PEA RIDGE — The Blackhawks will tip it off against Clarksville tomorrow in the northwest 4A Regional Tournament.
Pea Ridge is going in as the No. 3 seed from the 4A-1 with the Panthers of Clarksville holding the No. 2 seed from the 4A-4 District. Clarksville was a third seed in their district but upset No. 2 seed West Fork in their semifinal match.
Subiaco then beat Clarksville 65-58 in the finals to take the title and No. 1 seed.
Huntsville defended their No. 1 seed in the 4A-1 tournament by defeating Farmington 48-46 in the finals, but interestingly enough, Farmington was still ranked No. 3 in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette state 4A poll on Sunday, ahead of Huntsville’s No. 5 ranking. In the MaxPreps State 4A Poll, Farmingtonholds the No. 1 state ranking with Subiaco No. 2, Huntsville No. 3, West Fork No. 6, Clarksville No. 7 and Pea Ridge No. 9.
So of the MaxPreps state top 10 4A teams, six of them are in the northern regional tournament in Farmington.
The Pea Ridge/Clarksville game and the Farmington/West Fork game will end the season for two of the state’s top 10 teams. For those teams surviving the first round, competing in the state tournament might be easier going at least in the opening rounds.
Here are the pairings forthe regional tournament hosted by Farmington:
QUARTERFINALS, Wednesday, Feb. 24
Huntsville vs. Ozark - 5:30 p.m.
Subiaco vs. Shiloh - 8:30 p.m.
QUARTERFINALS, THURSDAY, Feb. 25
◊Clarksville vs. Pea Ridge - 5:30 p.m.
◊Farmington vs. West Fork - 8:30 p.m.
SEMIFINALS, FRIDAY, Feb. 26
◊Huntsville/Ozark winner vs. Pea Ridge/Clarksville winner - 5:30 p.m.
◊Subiaco/Shiloh winner vs. Farmington/West Fork winner - 8:30 p.m.
CHAMPIONSHIP, SATURDAY, Feb. 27
◊Third-place game - 1:30 p.m.
◊Championship game - 7:30 p.m.
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Hey, I know what curling is!
I have heard about the sport of curling in the Winter Olympics and I have seen bits of video of the sport on TV and all I could ever see was a man throwing/sliding/pushing some kind of rock like thing on a handle. While the rock is sliding, a couple of other guys are running in front of it, brooming the path in front of it before it stops somewhere.
I happened to see the curling match between the U.S. and Sweden Saturday and now I get it! Curling is kind of like a combination of bowling, shuffleboard, baseball and billiards. They have this big round piece of what looks like marble with a handle on top. The thrower spins the handle one way or another to makeit “curl” right or left and the two guys out in front are rubbing the patch, creating some heat on the ice to make it slightly wet, enough to make the trajectory curl some more and also to prolong the slide of the rock.
The rock is thrown towards a big target at the other end of the playing surface, looking a lot like a shuffle board court. Once the rock crosses the middle of the circle, the opposing team’s broom guys can jump out there to rub the ice to make their opponent’s rock go too far.
When all the rock throwing is done, the position of the rocks determine who scores what. I said that it is kind of like baseball in that they play “endings.” I assume they call it endings because they throw their rock to the other “end” of the court, ittakes 10 endings to constitute a match. I have no idea why baseball has “innings.” Is it because the pros have to stay at “inns” on their road trips?
Probably not.
The U.S. and Sweden were tied after 10 endings and had to go into extra endings to settle the match.
The U.S. won, bringing their Olympics record to 2-4.
Sweden was the European champion this year, so it was a definite upset for the Yanks on ice.
I wonder where we could buy the trading cards with the team members on them?◊◊ ◊
John McGee is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The TIMES. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports, Pages 8 on 02/24/2010