Snowy weather forces cancellation of regional wrestling tournaments, expands state bracket

With snow in the forecast this weekend, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association decided to cancel regional wrestling tournaments scheduled across the state Saturday.

Instead, all regional qualifiers become state qualifiers as the WIAA will expand the state field from 16 to 32 entrants.

The WIAA made the decision to cancel all regionals, even though some areas might not be impacted by weather, so all wrestlers were entering the state tournament, dubbed Mat Classic, on a level playing field, WIAA Executive Director Mike Colbrese said Friday.

Mat Classic will still take place over two days (Feb. 15-16) at the Tacoma Dome.

“We decided the only fair way to address it would be to bring them all into the Dome,” Colbrese said.

Some details of the expanded state tournament are still being worked out and will be decided Monday.