With all winter regular seasons finished earlier in the week and the Wyoming Valley Conference basketball playoffs wrapped up Saturday night, District 2 of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association is about to move full speed into the postseason.
The Dual Meet Wrestling Championships were the only District 2 competition already held, but boys and girls basketball, wrestling and the diving portion of swimming all will be in action in the week ahead.
Basketball gets it started with quarterfinal action Tuesday, but the first championships will be decided in wrestling and diving Saturday.
The basketball tournaments are all two-week events that conclude Feb. 27-29 at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. The swimming events will also be held that weekend.
BOYS BASKETBALL
Basketball sites and times will be announced Sunday.
Pairings are not technically official until then, but with all regular-season boys and all but one small school girls games complete going into weekend, the standings posted on the district website are as close to official as they can be.
Based on that, Pittston Area will take on WVC Division 1 champion Crestwood in Tuesday’s Class 5A quarterfinals.
The two teams split during the regular season and each finished 10-4 as part of a four-way tie on top of the division.
Pittston Area is 15-8 and the fifth seed in the ratings, which are based strictly on regular-season results, both league and non-league. Fourth-seeded Crestwood took an 18-6 record into Saturday’s WVC overall championship game against Wyoming Seminary.
The winner will likely take on top-seeded Wallenpaupack, the Lackawanna League Division 2 champion in Friday’s semifinals.
Wyoming Area (7-15) will be the seventh seed and meet second-seeded Valley View (15-7), likely at a Lackawanna County site, in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
The winner advances to Saturday’s semifinals.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Wyoming Area finished strong to reach 13-9 and make the eight-team field out of 11 eligible teams in Class 4A, but its reward is a game against District 2’s only unbeaten basketball team, defending district champion and Lackawanna League Division 1 champion Scranton Prep (22-0) Tuesday.
If the Lady Warriors can find a way through that game, which is likely to be played in Lackawanna County, they will advance to Friday’s semifinals.
Pittston Area (10-12) takes the fourth seed in the Class 4A field by a narrow margin over fifth-seeded Wyoming Valley West (9-13). Even if those ratings were to somehow change slightly, the fourth and fifth teams play each other regardless of order.
The winner moves into Saturday’s semifinals.
WRESTLING
District 2 will conduct its Class 3A and Class 2A Individual Championships simultaneously at Hazleton Area Friday at Saturday.
The first two rounds, then first two rounds of consolations will be held Friday, beginning at 5 p.m.
Wrestling continues Saturday morning, beginning at 10 a.m. with semifinals.
Pittston Area competes in Class 3A and Wyoming Area is in Class 2A.
DIVING
The diving portion of the swimming and diving championships is set for Saturday at the Wyoming Valley Catholic Youth Center in Wilkes-Barre.
Class 3A is tentatively scheduled for 10 a.m., but the schedule could be altered, depending on total number of entries. Class 3A is a subregional, including Williamsport from District 4.
Class 2A begins at 3 p.m.
