preliminaries. Friday will see double duty with the 5A preliminaries at 9 a.m., 4A diving preliminaries at noon and 4A finals at 5 p.m. Saturday will be all about 5A – diving preliminaries at 10:30 a.m., and swimming and diving finals at 3:30 p.m. that will include Heritage star Mark Dylla attempting to win his seventh and eighth individual state titles.
SOCCER
SUPER SATURDAY
Get your kicks
For girls, it will be all soccer all day Saturday at Englewood’s Pirate Stadium. Class 5A will have semifinals at 10 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. 4A’s final four is set for 2:30 and 4:45 p.m. 3A will play its finale at 7:30 p.m. All told, a minimum of 400 minutes. The over-under on the day being wrapped up is midnight when considering the usual needs for overtime, shootouts and injuries.
LACROSSE
BOYS CHAMPIONSHIP
Mile High title
In the lone spring championship set to be decided at a professional venue, boys lacrosse has moved its finale from Friday to Saturday to take advantage of Invesco Field at Mile High. Fort Collins will meet Kent Denver at 5 p.m.
TRACK & FIELD
BOYS-GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Prep Olympics
The colorful pageantry of track and field, which uniquely combines individual and team efforts, will roll into Lakewood (Jefferson County Stadium for 5A-4A) and Pueblo (Dutch Clark Stadium for 3A-2A) on Friday and Saturday. The upper crust of jumpers, runners and throwers will have a mix of prelims and selected finals into early Friday night, then the cap will begin Saturday at 9:25 a.m. (in Lakewood) and 10 a.m. (in Pueblo).
GOLF
GIRLS 5A-4A CHAMPIONSHIPS
Major moves
The schoolgirl season will be completed with Monday and Tuesday rounds (5A at Patty Jewett Golf Course in Colorado Springs and 4A at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Windsor). Favored Littleton junior Becca Huffer is in hot pursuit of her second consecutive 5A title.
