Section 2A and 3A Preview

<p>Section 2A has been the kind of section you gotta love in recent years—that is, competitive. Mankato Loyola won a couple of section championships in 2013 and 2014, then succumbed to upsets 3 straight years as Springfield, then Sleepy Eye, then GHEC-TML (seriously, that’s Granada-Huntley-East Chain-Truman-Martin Luther) made it to state the past 3 seasons. Out of that whole crowd, only Sleepy Eye has a shot this year but they’ll have to get through Alden-Conger and BOLD to do it, and Section 2A has not been kind of favorites. Our picks:</p> <p><strong>1. Sleepy Eye 21-8 last year</strong></p> <p>Okay, look for Sleepy Eye to be the 1st 3-time winner in 2A this decade, adding a 2018 section title to ones in 2012 and 2016. If this happens, it will be thanks to 3 very different senior guards. Madi Heiderscheidt, 5-7 lefty point guard, runs the show and hits the 3. Sarah Ibarra is a tough 5-8 battler who scores and defends and does all the things you need and can reasonably expect of a 5-8 player in the lane. And, Brianna Polesky is a 5-9 spot-up shooter. Among them, they score about 35 ppg, though they’ll probably need even a few more to get this far, though 5-11 Mya Ibberson and 5-9  McKenzie Czelovski provide help inside.</p> <p><strong>2. BOLD 15-13 last year</strong></p> <p>BOLD, which, for the record, stands for Bird Island, Olivia and Danube, brings 3 serious contributors back from last year. Sure, it should bother you that they only went 15-13 and bowed out of section play too early last year. I’m sure it bothers them. But in a section that graduated an incredible amount of talent, it’s hard not to like Makenna Steffel, Taylor Sagedahl and and Makayla Snow.</p> <p>Steffel is a 5-11 junior power forward who is long and quick on defense, and finishes well on offense to the tune of 19 ppg last year as a sophomore. Sagedahl is 5-8 senior small forward who scored 9 ppg as a freshman, then missed her sophomore year with a knee. She bounced back with 12 ppg last year. And, Snow is also a natural 4 at 5-10 and scored 6 ppg last year as just a freshman. Breanna Weis, a 5-4 sophomore, and Morgan Schmitz, a 5-7 junior, share ball-handling duties.</p> <p>Like Sleepy Eye, there’s a lot of firepower, but the Indians have the advantage of playing in more big games over the years.</p> <p><strong> 3. Alden-Conger 15-11</strong></p> <p>Yeah, the Knights also backed out of the section playoffs too soon but, like BOLD. There’s just too much talent to ignore, beginning with 5-5 junior Erika Bute, who threw up 21 ppg, 8 boards, 3 assists and 4 steals last year. Not that that’s much different than what she’s been doing the past 2-3 years, but now the supporting cast is getting better. Abigail Theusch is still just a freshman, a 5-6 guard who scored 13 points with 7 boards, 2 assists and 3 steals as an 8th grader. McKenna Erickson is another freshman who scored 4 points with 6 boards last year. Junior forward Megan Linn scored 4 points with 5 boards and 2 steals.</p> <p>That’s a bunch of athletes who push the pace and get into their opponents faces pretty good.</p> <p><strong>4. St. Clair 17-11</strong></p> <p>The Cyclones bring back junior point Olivia Drummer, whose 5-11 size makes her somebody to watch along with her 15 ppg scoring ability. Now, St. Clair adds 6-foot post Megan Mettler, formerly of Mankato Loyola, to make a pretty good inside-outside combination.</p> <p><strong>5. Cleveland 12-16</strong></p> <p>Here’s a wild card, a dark horse, whatever you want to call the Clippers. Call ‘em somebody that hasn’t made much noise over the year. But they bring back 6 contributors, all of whom scored 5 to 9 ppg, and only forward Rachel Kunkel is a senior. The rest will be back in 2019, God willing and the creek don’t rise. They are juniors Caitlin Brink, 5-5 point guard; Katelyn McCabe, 5-7 shooting guard; 5-7 guard Julia McCabe; and 5-8 forward Karna Ziebarth; and sophomore forward McKenna Robb.</p> <p><strong>The Rest of the Rest</strong></p> <p>Last year most of the #5 through #8-rated teams in 2A based on QRF got knocked off before their time so, who knows, there is probably some surprise lurking here again. But let the record show that some of the perennial powers out here—like recent state tournament entries Nicollet, Loyola and Springfield, or last year’s runnerup, Cedar Mountain—are pretty deep into rebuilding. If there’s a shocker in 2A, I don’t think it will emanate from one of these 4. </p>