The rampaging omicron variant of the coronavirus has played havoc with holiday basketball tournaments.

The Riverside-Brookfield High School varsity boys basketball team had to withdraw from the Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at York High School after a number of RBHS players and coaches tested positive for COVID.

“There were multiple cases in the varsity program among players and coaches,” RBHS coach Mike Reingruber said. “It’s kind of spread like wildfire.”

The Bulldogs (9-1) were seeded third in the 32-team tournament and scheduled to start Dec. 27.

“Obviously we would love to be playing today and the rest of this week,” Reingruber said. “We felt we had put ourselves in position to hopefully make a pretty good run, but unfortunately with everything going on that’s put on hold for a while, but we’ll be ready to go once we’re fully cleared.”

The Bulldogs’ Dec. 22 game against St. Edward was abruptly canceled after the first positive test in the Bulldogs’ program. They are scheduled to resume Jan. 7 against Von Steuben, which had to pull out of the Rich South Big Dipper Tournament.

The varsity portion of the annual RBHS Holiday Classic girls basketball tournament was canceled after multiple teams dropped out of the five-team, round-robin tournament due to COVID. The junior varsity tournament continues with the Bulldogs, Morton, Niles North at St. Ignatius.

The RBHS varsity girls joined the Sandburg Holiday Tournament and lost to Lincoln-Way Central 72-16 and Plainfield East 71-40 on Monday’s opening day. The Bulldogs (6-9) replaced Downers Grove South, which had to drop out due to COVID.

LTHS boys, girls both advance

The Lyons Township High School boys won their opener at York’s Tosh Classic 67-34 over Wheaton North on Dec. 27. Tavari Johnson (8 assists) and Billy Bach each scored 12 points and Aidan Sullivan and Nik Polonowski each had 11 points for the Lions (8-2).

The LTHS girls advanced to the Dec. 28 quarterfinals of the Montini Christmas Tournament after receiving a first-round bye Monday.

Hoyd starts strong for RBHS wrestling

Riverside-Brookfield High School senior wrestler Brock Hoyd won the 170-pound title at the Harvard Tournament Dec. 18. Hoyd (11-1) also won at the Fenton Invite Dec. 4.

Senior Mateo Costello (8-1 at 126 pounds) also won at Fenton and reached the Harvard finals but suffered his first loss to Portage (Wisconsin) senior Chase Beckett, a Wisconsin state Division 2 state runner-up at 106 in 2020.

The Bulldogs finished second at both tournaments to Portage and Waubonsie Valley, respectively.

The Bulldogs are 7-2 in duals, only losing their opener at Lyons Township Nov. 24 and to Aurora Christian Dec. 2.

Junior Bill Martin (160) also was second at Fenton.

Bulldogs gymnasts win twice

On back-to-back days, the Riverside-Brookfield High School girls gymnastics team won 120.80-120.55 at Homewood-Flossmoor on Dec. 16 and scored 123.90 points at home on Dec. 15 to defeat Glenbard South (120.30).

At H-F, freshman Lia Christiansen won vault (8.8), floor exercise (8.85) and all-around (31.65). Sarah Lindenberg (7.75) and Annabel Krueger (7.5) finished 2-3 on balance beam.

Against Glenbard South, Christiansen swept vault (8.95), uneven parallel bars (8.4), floor (8.8) and all-around (34.05). Lindenberg was second on beam (7.95).

The Bulldogs won both without injured senior all-arounder Nora Ford.

Bill Stone contributed to this report.