Section 1 Well Represented In State Basketball Rankings

The latest boys and girls basketball rankings from Minnesota Basketball News and Section 1 was well represented in each ranking yet again.

We know that there is plenty of talent across the area, and every night there seems to be a match that will go down to the wire. Below are the boys and girls rankings for Class AA and A. We will start with the boys, and the records next to the school are their records at the time of the rankings were submitted to Minnesota Basketball News, they have played a few games since then, just an FYI.

CLASS 2A
1. Caledonia (1) 14-0
2. Waseca (2) 10-3
3. Lake City (1) 12-1
4. Minneapolis North (5) 8-5
5. St. Croix Prep (4) 12-0
6. Perham (8) 11-0
7. East Grand Forks (8) 10-0
8. Stewartville (1) 11-2
9. Minnesota Valley Lutheran (2) 12-1
10. Rockford (5) 11-2
11. Eden Valley-Watkins (6) 10-1
12. Osakis (6) 12-1
13. Melrose (6) 10-3
14. Albany (6) 9-3
15. Fergus Falls (8) 9-3
16. Litchfield (5) 11-2
17. Annandale (6) 8-2
18. Virginia (7) 11-1
19. Pine City (6) 12-1
20. Esko (7) 8-4

Three teams in the top 10, and after La Cresent topped Stewartville on the road on Friday, we may see another team creep its way into the Top 20 in the Lancers who have yet to lose in Three Rivers play (8-0).

Caledonia has already beaten Lake City, Waseca and Minneapolis North this year, and has shown to be the de facto number one team in the state. The Warriors have some great players in Noah King, Eli King, Austin Klug and more, but not to be outdone by Lake City's Nate Heise and Reid Gastner.

A rematch in March between Lake City and Caledonia would definitely draw a lot of eyes, but there is still a long way to go. Stewartville has one of the top players in the state in Junior Will Tschetter and it is hard to count them out.

CLASS 1A
1. BOLD (2) 13-0
2. Henning (6) 12-1
3. Ada-Borup (8) 9-1
4. Southwest MN Christian (3) 13-0
5. Waterville-Elysian-Morristown (2) 11-1
6. West Central Area (6) 10-2
7. New Ulm Cathedral (2) 12-1
8. Springfield (2) 11-1
9. Fertile-Beltrami (8) 14-0
10. North Woods (7) 10-2
11. Blooming Prairie (1) 8-1
12. Cromwell-Wright (5) 10-1
13. Hayfield (1) 10-3
14. Mountain Lake-Comfrey (2) 10-1
15. Parkers Prairie (6) 10-2
16. Nashwauk-Keewatin (7) 9-3
17. Ely (7) 10-2
18. Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal (6) 9-3
19. Martin County West (2) 12-1
20. Nevis (5) 11-1

Two teams out of the Gopher Conference lead the way for Section 1 in the latest rankings with Blooming Prairie and Hayfield coming in at 11 and 13. Blooming Prairie got the best of Hayfield earlier this year with a 65-40 win.

The Blossoms lone loss was a 64-60 defeat to Waterville-Elysian-Morristown, who is ranked at number 5 in the state.

A couple of Section 1 teams that are knocking on the doorstep are Randolph (12-5), Grand Meadow (12-4) Schaeffer Academy (14-2) and Lyle/Austin Pacelli (11-5). The section standings are pretty tight as of Jan. 25th, and with plenty of basketball to be played, this looks like it could be a very competitive section down the road.

The girls rankings are just as impressive.

CLASS 2A
1. Sauk Centre (6) 13-1
2. Fergus Falls (8) 13-1
3. Rochester Lourdes (1) 12-2
4. New London-Spicer (3) 13-1
5. Minnehaha (4) 11-3
6. Duluth Marshall (7) 11-1
7. Proctor (7) 13-1
8. Goodhue (1) 15-1
9. Providence (5) 13-4
10. Pelican Rapids (8) 14-0
11. Waseca (2) 11-3
12. Belle Plaine (2) 12-1
13. Pine City (6) 11-1
14. Albany (6) 10-2
15. Mesabi East (7) 13-1
16. Stewartville (1) 11-5
17. Lake City (1) 13-4
18. Winona Cotter (1) 14-3
19. Holy Family (5) 9-5
20. Royalton (6) 11-2

Rochester Lourdes two losses are to Stewartville and Lake City, both ranked in the Top 20. Cotter was Section 1 runner-up a year ago and return most of their team and have just three losses on the year with a win over Stewartville, and their lone losses coming to Waseca, Rochester Lourdes and Plainview-Elgin-Millville.

Goodhue, who was Class A runner-up a year ago, is making noise in Class AA. At 17-2, their losses are to RedWing, 53-40, who is ranked no. 6 in AAA and Rochester Lourdes, 59-52. This looks like a Section where the champion could come from the no. 5 seed as the season rolls around. It will be one a lot of people are watching.

CLASS 1A
1. Minneota (3) 15-1
2. Cromwell-Wright (7) 13-1
3. Mountain Iron-Buhl (7) 8-4
4. Walker-Hackensack-Akeley (5) 12-1
5. Waterville-Elysian-Morristown (2) 15-0
6. Henning (6) 13-1
7. Blooming Prairie (1) 11-2
8. Mayer Lutheran (4) 11-2
9. Cherry (7) 10-3
10. Hills-Beaver Creek (3) 11-1
11. Southwest MN Christian (3) 11-2
12. Heritage Christian (4) 9-4
13. Ada-Borup (6) 9-1
14. Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart (2) 10-2
15. Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s (2) 12-2
16. EGF Sacred Heart (8) 13-2
17. Springfield (2) 11-2
18. Red Lake County Central (8) 11-1
19. BOLD (2) 9-5
20. Southland (1) 9-4

Blooming Prairie and Southland are the lone Section 1 teams to make the Top 20 in Class A, but there are plenty of teams that could make some noise. Fillmore Central is 13-5, while Houston is 13-4 and Kingsland comes in with a record of 11-7.

This section is balanced and has a couple of really good matchups coming up through January and February that will really dictate what the seedings will look like come late February and into March.

Section 1 is always fun to follow, and it looks like it will be the same here in 2020. Is it March yet?!