Weather issues cause postponements, rescheduled games

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on February 12, 2016 1:48 PM

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Mother Nature strikes again.

Or does she?

The threat of inclement weather prompted Wayne County Schools officials to cancel classes today, which also threw a curveball at the Eastern Plains 2-A Conference. All three games scheduled for today were moved to Monday, including Goldsboro's home triple-header against Greene Central.

The move forced league athletics directors to push the season-ending ECC tournament back two days to next Wednesday. Opening-round pairings cannot be determined until the games are played.

ADs met Thursday morning and decided just the top four seeds will advance to tournament play. They also broke all tie-breaker scenarios, including a coin toss to determine the No. 1 seed for the boys' tournament. Kinston is No. 1 and Goldsboro is No. 2.

Should the Cougars defeat Greene Central, they will clinch a portion of the regular-season championship -- the program's first since 2010 when then-head coach Patrick Reynell guided GHS to a runner-up finish to Monroe in the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1-A state finals.

Kinston is the No. 1 seed and Goldsboro is the No. 2 seed at this point in the girls' portion of the tournament, which will also have just four teams. The tournament must be completed by next Friday since conference presidents are required to report final standings to the Association by 6 a.m. on Saturday.

The 2016 NCHSAA eastern regional wrestling tournaments were moved back one day to accomodate possible travel issues. The 1-A regional at Princeton begins at noon Saturday and will wrestle as many rounds possible without surpassing the five-match rule.

Wrestling continues Sunday at 1 p.m. The top four finishers in each weight class advance to the individual state championships.

Corinth-Holders is playing host to the 3-A east regional.

As of press time, the Coastal Plains Independent 1-A/2-A Conference tournament opened earlier today with semifinal-round games at Wayne Country Day. Regular-season champion Freedom Christian played Greenfield's girls at 3 p.m., followed by Freedom Christian boys against Pope John Paul II Catholic HS.

WCDS and PJP's girls square off at 6 p.m. The Charger boys and Greenfield battle in the day's final contest at 7:30 p.m.

Championship day is tomorrow.