Team and Coach of the Year Awards
Marc Hugunin
<p>Our final top 20 teams in each class are now posted under the High School pull-down menu. It should come as no surprise to anyone that our 4 #1s are the 4 winners at last week’s state tournament.</p>
<p>• <strong>Elk River,</strong> 32-0, moved up from #2 to #1 in Class AAAA, surpassing Hopkins, whom they defeated 64-60 in the state final. Senior guard Gabi Haack led Elk River as she has done all year with 59 state tournament points.</p>
<p>• In Class AAA, <strong>Orono,</strong> 27-4, moved up from #3, passing defending state champ Holy Angels and Hutchinson, whom they defeated in Section 6AAA. Tori Andrew led Orono with 66 points in 3 games.</p>
<p>• <strong>Roseau,</strong> 32-0, didn’t need to move to #1 in Class AA, they’ve already been there all year long. Senior Kiley Borowicz of Roseau led all tournament scorers for the 2nd straight year with 89 points.</p>
<p>• <strong>Goodhue,</strong> 28-4, moved all the way from #4 to #1, passing MIB, Wheaton and Cromwell; the Wildcats defeated MIB in the final as guards Emily Benrud, Sydney Lodermeier and Mackenzie Ryan dominated with their defense.</p>
<p><strong>Big Gainers</strong></p>
<p>In the course of the section and state tournaments over the past 3 weeks, here are the teams that moved up in the rankings the most. You will have to take my word for this, by the way. The “Previous” ranking in the tables now has been changed to “PreSeason” so that you can check how things worked out vs. how we had them rated back in November. All in all, we did OK, though the big miscue was having Elk River rated #12. (Orono was #7, but Roseau and Goodhue were #1.) But, the Big Gainers discussed here are based on moving up over the past 3 weeks. You can eyeball our charts to see who the big movers are over the course of the season.</p>
<p>• <strong>Moorhead</strong> and <strong>New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva</strong> each moved up 13 spots. Moorhead moved from #23 to #10 in Class AAAA after its 77-69 win over St. Michael-Albertville in the Section 8AAAA semi in which Sam Haiby scored 31 points. NRHEG moved from #19 to #6 in Class AA with an upset of Norwood Young America in Section 2AA followed by a 5th place finish at state. 6-4 junior post Betsy Schoenrock emerged as one of the state’s breakout players during this past season.</p>
<p>• <strong>Rochester Lourdes</strong> also moved up from unranked to #10, winning the Section 1AA championship in a surprise, then winning 1 state tournament game to finish 6th. Freshman Alyssa Ustby emerged this year as one of the state’s breakout young talents.</p>
<p>• That leaves Class AAA where the biggest gainer was <strong>Willmar</strong> who moved from #22 to #17 with a surprise Section 5AAA title; and Class A, where <strong>Cedar Mountain Comfrey</strong> moved up from #20 to #13 after getting to the final in Section 2A.</p>
<p>• Other noteworthy gainers are <strong>Bigfork</strong> from #9A to #4A; <strong>Rush City</strong> from #10AA to #5AA; <strong>Alexandria</strong> from #10AAA to #6AAA; and <strong>Andover</strong> from #19AAAA to #12AAAA.</p>
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