2008-09 season begins for area winter sports teams

Area Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas high school girls and boys basketball and wrestling teams kick of the winter sports season this weekend.

Basketball

The Arapahoe girls and boys take on Overton at home on Thursday. Arapahoe's girls finished fourth in the D1 state tournament last year after falling to Humphrey 50-49 in overtime. The two Warrior teams travel to Blue Hill on Saturday.

Cambridge's girls also made it to the state tournament last year and ended with a fourth place finish after falling to West Point Central Catholic 59-50.

The Cambridge girls are ranked fourth in Nebraska Class C-2 in the Omaha World-Herald's preseason rankings released on Wednesday.

The Trojan teams host Hitchcock County on Thursday and Eustis-Farnam on Friday. Eustis-Farnam plays Paxton on Saturday.

The Eustis-Farnam girls are ranked 10th in Class D-1 by the Omaha World-Herald.

Hayes Center's boys finished third in the Class D1 state tournament last year. The Cardinals host Hitchcock County on Friday and play at Mullen on Saturday. Wauneta-Palisade's girls and boys starts the season with Wallace on Saturday, while Maywood plays Wallace on Friday.

Southwest's basketball teams host Perkins County on Friday and travel to Medicine Valley on Saturday.

The Perkins County girls are the defending state champions in Class C-2. The Plainsman finished the season with a 24-0 record.

Medicine Valley plays Paxton on Friday before squaring off with the Southwest Roughriders.

Dundy County-Stratton hosts St. Francis on Thursday and South Platte on Friday. Southern Valley is at home on Thursday and play at Elm Creek Friday.

Rawlins County plays at Northern Valley on Friday and hosts Norton on Saturday and Decatur Community hosts Oakley Friday. Chase County plays in McCook on Thursday and in Goodland on Friday.

The McCook boys play at Hastings Friday night and the girls host Grand Island Northwest on Saturday.

Wrestling

Wauneta-Palisade and Hitchcock County have joined forces on the wrestling mats this season.

The two schools host a tournament on Thursday in Wauneta with Medicine Valley and Dundy County-Stratton in attendance.

Hitchcock County/Wauneta-Palisade wrestlers travel to Alma on Saturday along with Eustis-Farnam and the McCook junior varsity.

Eustis-Farnam, Arapahoe, Cambridge and Dundy County-Stratton compete at the Elwood Invitational on Friday and Medicine Valley will compete in the Cozad invitational on Saturday.

Also competing at Cozad is the McCook wrestling team, ranked in the top 10 in the Nebraska Wrestling Coaches Association poll.

Southwest starts the season of at home with an invitational on Thursday. Area teams competing are Southern Valley, Arapahoe and Cambridge.

Southwest and Southern Valley travel to the Ravenna Invitational on Friday.

Chase County will be at the Bridgeport Rriangular on Thursday and the Garden County Triangular on Friday.

St. Francis also hosts the first invitational of the year on Saturday with Rawlins County attending.

The Decatur Community High School-Oberlin wrestling team competes in Oakley on Friday and the Hoxie tournament on Saturday.

Swimming

The McCook boys and girls swim teams open the season Saturday at the Hastings Invitational.

The meet starts at 9 a.m.