Girls head to Del Norte

    After over 400 miles of traveling, No. 11 Lady Dragons will be ready to take on No. 22 Vail Christian at the regional basketball tournament hosted by Del Norte in south central Colorado. The game begins at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 2.
    The matchup follows the 6 p.m. game featuring No. 6 Del Norte vs. No. 27 Dolores.
    The two winners from Friday will face off in the championship game Saturday at 1 p.m. The champion will advance to the state tournament March 8-10 in Loveland.
    In a change from last year, four teams (instead of three) moved on to regionals from each district tournament. The eight district champions were seeded in the top eight spots and got the opportunity to host regionals this weekend. The other 24 teams were ranked based on their rating percentage index.
    Dragon coach John Baumgartner said Holyoke’s league was pushing for more representation at regionals since it’s such a strong league. At the 2017 state tournament, Wray finished second, Yuma third and Haxtun fifth. Holyoke did not make it past districts because they finished fourth.
    “There are some teams in regionals who wouldn’t compete in our league,” said Baumgartner. Hopefully the competitiveness of the league prepared Holyoke for a strong regional showing, he added.