2/25/2026
Now that the 4A State Tournament brackets have been released and the schedules are set, let’s take a look at who’s in and who’s out, comparing the teams from last year to this year and other notable points of interest.
Let’s get started!
4A Girls Tournament
Link to 2026 tournament bracket
Link to 2025 tournament bracket
Last year’s Trophy winners
Champions (1) Davis
2nd (8) Sumner
3rd (4) Woodinville
4th (3) Chiawana
5th (13) Glacier Peak
6th (6) Auburn
Last year’s top 8 seeds
1. Davis
2. Lake Washington
3. Chiawana
4. Woodinville
5. Union
6. Auburn
7. Camas
8. Sumner
This year’s top 8 seeds
1. Davis
2. Union
3. Chiawana
4. Woodinville
5. Gonzaga Prep
6. Lake Washington
7. Bothell
8. Sumner
Last year’s best underdogs
The biggest upset was in the regional round where #8 Sumner traveled to #1 Davis in the regionals and pulled off a stunning 67-62 upset over the Pirates. The meant the Spartans went directly to the quarterfinals and Davis would have to play on opening day in a loser out game to get to the quarters.
They both would end up in the State Championship game and the Pirates got their revenge with a 61-45 win for the State Championship and Sumner settled for 2nd as the 8 seed.
Had the Spartans pulled off the win they would have been the 2nd 8 seed to win a girls title last year as NW Christian did win the 2B title as an 8 seed.
There were also 2 double digit upset winners in the regionals with #15 Lake Stevens and #13 Glacier Peak. Both teams made it to Tacoma for their 2nd loser out game in a row to get to the round of 12 and Lake Stevens fell short losing to #7 Camas.
But the Grizzlies pulled off the win beating #5 Union to advance to the quarters. G-P then stunned #3 Chiawana to get to the semi’s where they lost to Davis. The Grizzlies then played for 3rd and nearly pulled off another upset losing to always tough Woodinville 55-54 to take home the 5th place trophy.
This year’s underdogs to watch
Two of the top 8 seeds are worth watching to see if they can overcome the visitors role in the top 8 regionals. We’ll start with #8 Sumner. This is the exact spot they were in last season, the 8 seed and they are headed back to Yakima to take on Davis Saturday night at 8pm to see if they can stun the Pirates for a 2nd straight year.
Lake Washington is the 6 seed but the Kangs are a regular visitor to the Tacoma Dome with their best run of 3 straight 2nd place finishes in 2020, 2022 and 2023. (There was no tournament in 2021 due to Covid) They ran into the Garfield machine those years that won 4 in a year. But the Kangs own 10 state placing trophies with 4 of them 2nd place. L-W would love top finally take home the big gold ball.
Another underdog caught our eye in the 10 seeded Lake Stevens Vikings who finished the season 20-3 with close losses to Redmond and Bonney Lake both are seeds 14 and 15 respectively. Redmond has shown some grit and coming in as one of the few teams with a losing overall record at 12-14 but pulled off some big district wins to get into the regional.
Bonney Lake is part of the SPSL and NPSL district where it wouldn’t be surprising to see any of those teams get on a run including #9 Auburn, #11 Kennedy Catholic and #13 Tahoma. The top seed out that bunch is #8 Sumner which shows you how tight that District was, the question is how strong is that group outside of their district?
Last year’s best Favorites
Three of the top 4 seeds all took home hardware including 1 seed Davis who decided to take the long way to the Championship with that loss in the regional round. #3 Chiawana took 4th and #4 seed Woodinville was 3rd. 2 seeded Lake Washington ended up facing #1 Davis in the quarterfinals because of the Pirates loss in the regional. They were knocked out on Friday with a 3 point loss to #3 Chiawana.
This year’s best chance Favorites
Davis seemed to learn their lesson from taking the long way last year and they are the 1 seed and favored to repeat. Who are in the best position to spoil the Pirates celebration on Saturday? Many would start with the 8 seed Sumner who beat them in regionals and then faced them for the state championship.
The Spartans are the top seed out of district 3 and as we looked at in the underdogs there is a bunch of them together that spent the year beating each other. So how will that play outside of the district?
#2 Union is a team that can be easily overlooked as they play in a 4 team 4A league down in Vancouver. The Titans are 24-2 and they play a lot of Oregon teams with only a 4-team league. One of their best games to measure them may be their loss to Tualatin, Oregon, 59-41. That seems like a blow-out to many but Tualatin is ranked as one of the best teams in the country. They beat 3A North Thurston 55-15 at the MLK showcase in Kent and the Rams are the 5 seed in the 3A tournament.
If the Titans can score 41 on Tualatin that is quite the accomplishment and shows Union is going to have to be dealt with. Union is really the big unknown in some aspects. Just how good are they? That question is going to be answered and might be the biggest threat to Davis holding onto the title or not.
If the top 2 fall, it really is open to anyone with teams like Chiawana, Woodinville, Gonazaga Prep, Lake Washington and Bothell ready to pounce if an opening occurs.
Biggest surprises!
Who’s the most surprising they are in?
