Team of the Week Wayzata makes the biggest move among the big schools

PGH scouts feature ranked athletes from Kansas.

Marc Hugunin

January 30, 2017 @ 10:00 PM

Well, you’ve got your dog days of summer in August. And, in January, what is January? Another month where not much seems to happen. At least, that’s the way it seems here in January of 2017. We had precious few real upsets among the big schools, and so the rankings haven’t changed very much. And, meanwhile, winter drags on. So, anyway, from January 17 to January 31, here are the highlights. (The rankings themselves, as always, are located in the pull down menu in the category of High Schools. Wayzata Trojans In Class AAAA, Wayzata knocked off Park Center and St. Micheal-Albertville to move from #17 to #8 among the biggest schools. The also defeated #2AAA Orono, and the Trojans thus are 6-1 in January with the only loss to #1AAAA Hopkins. Of course, they’ve got another big game tomorrow night (Tuesday) against Lake Conference rival Edina, and a successful January would conclude with another win. A loss would seriously dampen the achievements of the past month. Wayzata has been led by its sophomores, 6-2 forward Kallie Theisen and point guard Mimi Schrader, who have averaged 18 and 10 ppg, respectively. Theisen is also a bear on defense and on the boards, leading her team in rebounds and blocked shots, as well. Schrader, meanwhile, is an assist-making machine. But the big news is the emergence of freshman guard Jasmine Smiley. Always athletic, she is getting into the rhythm of the varsity game now and is playing better, more confidently as a basketball player. She scored 14 points in a 68-59 win over Minnetonka, for instance. As a result, Wayzata was selected by our readers as the Team of the Week last week and, again, is now the biggest gainer in the Class AAAA rankings. The Big South In Class AAA our big gainers are all members of the Big South Conference (formerly the South Central and the Southwestern, but now merged into the Big South East and Big South West). Waseca opened the new year by winning at then 7-1 New Ulm on January 3. Two nights later the Bluejays lost at St. Peter. Waseca then lost to Kasson-Mantorville in OT as Kristin Scott scored 22 of her 23 points after halftime. Waseca was led by Gus Boyer with 14 points and Madison Gehloff with 13. They have won 4 more games since then, giving up an average of just 25 points per game. They’re 7-2 in January and 14-4 overall. They move from #14 to #10 this week after Northfield, St. Anthony and St. Paul Como all took a loss. Meanwhile New Ulm is unbeaten since its loss to Waseca and 17-2 overall. They beat St. Peter, rated in Class AA, and won at then-rated Faribault last week. Meleah Reinhart scored 22 and Joey Batt 15 against St. Peter, as Reinhart and Batt again led the way with 18 and 17 points, respectively. Worthington moved into the rankings this week at #17. After a shaky start that included a 77-39 loss to New Ulm, Worthington has won 9 of 11 including an 88-87 win on the road at Southwest MN Christian, highly rated in Class A, last week. Alangy Chan scored 5 points in the final 30 seconds for Worthington, and finished with 10 points and 10 boards. Emma Thuringer had 20 points, 7 boards and 5 steals for the Trojans, while Chantel Groen led the Eagles with 26 points. Finally, Jordan moved into the ratings at #20 despite losses to St. Peter and Worthington. They also defeated Tri-City United and Mayer Lutheran. Worthington got 17 points from Ahmitara Alwal and 16 from Emily Shaffer against Jordan, while Brooke Sievers scored 24 for the Jaguars. Big Lake and Faribault, each of which has dropped below .500 at 8-9 and dropped out of the top 20. In a nutshell, Winona, Kasson-Mantorville and Northfield are all competitive in Section 1AAA while Waseca, New Ulm, Worthington and maybe Faribault and Jordan are all competitive in 2AAA. All are among the top 25 teams in Class AAA, Even the quarter-finals should be entertaining games in southern Minnesota.