Tartan 10th holds on to top spot among 2019s

<p>This may have been as tough a choice as ever here at NSGH. I wrote an entire article about the pros and cons of North Tartan 19th EYBL’s state champions and Crossfire Theisen’s 2015 and 2016 state champs who pulled of a daily double, beating NT 10 and NT 9 at All Iowa Attack’s Battle of the Best last week.</p> <p>But, in the end, NT 10 is the state champ, not that that’s automatic, but they’re also 4-2 against their key challengers—Crossfire, Fury Blue and Stars Nelson—while the Crossfire is 4-3.</p> <p>After losing to the Crossfire, NT 10 was scheduled to play Fury Blue for 3rd place in the Grey division, but the 2 teams agreed to forget the game and come home. If they had played that game, and if NT 10 had lost, then Crossfire would be #1. So, that’s hair splitting. But it’s not us doing the splitting. The teams have already done that. We’re trying to untangle it. And we untangled it this way:</p> <p>1. North Tartan 10th EYBL. Sara Scalia, Frannie Hottinger, Mykel Parham, Macy Guebert all had great summers.</p> <p>2. Crossfire 10th Elite Theisen. Crossfire lost 3 times in the AAU prelim and tournament. If any of those 3 games had gone the other way, Crossfire would be #1, whether they won the state title or not. Kallie Theisen and Hannah Purcell had great summers.</p> <p>3. Fury 2019 Blue. McKenna Hofschild, Carly Krsul, Abby Johnson and Taylor McAulay all had nice summers.</p> <p><strong>The Best of the Rest</strong></p> <p><strong>4. Stars Nelson </strong>is the one team that is consistently competitive with the “big three.” In fact, it would be much more accurate to say they are a “big four.” They beat #1-seeded (at the time) Crossfire in the AAU Prelim. But, the bottom line is that the Stars ended up 1-4 against the other 3. Sara Stapleton had a nice summer.</p> <p><strong>5. Stars Amundson</strong> finished 5th in the AAU tournament and compiled a 15-8 record since then, including 2 pool wins. Kacie Borowicz and Tori Nelson had great summers.</p> <p><strong>6. Suns Keitzer</strong> started out slowly and continued to go kind of up and down. They finished 7th in the AAU. But they went 7-1 down the stretch and won their division at the Nike Nationals. Mimi Schrader had a great summer.</p> <p><strong>7. Rise 10th Purple</strong> finished 9th at the AAU and went 15-5 down the stretch with signature wins over Tartan Elite and Comets Elite. Joey Batt had a breakout summer.</p> <p><strong>8. Comets 10th Elite</strong> finished 7th at the AAU and went 12-3 since, with wins over Fury Gold and So Minn Fury Gold and a loss to the Rise.</p> <p><strong>9. Fury 2019 Gold</strong> finished 8th at the AAU and went 16-7 since then, but lost to Suns Keitzer and the Comets. Mariah McKeever had a nice summer.</p> <p><strong>10. Heat Smetana</strong> is one of the big surprises of the entire summer. They stumbled through the AAU Prelims and Tournament, finishing finished in D2. But, they racked up an impressive 18-3 record since then, with good wins over Energy and Stars Bjorgard, who were rated ahead of the Heat at the time. They also won a pair of divisions. They are our Most Improved Team and our biggest gainer since our ratings following the AAU tournament.</p> <p><strong>11. Stars 10th Buerman</strong> finished 9th at the AAU, then went 12-6 with a division win at the UA Challenge, Ankeny.</p> <p><strong>12. North Tartan 10th Elite</strong> finished 14th at the AAU and went 14-5 after than, with a division win at Simply the Best.</p> <p><strong>13. Suns 10th Jefferson </strong>finished 11th at AAU and 5-6 since then, with a nice win over Lady Get Shook Walker.</p> <p><strong>14. Lady Get Shook 15 Walker </strong>was 12th at the AAU and 9-9 since. The highlight was a loss, but by just 66-65, to NT Elite. Zaraya March had a nice summer.</p> <p><strong>15. Energy 15 </strong>was 15th at the AAU and 6-3 since with a loss to Heat Smetana.</p> <p><strong>16. Stars 10th Bjorgard </strong>was 13th at AAU and 4-4 since them with also a loss to Heat Smetana.</p> <p><strong>17. MN Nice 16U </strong>did not play in the AAU and went 2-1 since.</p> <p><strong>18. Central Lakes Thunder 10th </strong>finished 3rd in D2 at the AAU and made one last appearance going 1-4 at the Meltdown. Olivia Lane had a nice, if brief, summer.</p> <p><strong>19. MN PREP </strong>finished 8th in D2 but went 7-10 since then with a win over NT 8 Coley.</p> <p><strong>20. Northern Lights 10th </strong>finished 14th at the AAU, and did not play after that.</p> <p>Honorable mention to Crossfire 10th Smith and Comets Select. We will have the 2019 all-summer-stars and a coach of the year coming up.</p>