New Girls Basketball Section Assignments Announced
The MSHSL redraws section maps every 2 years, primarily to accommodate changes in school enrollments. As a result of those changes, Columbia Heights, Kennedy, Kimball, Maranatha, Mpls. North, St. Croix Lutheran and more schools move up in classification. Meanwhile, Blake,…
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Continue ReadingThe MSHSL redraws section maps every 2 years, primarily to accommodate changes in school enrollments. As a result of those changes, Columbia Heights, Kennedy, Kimball, Maranatha, Mpls. North, St. Croix Lutheran and more schools move up in classification.
Meanwhile, Blake, Braham, Byron, Hayfield, Jordan, Minneota, Pelican Rapids, Robbinsdale Cooper, Stewartville, Thief River Falls move down in classification.
Then, as a result of these teams moving between classes, other schools have moved within their class. Most prominently, Cromwell, Faribault, Hutchinson and Litchfield, among others, moved between sections.
If these new section assignments had been in force this past year of 2017, you might have had different section champions:
• 3A—Minneota would have challenged SW Christian
• 4A—with Maranatha in AA, Heritage or Lester Prairie might have replaced the Mustangs
• 5A—Menahga might have replaced Cromwell, who moves back to 7A
• 1AA—Byron would have challenged Rochester Lourdes
• 5AA—Maranatha might have challenged Watertown-Mayer
• 2AAA—Hutchinson would have challenged Waseca.
• 6AAA—Cooper might have challenged Orono.
Next Year
Some new sectional rivalries as of next year include:
• 1A—Goodhue and Hayfield
• 3A—Minneota vs. SW Christian and others
• 2AA—Byron vs. Rochester Lourdes
• 8AA—Roseau vs. Thief River Falls
• 2AAA—Hutch vs. Waseca
• 3AAA—Holy Angels and St. Croix Lutheran
• 6AAA—Cooper and Orono
Here’s a quick rundown of key changes by section.
Class A
Section 1—Gains Hayfield from Class AA. Hayfield becomes the top threat to 2-time defending state champ, Goodhue, in Section 1A. No team leaves 1A so there’s a gain of one team here.
Section 2—Gains Central MN Christian and Renville County West from section 3A. No losses so a net gain of 2.
Section 3—Gains Lakeview and Minneota from Section 3AA. Minneota is of course the 2013 state champ in Class A and returns after 2 years in AA. They are a serious threat for the 2018 section title.
Section 4—Gained Hiawatha and Hmong academies from AA while losing Maranatha to Class AA. Heritage or Lester Prairie likely would have won the section if Maranatha had not been there this year.
Section 5—Gains Braham and Hinckley-Finlayson from AA, and loses Cromwell to Section 7A. Menagha might have won this year had Cromwell not been here.
Section 6—Gains Pelican Rapids from AA.
Section 7—Gains Cromwell from 5A. Cromwell got to the state tournament each of its 2 years in 5A, whereas it probably would have lost to MIB had it stayed in 7A.
Section 8—Gains Badger-Greenbush from AA.
Class AA
Section 1—Gains Byron and Stewartville from AAA. Byron could have been a threat in this section.
Section 2—Gains Jordan from AAA. Loses St. James to 3AA.
Section 3—Gains Litchfield, Paynesville and St. James, all from other AA sections. Nobody moved up or down in class.
Section 4—Loses St. Croix Lutheran to AAA, gains Nova Academy.
Section 5—Gained Blake from above, Maranatha and Minneapolis North from below.
Section 6—Gained Kimball from 5A.
Section 7—Loses Hinckley, and gains Duluth Denfeld.
Section 8—Gained Long Prairie from A6A, and Thief River Falls from 8AAA. Loses Pelican Rapids and BGMR.
Class AAA
Section 1—Gains Faribault, loses Byron and Stewartville.
Section 2—Loses Faribault and Jordan. Gains Hutchinson. Hutch may well have won Section 2AAAA last year if it had been assigned there.
Section 3—St. Croix Lutheran moves in from Section 4AA. Kennedy leaves for the greener pastures of 6AAAA.
Section 4—Gains Columbia Heights from 4AA.
Section 5—No changes.
Section 6—Hutch and Blake leave while Robbinsdale Cooper moves in from 6AAAA.
Section 7—Loses Duluth Denfeld.
Section 8—Loses Thief River Falls.
Class AAAA
The only changes in Class AAAA are in Section 6, where Kennedy joins from 3AAA while Cooper leaves for 6AAA, where it might have been a threat to Orono last year.
Some years, even if just 1 or 2 teams moved in or out of Class AAAA, it might set up a chain reaction. For example, we’ve seen Roseville jump between 4AAAA and 5, Wayzata between 5 and 6, and Eden Prairie and Minnetonka between 6 and 2. Now, there were no such changes, no chain reaction and so every team in AAAA next year will be in the same section it was in last year, except Kennedy.