The polar vortex has disrupted quite a bit of normal activity in Indiana, including high school sports.
One of the sports that is most affected is girls basketball, which is in the midst of sectional week. Two sectionals involving Hamilton County teams have had their schedules altered significantly: Class 3A Sectional 24 in New Castle, where Hamilton Heights is playing, and Class 1A Sectional 58 at Bethesda Christian, where University is trying to defend its title.
The schedules for both those sectionals have changed to a Friday-Saturday-Monday format. While both sites got their Tuesday first-round games completed, the Wednesday games were originally pushed back to Thursday. With Thursday shaping up to be just as bad weather-wise, both sectionals moved the Thursday games to Friday.
With that, here are the new schedules:
At New Castle, the Friday first-round games begin at 6 p.m., with the Trojans taking on Blackford and Delta playing Jay County. The semi-finals are now on Saturday, where Heights will play Muncie Burris at 6 p.m., followed by a game between the Friday winners at 7:30 p.m. The sectional championship is now set for 7:30 p.m. Monday.
At Bethesda Christian, the host Patriots will take on Indiana Math & Science at 6 p.m., with University playing International at 7:30 p.m. The Saturday semi-finals will see Indiana Deaf play Metropolitan at 6 p.m., then the Friday winners face off at 7:30 p.m. The sectional championship will be played at 7:30 p.m. Monday.
Since the Heights girls could possibly play on Monday, the boys basketball game between the Huskies and Sheridan has been postponed again. A make-up date is being sought.
Meanwhile, the girls swimming sectional preliminaries, which are being hosted by Carmel and Fishers this year, have been postponed to Friday. Swimming at both sites will begin at 5:30 p.m., and the Saturday finals are scheduled to start on time. University’s swimmers compete at Zionsville, which is still having its sectional preliminaries tonight as of press time.
The Sheridan boys basketball team has postponed its game with Rossville that was scheduled for tonight.
There are four other boys games set for tonight: Heights at Frankton, Carmel at Lawrence North, Fishers at Westfield, and Franklin Central at Hamilton Southeastern. All four games are still on, but the Huskies’ game has been moved up an hour, to a 5 p.m. junior varsity/6:30 p.m. varsity start, in anticipation of snow that is forecast to come down late Thursday evening.
