Nashua North's Olivia Mazerolle looks to escape the double team of Nashua South's Aryanna Murray, left, and Vanessa Reeder during the Panthers' 19-16 win on Saturday at North. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

We are hitting the home stretch for the local high school winter sports season.

Basketball and hockey are entering their final two regular season weeks, with tournament play set to begin the first week in March, perhaps as early as March 1.

Wrestling will have its dual meet playoff season – something different to avoid the massive gatherings for divisional meets – beginning this week. The pairings should be out either today or Tuesday.

It will take the emphasis off the individual weight classes, where state divisional titles are usually won, and also there will be no Meet of Champions. It’s unfortunate, but should be interesting to see how the team concept works in Divisions I, II, and III. Teams to keep an eye on locally would be Bishop Guertin, Merrimack and Hollis Brookline in Division II and Nashua North in Division I.

Swimming will be this weekend, with the diving championships Friday in Lebanon, and the Division I and II meets Saturday and Sunday, respectively, at the Salem Workout Club from 8 a.m.to 8 p.m. both days.

It will be quite the event which will take a lot of patience. Relays won’t be held. But each team will swim, on its own, in the events, times recorded, etc. Then the team will leave, the facility will be cleaned/sanitized, and the next team will swim its events.

And then? Then the results will be sorted, which the NHIAA says will take an extra day, understandably, and posted to the NHIAA web site when determined. It will be different, interesting, quite an undertaking, but safer.

RANDOM DRAWS

Some were wondering if there would be any type of seeding by record in basketball. The NHIAA on its website has squelched that, as the same system apparently will be used that was used for all sports in the fall except football, when records were considered.

In basketball, four regional groups in each division, based on proximity, will be used “based on feedback by member schools and the success of regional scheduling during the regular season.”

Schools will be placed in brackets, and the NHIAA says that “Team numbers/positions in the bracket will be randomly generated.”

Translation: Blind draw, out of a hat.

It also says “Team records from the regular season will not be considered when placing teams in the bracket. Rather, proximity to one another within the cluster was the presiding factor utilized to set up the bracket.”

Nothing has been posted yet regarding hockey seeding, but it will be an open regionalized tournament.

SCHEDULE REMINDERS

Here’s a reminder that Bishop Guertin and Merrimack rescheduled their boys and girls hoop games to tonight, the girls at Merrimack at 6 and the boys at BG, due to the poor weather expected Tuesday. BG will also make up at least one of the cancelled Pinkerton games, with a girls-boys doubleheader in Derry Thursday at 4 (girls) and 5:30 (boys).

Also, Nashua North and South girls will now play a rematch of their game this past weekend, set for next Saturday at the Belanger Gym at 12:30 p.m.

One would think it would have to be higher scoring than this past Saturday’s 19-16 South decision.

North took the brunt of that one, as it dropped the Titans to 1-6.

“Honestly, I told them, when the ball starts going in, they’re going to be a very good team,” North coach Curt Dutilley said. “They (pointing to South) are the team in the state that has had the least amount of court time (due to pandemic pauses) and we are the second (least). Those lost reps we’ll never get back, and it’s (the ball) not going in.”

PELHAM WINS GYMNASTICS TITLE, BG SIXTH

There was a bit of a surprise Sunday at A-2 Gymnastics in Salem as Pelham High School captured the NHIAA Gymnastics title Sunday evening after there were three separate sessions.

The Pythons beat out typical gymnastics powers Pinkerton, Bedford and Salem. They were even with the Astros and Bulldogs after the first two events, parallel bars and vault. Then they forged ahead to the title with their performances on balance beam and floor exercise.

The win snaps Pinkerton’s stretch of four straight titles, but the Pythons did get into the discussion by knocking on the door with a second place finish last year.

Locally, Bishop Guertin was sixth at 123.475, with Merrimack 13th at 92.700 and Milford 14th at 75.550. Hollis Brookline was 18th at 46.225, and Souhegan 23rd at 26.275.

Individually, Bedford’s Tara McGadden was the top All-Around at 37.250, ahead of Pelham’s Abigail Druding (36.375). Bishop Guertin’s Rachel Bolger was the top local finisher, as she was the sixth All-Around in 33.425.

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