Another busy Saturday is on tap for Bemidji High sports teams.
Five of them will be in action with the girls basketball and boys hockey teams at home.
The cagers host East Grand Forks at 2:30 at the Fieldhouse while the hockey team entertains River Lakes at 3 at Nymore Gardens.
On the road are the boys cagers at Sartell, the wrestlers at Blaine and the swim team at the Hibbing Invitational.
Both home teams will be favored, though the girls could have some problems with the Green Wave.
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Bemidji takes a 16-1 mark into play after its Thursday win at Pequot Lakes.
The visitors are 13-5. But they lead the 8AA section race with an unbeaten mark and have fallen to some of the area's better teams.
Two of the losses have come to state ranked Hawley and the others to Red River, Grafton and Grand Rapids.
Bemidji won last year's game at the border 70-55 with Kayla Hirt netting 22. She will present major problems for the visitors again as she nears the 500 point mark.
Kelsey Heisler, Abby Hendricks, Erika Weimann and Megan Huseby will join her on the starting cast.
Pucksters seek win
The hockey team will be out to snap a two-game slide from last weekend against Hermantown and Alexandria that dropped them to 11-7.
The Stars, a multi school combo from the Cold Spring area, are 5-11-1 with no notable victories over any of the area's better teams.
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Both teams have lost to Alexandra by four goals playing their only common foe this season.
Bemidji took last year's contest 8-1 with Jesse Nemgar getting two goals and Isaac Bitter and Kevin Larson one among players back this year.
Bemidji will replay its previously postponed game with Roseau Monday at BSU. It will be their only meeting this year.
Roseau reached 14-3-1 with a 6-3 win over Warroad, reversing an earlier 5-2 loss to the Warriors. It came one game after a 6-2 loss to Moorhead which it had beaten earlier 4-1.
Cagers favored
The boys cagers would seem to be favored at Sartell, matching their 11-5 record against the Sabres' 5-10 record including a 3-7 mark in the CLC.
But the Jacks had all sorts of problems with Sartell last year before winning here 60-57 and can ill afford to take any opponent lightly.
They will be trying to bounce back from a 70-58 loss here Thursday to Moorhead which dominated the game, out rebounding Bemidji 54-24 and taking away its run and gun attack almost completely.
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It will also be an 8-3A section test that will affect the tournament pairings.
The Moorhead setback also snapped a six-game Bemidji win string and dropped the Jacks to 11-5.
The B team also is11-5 while the freshmen are 3-9 for today's preliminaries.
Swimmers hopeful
The swim team has traditionally done well at the Hibbing meet, winning the title on several occasions.
Last year it finished well behind Simley but well ahead of the remainder of the field which included Hibbing, Jefferson, Buffalo, Grand Rapids, Virginia, Duluth, Richfield and Superior..
Matt Wilcox won the IM, Tucker Asper claimed the 500 and Bemidji swept both free relays. Dylan Hoven was second in the 50 free.
Wilcox swam on both winning relays and Hoven on the 200.
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Both are back this year to lead the Jacks., Wilcox had 54 points at Hibbing, Hoven 45 and Paul Voss 25.
Nick Nyberg, Pat Voss and Nick Gubbels complete the top scorers this year.
The team hosts Duluth East Tuesday in their only meet next week.
The matmen complete their two day road trip at the Blaine team tournament today, a meet where they won twice in 2009.
They carried a 3-10 mark to last night's triangular against Apollo and Brainerd at St. Cloud.
