Ranking the Sections: Class AAAA
What teams have an easy road to the state tournament and what teams have to go through a gauntlet? Ranking the Sections with the playoffs right about the corner. Toughest Section: 2AAAA Five of the top 12-13 teams in the…
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Continue ReadingWhat teams have an easy road to the state tournament and what teams have to go through a gauntlet? Ranking the Sections with the playoffs right about the corner.
Toughest Section: 2AAAA
Five of the top 12-13 teams in the state are in 2AAAA. Prior Lake and Eden Prairie started the year as state title favorites and still have a chance to bring home the gold. Prior Lake is experienced and has a star (Dawson Garcia) while EP will need to get healthy (don’t have John Henry and Austin Andrews) to make the run. Chaska and Edina both have a chance to battle their way to the state tournament as does Shakopee. Then theres Tonka and Chanhassen who are both better than expected. The top seed means playing Jefferson which is no picnic either but the goal for teams is to get one of the top two seeds.
2nd Toughest Section: 4AAAA
Another section with a deep group. CDH is the defending state champ and a top ten team while East Ridge is a definite top two squad in the state. Tartan and White Bear Lake are veteran teams with strong records plus North St. Paul and St. Paul Central are both squads people want to avoid in the first round. Stillwater is a likely seven seed and they’ve been much better than in past years (.500 record). The goal for the best teas is to get one of the top two seeds.
3rd Toughest Section: 5AAAA
For years Park Center, Champlin Park and Osseo have led this group. Park Center only has one loss and is the number one team in the state but that 1/4 game won’t be easy with Spring Lake Park or Centennial. And the 2/3 game of Osseo vs Champlin Park puts two traditional powers head to head. Osseo is 14-8 so you can’t count them out but CP feels like the top contender to the Pirates.
Solid: 1AAAA
Lakeville North has won the section for seven straight years and now they have a star (Tyler Wahl), two supporting scorers (Tommy Jensen and Jack Rusch), and a team full of seniors. This team has a very real chance to win state and may have the best chance to win the section as any previous team did. The section this year though is deeper with JM and Mayo having solid records plus New Prague and Lakeville South being solid (South beat North this year). JM of course has Matthew Hurt but the team is not as deep as the several that have earned second play in the section for years.
Top Heavy: 6AAAA
The bottom of this section has some of the worst teams in Class AAAA so there will be no first round section drama at all. St. Louis Park and Armstrong are good opponents for Hopkins and Wayzata in the semi-finals before the expected section title game rematch (Wayzata beat Hopkins the last two years).
Competitive: 8AAAA
While we don’t believe any team in 8AAAA will be playing for the title on the last Saturday we do like this section as the depth is being developed. Maple Grove has moved into the top ten and Buffalo is working to be a contender this year (they will certainly be a top ten team next year). Moorhead and STMA are al top 20 level Class AAAA teams.
Weak Section: 7AAAA
Hey 7AAAA you aren’t at the bottom any more! Blaine might have the best team in the state that nobody is talking about at all at 15-6. Cambridge and Duluth East are also having solid seasons while Anoka is .500. Sure half the league in 7AAAA is struggling (Coon Rapids continues to get better step by step) but….
Weakest Section: 3AAAA
Now everybody can see how easy Apple Valley had it in getting to state in recent years. 3AAAA has one team with a winning record and that is Eastview who is only two games above .500. There are some bad teams in this league while Eagan has improved, Park is about where we thought they would be, and Burnsville is okay. But this is the worst section.