Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The New Mexico Activities Association last week made a few changes to its wrestling and basketball championships.
Boys athletes in the A-3A and 4A wrestling classifications will compete on Friday only, Feb. 18, with 5A athletes, teams and all girls will compete Saturday, Feb. 19.
State wrestling at the Rio Rancho Events Center traditionally has been a two-day event.
“It’s going to start a little bit later in the morning on those days so that schools can determine whether they want to travel in the day before and whether they want to spend the night or not,” NMAA executive director Sally Marquez said in a videotaped interview.
Tucumcari is a Class 3A team, though its competitions will be split over two days if it has boys and girls each qualifying for the tournament, as it did last season.
In March, the NMAA will require the boys and girls basketball quarterfinals to be played at the higher-seeded team’s home gym instead of coming to The Pit in Albuquerque.
The semifinals and finals will be played in Albuquerque on March 10-12. Those games will be scheduled on back-to-back days to limit teams’ stays in hotels to one night.
Marquez said spectators will be allowed at championship events under certain conditions. However, digital ticket sales will be required throughout the state tournaments as they were during the fall.
The University of New Mexico, which owns The Pit, requires a full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for spectators. Marquez said the NMAA will honor those requirements during the basketball tournaments if they’re still in effect.
Marquez said the NMAA will have rapid tests available at the venue for spectators. Other negative COVID-19 test results must occur within 72 hours of the game.