Still more surprises in AA
Our Class AA rankings continue to be topsy-turvy after 3 weeks of the 2017-2018 season while Class A already gives the appearance of stabilizing. In AA, Watertown Mayer moves up 5 spots this week, Pine City 7 and Caledonia 10,…
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Continue ReadingOur Class AA rankings continue to be topsy-turvy after 3 weeks of the 2017-2018 season while Class A already gives the appearance of stabilizing.
In AA, Watertown Mayer moves up 5 spots this week, Pine City 7 and Caledonia 10, while Stewartville, Albany, East Grand Forks and Royalton all move into the top 20, and Pequot Lakes and Thief River Falls return after dropping out earlier this month. Meanwhile, Byron, International Falls, Jordan, Duluth Marshall and Tracy-Milroy-Balaton all drop out of our top 25.
In Class A, Minneota moves up 5 spots and Red Lake 7. Grand Meadow and BOLD return to the rankings after dropping out last week. That’s about it for any big moves.
Here are some of the big games last week that caused these teams to move up or down in the rankings.
Class AA
Royalton is perhaps the biggest surprise so far at 5-1 with wins over Osakis, Kimball and St. Cloud Cathedral. The Royals find themselves in a loaded section, Section 6, with #1AA Sauk Centre, #2AA Rush City and 4 more rated or near-rated teams. They’ve never been to a state tournament, and this may not be their year, either. But this is hardly the best team the Royals have ever had. The best team they have ever had will be their 2018-2019 edition, next year. Right now their top 6 players include juniors Jenna Carlson and Morgan Wagner, and sophomores Jenna Anderson, Emily Malikowski, Macey Petron and Allyson Waletski. The Royals enter the top 25 at #22.
Albany won at AAA Becker 51-38. It was a battle of unbeatens, but 2 promising unbeatens with lots of upside and so, with the win, Albany moved into our ratings at #16AA. In the side battle of promising freshman point guards, Albany’s Paige Meyer outscored Becker’s Julia Bengtson 15-3.
There were plenty of big games down south what with the Hiawatha-Three Rivers showcase and all. Probably the week’s big winner down there was Stewartville, which beat then-#9AA Rochester Lourdes (by 20) and then #18AA Zumbrota-Mazeppa, and went from unranked to #15AA. Caledonia beat then #19AA Winona Cotter and, despite a subsequent loss to #1A Goodhue, moved from #24 to #14. Lourdes (now 2-5) dropped to #18AA while Cotter stayed at #19AA and Zumbrota dropped to #24AA. Byron lost to Pine Island and dropped from #19AA out of the top 25. Don’t bet that the jockeying for position is done down in a very, very loaded Section 1AA.
But, the biggest game in AA saw then #13AA Watertown-Mayer, who had already lost to Holy Family, knock off then-#6AA and then-unbeaten New London-Spicer 57-55. NLS then also lost to #1AA Sauk Centre. Both games were on the road and neither is a bad loss, so NLS drops only to #9AA. Watertown-Mayer moved all the way up to #8AA.
The Watertown win made Holy Family look good, too, and the Fire moved up from #7AA to #6AA, and it made Eden Valley-Watkins, which had lost to NLS earlier, look not as good, to Eden Valley dropped from #8AA to #10AA.
Dilworth-GF, then rated #10AA, traveled to then-#11AA Barnesville and pulled out a 70-69 thriller. DGF moved up to #7AA while Barnesville stayed at #11AA.
Among the teams that dropped out of the top 25, International Falls lost to Aitkin, Jordan lost to Mayer Lutheran, and Duluth Marshall lost to Proctor. Proctor almost snuck into the top 25 at 3-3. Their losses are to AAA Hermantown and Hibbing, and #23AA Pequot Lakes. Also lurking just below the top 25 at Holdingford, 5-1 and Park Rapids 4-0, each with a win over Staples-Motley.
Class A
The most impressive week in Class A served to reinforce Goodhue’s hold on #1A. The Wildcats defeated AAA Kasson-Mantorville and rated Zumbrota-Mazeppa and Caledonia.
The Northland CTC tournament last week was a good one. #16A Stephen-Argyle beat #18A Red Lake and #19A Badger-Greenbush-Middle River. Red Lake and BGMR beat #22A Sacred Heart by 3 points apiece.
Then #21A Sleepy Eye defeated then #18A St. Clair, so Sleepy Eye moved up to #17A and St. Clair moved down to #25A.
This Week
With a slightly abbreviated schedule this week, there are just a few Top 25 matchups but they should be great ones.
Tuesday
• #25AA Thief River Falls visits #12AA Roseau, also at 7:30 p.m. It’s the start of a very big week for Roseau, who then goes to Mountain Iron-Buhl on Friday. Kacie Borowicz enters the week with 1,931 career points. It's unlikely she'll score 69 against those 2 quality opponents but she'll enter the 2,000-point club soon.
• #22A Sacred Heart is at #20AA East Grand Forks at 7:30 p.m. In case you didn’t know, Sacred Heart is not located in the town of Sacred Heart in southern Minnesota, it is a private school located in East Grant Forks, so this is for local bragging rights.
Friday
• #3AA Norwood Young America at #8AA Watertown-Mayer at 7 p.m. NYA’s Bren Fox takes her turn trying to slow down WM’s 6-2 post Monika Czinano.
• #12AA Roseau at #3A Mountain Iron-Buhl at 7:30 p.m.