It’s late May, so it must be state championship week for high school spring sports.
State tournaments for the 2011 spring season start today for North Olympic Peninsula athletes and continues through Memorial Day weekend.
Championship week begins with golf tournaments for area Class 2A and 1A schools today and Wednesday with the 2A track and field championships following close behind with a Thursday start.
Then action really heats up Friday when baseball, softball, Class 1A and 1B track and field and boys and girls tennis tourneys begin competition.
Track, tennis, baseball and softball all end action Saturday.
Boys soccer tournaments also are this weekend but no area teams remain alive.
State Golf
Golf kicks the week off with Port Angeles and Sequim boys and girls at the 2A tourney in Spanaway, and Port Townsend and Chimacum players at the 1A tournament in Dupont today and Wednesday.
First-round tee-off is at 9 a.m. today while Wednesday’s second-round tee-off time is to be determined depending what happens today.
The 2A boys will play at The Classic Golf Course while the 2A girls swing away at Lake Spanaway Golf Course.
Both the 1A boys and girls play on the same course, Dupont’s The Home Course.
State Track
On Thursday, the Roughriders and Wolves track and field athletes start action at the 2A/3A/4A state championships at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma with that day’s events starting at 4:30 p.m.
The 2A track meet continues Friday and Saturday with the first events beginning at 9:30 a.m. each day.
The 1A schools Port Townsend, Chimacum and Forks will join the area 1B teams of Crescent, Clallam Bay and Neah Bay at the 1B/2B/1A track championships at Eastern Washington University in Cheney on Friday and Saturday only.
The first events start at 10 a.m. each day.
State Baseball
The Chimacum Cowboys have the lone baseball team still standing.
They will take on Bellevue Christian in the 1A semifinals Friday at 1 p.m. at County Stadium in Yakima.
The Cowboys, 22-2 and ranked No. 1 in state most of the year, are a mainstay in the final four, capturing second place last year, losing 5-4 to Cashmere in the title game.
To make it to the semifinals, the Cowboys beat Rainier 6-3 and Rochester 3-0 last weekend while Bellevue Christian defeated defending champion Cashmere 1-0 and Columbia (Burbank) 16-3.
Friday’s winner will play the winner between Meridian and Tenino in the championship game Saturday at 4 p.m. while the loser will play the Meridian-Tenino loser in the third-place game at 10 a.m.
Meridian, which claimed third place last year, is only one of two teams to beat Chimacum this season.
Meridian beat the Cowboys in the bi-district tournament. Last year, Chimacum shaded Meridian 6-4 in the state semifinals.
State Softball
Sequim and Port Angeles will be out to place in the 2A tournament Friday and Saturday at Carlon Park in Selah.
The Wolves are undefeated on the year while the Riders have lost only to archrival Sequim.
The teams will try to keep that streak going with the Wolves opening against Lynden at 10 a.m. and the Roughriders starting first-round play against Othello at 10 a.m.
Ironically, the two rivals could face each other in the state quarterfinals.
The winners in those two matchups meet in the championship quarterfinals at 4 p.m. on Friday while the losers meet at 2 p.m. on Friday.
Othello made it to the consolation quarterfinals last year while Lynden did not play at state in 2010.
Quilcene, meanwhile, the 1B tri-district champion with a 11-3 overall record, will open state play against Selkirk at 1 p.m. Friday at Gateway Sports Complex in Yakima.
The winner moves on to the championship semifinals (for the eight-team tourney) against the winner between Sunnyside Christian and Almira/Coulee-Hartline on Friday at 5 p.m. while the losers fall to the consolation quarterfinals at 5 p.m. on Friday.
The Rangers battered Highland 20-0 in five innings to win the tri-district tourney title Saturday at Stanwood High School.
Sarah Bacchus had eight strikeouts in the game for Quilcene while Sammy Rae had a home run and four RBIs and Amy Kaiser went 3-for-3 with three runs scored and five stolen bases.
State Tennis
Port Angeles and Sequim are sending eight players to the tennis tournament Friday and Saturday at Nordstrom Tennis Center in Seattle.
Action starts at 8 a.m. both days.