Winter sports playoffs are upon us

Friday marks the final night of Mid-Columbia Conference basketball, and a few things are still up in the air.

Like who is going to be the top 3A boys seed? Or who gets to host a district game in 4A girls?

Here is what we have in each classification:

▪ In 4 boys, Richland is top seed after going 16-0 through MCC play. They open district play at home next year Wednesday. Chiawana is No. 2 seed, but Hanford and Walla Walla are tied for the third seed. Both will advance to district play.

▪ In 4A girls, Chiawana is the top seed, but Richland and Pasco could potentially tie for the second seed, especially if Pasco loses to powerhouse Kamiakin on Friday. If that’s the case, the tiebreaker is who has the higher ranking in the state RPI rankings.

As of Thursday afternoon, Pasco is ranked 30, while Richland is 32nd. Walla Walla will be No. 4 seed.

▪ In 3A boys, Kamiakin and Hermiston are tied for first. They split their series, and if they end up tied after Friday’s games, we go to RPI. Thursday afternoon, Hermiston is 20th and Kamiakin is 22. Kennewick is the No. 3 seed.

▪ In 3A girls, we’re set. Kamiakin is No. 1, Kennewick is No. 2, and Hermiston is No. 3.

▪ In the CWAC district tournament, there are two girls games on Friday. Ephrata visits East Valley, while Othello is at Ellensburg. Both are loser-out contests.

The boys open play on Saturday, with Toppenish at Grandview, and East Valley at Ephrata. Again, both games are loser-out contests.

▪ 1A SCAC district play begins next week.

▪ The 2B EWAC league tournament is Friday and Saturday at Granger High. Eight boys teams and eight girls teams are looking for one of the six available district tournament berths.

On Friday, here’s the boys schedule: Kittitas vs. Walla Walla Valley Academy, 2 p.m.; DeSales vs. White Swan at 3:30 p.m.; Columbia-Burbank vs. Tri-Cities Prep at 6:30 p.m.; and Lyle-Wishram vs. Liberty Christian at 8 p.m.

The Friday girls’ schedule: White Swan vs. Walla Walla Valley Academy at 12:30 p.m.; DeSales vs. Tri-Cities Prep at 5 p.m.; Kittitas vs. Liberty Christian at 6:30 p.m.; and Columbia-Burbank vs. Mabton at 8 p.m.

Prep wrestling picture

Postseason wrestling action gets under way this weekend in every classification.

▪ The five Class 4A teams of the Mid-Columbia Conference – Chiawana, Hanford, Pasco, Richland and Walla Walla – gather at Chiawana High School at 10 a.m. Saturday. Wrestlers qualifying for regionals will head to Camas the following weekend for regionals. That tournament will include wrestlers from the Greater Spokane League and the host Greater St. Helens League.

▪ In Class 3A, eight teams – Hermiston, Kamiakin, Kennewick, Mt. Spokane, North Central, Rogers, Shadle Park and Southridge – will compete Friday (3:30 p.m.) and Saturday (10 a.m.) for regional berths. Qualifiers will advance to Yelm the following weekend, where they’ll compete against wrestlers from the South Sound League.

▪ The entire 10-team 2A Central Washington Athletic Conference will wrestle for regional berths at 4 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday at Wapato. Regional qualifiers will move next weekend to Ellensburg, where they’ll also compete against wrestlers from the Great Northern League.

▪ In Class 1A, SCAC East wrestlers will meet at 10 a.m. Saturday to determine regional qualifiers. Those qualifiers will compete the following weekend against the SCAC West’s best in Royal City.

▪ And in girls wrestling, this region is split into two sub-regionals. One is in Sunnyside, which starts at 5 p.m. Friday and resumes at 11 a.m. Saturday. It’ll include the MCC, District 5 and District 9.

The second is at Eastmont, and will include Othello, Kiona-Benton, Royal, Wahluke and Warden.

The top four placers in both girls tournaments will advance to regionals in Othello on Feb. 8-9.

More prep notes

▪ Congrats to Diego Gutierrez of Pasco for hitting his 1,000th career point in the Bulldogs’ loss to Richland on Tuesday night. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

Gutierrez, a senior who played all four seasons with the Bulldogs, has been the consummate teammate, always pumping his teammates up, being their cheerleader, all during a run where maybe the victories didn’t come along very often.

When he hit that free throw, the emotions came flowing out. It meant a lot to him. But it meant a lot to everyone else. His teammates hugged him and patted him on the back.

People in the stands had white pieces of paper with the number 1,000 on it, and they all raised them over their heads in his honor.

▪ A family member told me this week that Richland’s Cody Sanderson plans to sign on Feb. 6 with Central Washington University football. He will play at wide receiver.

▪ Kennewick athletic director Anna Harris said progress is being made to find a new head football coach to replace Bill Templeton, who stepped down in November. “We are working on interviews the next few weeks,” Harris said.

▪ Same story at Walla Walla, where Eric Hisaw stepped down around the same time as Templeton. “We have currently completed the screening process and will be interviewing potential candidates next week,” said Wa-Hi athletic director Dirk Hansen.

▪ Hanford safety Chris Gray announced he will be playing at Eastern Oregon University next fall. Same with Pasco High wide receiver Riley Brown.

▪ Hanford boys swimming star Skylar Younkin will compete next fall at Purdue University. That’s a big signing. Younkin won the 4A 100-yard butterfly at the state meet last year.

▪ Hermiston’s Scout Reagan has signed a letter of intent to run track for the University of Montana women’s track and field team next fall.

▪ Chiawana kicker Ryan Lowry has signed to play for Montana Tech next fall.

▪ Ellensburg standout Steele Venters said he’ll announced his final three college choices, but only until after the season is over. Venters is the son of former Richland High standout Wade Venters.