MHSA sets sites for some postseason events

The Montana High School Association had an executive board meeting Thursday to set sites for winter sports postseason events.

The site for the statewide girls’ wrestling tournament was set (Feb. 19-20, Lockwood High School) along with the sites for the State A (March 5-6, Miles City) and State B-C (March 5-6, Shelby) tournaments for the boys. A site for State AA has yet to be determined.

Mark Beckman, executive director of the MHSA, said Thursday that uncertainties about the AA divisional seeding tournaments — they may or may not be held — led to delaying decision on the State AA.

In other wrestling news, the board approved bringing the number of girls’ weight classes to 10 by adding 120, 132 and 145 (the latest AA girls’ rankings are in Scoreboard).

Turning to hoops, the executive board confirmed that State AA will employ a playoff system to determine its basketball championships.

The three lower classes are still set to have state tournaments: State A is tentatively set for Butte’s Civic Center, B is set for the Billings Metra and C is tentatively set for Breeden Field House in Bozeman.

The state swimming championships are also without hosts as of now, though the MHSA said Class AA and Class A-B would be held at different sites, pending county health department approval.

The MHSA also announced spectator limits for the postseason. For swimming, there will be two passes per competitor; for wrestling from 2-4 passes are allowed for each wrestler, depending on capacity; and for basketball there will be two or more passes per competitor.

Basketball is also allowed 25 percent capacity of the venue, up to 500 fans, allowing for more passes — with the minimum of two tickets per suited player for both home and visiting teams.