#16 Eisenhower is making their first State Tournament since 2005 and just their 5th in the history of their school. However, when the Cadets get to state they make it count and out of the 4 times they were in they have 3 trophies or a 75% trophy rate. Can the Cadets pull off a few upsets and increase that trophy rate to 80%?
#14 Redmond is one of the few teams to get to state with a losing record. The Mustangs come in at 12-14 but a late 5-2 run earned the “Stangs” a 14 seed coming out of the always tough Kingco league has come together at the right time.
Who’s the most surprising they are out?
Camas is the team that sticks out as missing. Just two years ago the Papermakers were State Champs. They were the 7 seed last year and made it to Friday before being eliminated. So a bit surprising they are completely out this year.
Final Thoughts:
The 4A Tournament may be one of the most wide open in the State. With the exception of Davis being a heavy favorites. All top eight seeds have a conceivable reason to make a deep playoff run. There are also some compelling higher seeds for example if District 3 ends up being a stronger conference than believed. So many of them finished in a bunch. Our how good is Union?
There are several scenarios that are fun to opine about. But our thought is that Davis learned their lesson from that regional loss last year. After that they kicked it into high gear and won the round of 12, 81-58, quarterfinals against #2 seed 71-59, the semifinals 76-38 and the Championship against Sumner 61-45. The Pirates outscored their opponents in the Tacoma Dome by 88 points or an average of 22 per game and won all 4 games by double digits. They will be exceptionally difficult to knock off the top of the mountain.
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4A Boys Tournament
Link to 2026 tournament bracket
Link to 2025 tournament bracket
Last year’s Trophy winners
Champion (1) Gonzaga Prep
2nd (8) Puyallup
3rd (3) Glacier Peak
4th (4) Richland
5th (6) West Valley (Yak)
6th (5) Camas
Last year’s top 8 seeds
1. Gonzaga Prep
2. Auburn
3. Glacier Peak
4. Richland
5. Camas
6. West Valley (Yak)
7. Mount Si
8. Puyallup
This year’s top 8 seeds
1. Mount Si
2. Richland
3. Lake Washington
4. Glacier Peak
5. Gonzaga Prep
6. Puyallup
7. Emerald Ridge
8. West Valley
Last year’s best underdogs
The seeding committee didn’t hit a grand slam and maybe not home run, but certain a triple. Their top 8 seeds finished in the top 8 and no seed higher than 8 took home a trophy.
But it was that 8 seed that prevented the home run. Puyallup was the 8 and was the 3rd 8 seed in 2025 to get to the Championship game. The Sumner girls and NW Christian (Colbert) girls also did with only the Crusaders getting the win.
The Vikings made it close as they took top seeded Gonzaga Prep to wire in a 57-55 final.
This year’s underdogs to watch
Puyallup is playing red hot basketball at the right time. The Vikings won their league and district tournaments over fellow league foe Emerald Ridge. With the Vikings in the sixth seed spot, they have all the potential to go on yet another memorable run.
Another matchup to follow is between Glacier Peak and Gonzaga Prep. Two semifinalist in last year’s tournament collide in the Regional round, the winner of that contest could very well be playing on the last day of the tournament.
The 8 seed West Valley made a strong run last year and as the 6 seed took home the 5th place. Their big win was knocking off Richland in the quarters.
The District 3/4 contenders fill out the higher seeds and much like the girls there a many teams with not much between them. #9 is Auburn, #12 Camas, #14 Sumner and #15 Olympia.
Last year’s best Favorites
Again the seeding committee was on this one with a few little tweeks. The 1 seed Gonzaga Prep won it, 3 seed Glacier Peak was 3rd, 4 seed Richland was 4th and the 6th seed West valley (Yak) was 5th with the 5 seed Camas 6th. The only slight miss was #8 Puyallup taking 2nd and #2 Auburn getting knocked out on Friday.
This year’s best chance Favorites
The 4A Boys tournament offers a lot of parity. One upset in the regional last year opened the door to potential chaos throughout the entire tournament and could happen again this year.
#2 Richland has not missed a beat this season with their vaunted offense and come in 24-0. Mount Si with a healthy Latt Ford has exceeded expectations and are playing great basketball at the right time and was rewarded with the #1 seed. The 20-1 Wildcats lost to 13th seeded Woodinville in their 1st game of the season and have since gone 20-0.
#3 Lake Washington beat #4 Glacier Peak in Districts by 1 point 60-59 ands then lost to Mount Si 60-53 in the Championship. The Grizzlies are coming off a 3rd place run last year and have to be considered after just missing getting to the District Title game.
Biggest surprises!
Who’s the most surprising they are in?
#16 Sunnyside is making their appearance at state since 2017 and then the 2nd to last time they were at state was 1990 making this the Grizzlies 2nd appearance in the last 35 years. Sunnyside has 3 state placing trophies with the last one a 2nd place trophy in 1976. If the Grizzlies can pull an upset and get to Tacoma would be a story in itself.
Final Thoughts
This tournament did not disappoint in havoc last year and it is primed for another mad dash to the top. The regional round in this tournament more than others can be a tell tale sign of how exciting this tournament can be. Mount Si and Richland are worthy favorites, but can they back it up? Or will we see a high seed make an unexpected run? This is going to be fun to watch!
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