Bad air quality halts teams from playing
Six Lodi area sports teams, plus an event at Lodi Lake, have been affected by the air quality of the Camp Fire in Butte County that led cancellation and postponing events Friday and today.
On Friday, the Tokay High girls water polo team was to travel to Clovis North High to play San Ramon Valley of Danville in the first-ever California Interscholastic Federation Regional NorCal Girls Water Polo Championships, Division II. But the CIF announced Friday via Twitter of the cancellation of the NorCal championships for Divisions I-III.
“Due to unsettled air quality throughout Northern California the NORCAL Water Polo tournament has been canceled,” stated the CIF’s Twitter account Friday morning.
The CIF further stated in another Tweet that “we would like to congratulate the NorCal Water Polo teams for a great season! Thank you all for being great team players during difficult times.”
Tokay entered the tournament as the No. 8 seed in D-II, and San Ramon Valley at No. 1.
Tokay (21-4) played its last game on Nov. 10 at its own swimming pool against Rio Americano in the Sac-Joaquin Section’s Division II championships. Tokay was the No. 2 seed and Rio Americano, out of Sacramento, No. 1. Rio Americano built its 5-4 lead after three periods to post a 9-5 win over the Tigers for the title. Tokay finished the season with winning a share of the Tri-City Athletic League title.
The Lodi High and Liberty Ranch High boys basketball teams were scheduled to open their regular season at home against Sonora and Vista del Lago of Folsom, respectively, in non-league games. But their games were also canceled due to the air quality.
The annual Womble Rumble run, which has taken place Saturday before Thanksgiving, was postponed. The event has been rescheduled for Saturday, Dec. 8.
The Lodi Jr. Flames’ youth football teams — varsity, Starts and Future — were scheduled to play in the Central Valley Gridiron Youth Football Super Bowl games in their respective divisions at Ceres High today., but postponed.