About our final in-season AAAA and AAA team rankings

Rochester Mayo and St. Paul Como are our biggest movers upward in our final regular season team ranking update, while Apple Valley, Grand Rapids and Hermantown are our biggest movers downward.

Rochester Mayo (20-6) started out slowly as senior point guard slowly came back from a knee injury. The were 8-6 after a 2nd loss to Faribault on January 26. But, since then, the Spartans have won 12 straight and copped a share of the Big 9 title (with AAA Winona). As a result, they’ve moved into our top 20-25 (last week it was the top 20, now we’ve expanded it to top 25) at #15.

They’re still a huge underdog to #3 Lakeville North in Section 1AAAA. They open post-season play against crosstown rival JM on Wednesday.

St. Paul Como (19-7) defeated Class A power Cromwell as Elaina Jones scored 32 points, then knocked off Mpls. South 66-63 behind Mikayla Van Nett’s 27 points to win the Twin City Game. The Cougars also started this year slowly as they figured out how to play the game and to win with the graduated Andrayah Adams. But, Jones and Van Nett are way too good for Como to struggle for too long, and they went 16-2 after a 3-5 start.

As a result, this is the one and only AAA or AAAA section that has a newly top-ranked team. Como moved from #15 to #6, moving past Mahtomedi (22-3) with itself moved up but only from #10 to #8. Mahtomedi is 22-3 with a 5 game winning streak and a 14-1 record since January 6, and they’re the official #1 seed in Section 4AAA. So, it’s not our intent to get into any Zephyr-bashing. But it’s also true that Como beat Mahtomedi 71-67 back on January 3.

Como opens post-season play vs. Totino-Grace on Thursday. Mahtomedi gets a 1st round bye.

Apple Valley (20-6) drops all the way from #4AAAA to #13 after a disastrous 1-3 finish that includes losses to Farmington and Prior Lake. So, now, the team that beat Centennial, Eastview and St. Michael-Albertville is barely favored to win at all in its post-season opener against Henry Sibley on Wednesday night.

In Class AAA the big droppers are Grand Rapids (21-5) from #3 to #9 and Hermantown (22-3) from #6 to #11. Grand Rapids, dropped a pair of upsets to Thief River Falls and Bemidji and dropped from #3 to #9. Hermantown is on a 10-game winning streak but the fact is they lost to Grand Rapids 65-57 back on January 17, and we didn’t feel that we could rank Hermantown ahead of Grand Rapids. So, both dropped.

Hermantown gets North Branch in section plan on Wednesday, Grand Rapids gets a 1st round bye.

Also On the Move

They also moved up: Centennial, Champlin, Cooper, Cretin and Minnetonka in Class AAAA, and Winona, DeLaSalle, Thief River Falls and Simley in AAA.

They also moved down: Roseville, Andover, Shakopee, New Prague and Forest Lake in AAAA, and Alexandria, Waseca, St. Anthony and Willmar in AAA.