Molly Mogensen and her mom own the record book

Scoring 25 points to lead your team to an impressive 92-79 win on opening night? Cool. Having a triple double at the same time? Very cool. Breaking your school’s all-time scoring record with 1,443 points? Even cooler. Knocking your mom off the top of the list? Priceless!

Farmington’s Molly Mogensen did all of that Saturday at the Breakdown Tipoff Classic. The senior, who is committed to Creighton University in Omaha, had another in a long line of outstanding performances for the Tigers as they defeated St. Michael-Albertville. In doing so, Molly passed her mom Julie for the school record. Mrs. Mogensen was Julie Bauer back then when she compiled 1,438 points in her career as a guard for the Tigers. She graduated in 1987 and went on to play college basketball at Southwest State in Marshall. Julie, who is now a special education teacher at Farmington Elementary, called Saturday’s feat, “a treasured moment.” Indeed.

I guess we could call it a Title IX moment, too. That historic piece of federal civil rights legislation in 1972 made it illegal to prevent students from participating in any educational activity on the basis of sex, essentially laying the groundwork that brought us to where we are today. It spawned the growth of girls high school basketball and college basketball for women. Some of those athletes who seized the opportunity to play eventually became moms who had daughters, some of whom have grown up to be terrific players, as well.

Lilly Meister from Rochester John Marshall is one of Minnesota’s elite talents. Her mom Angie was a decorated college basketball player in South Dakota. Ella Janicki of White Bear Lake will definitely compete at the next level. Her mom Stacy played at Notre Dame. And there are many more. I’m not sure, though, that any current player has broken her mom’s all-time scoring record, and there’s probably no way of knowing for sure. If you are aware of this having happened before in Minnesota please drop us a line.

Perhaps @mnbuckets might know

It made me wonder if there were any other similar feats. The one person who could possibly have the answer would be Steven Bruce, better known on Twitter as @mnbuckets. His profile describes Bruce as ‘High school basketball supporter. Schedule aficionado. Scout schedule creator.’

Bruce is a data guy. He created an incredible tool that enables users to very easily look up the complete schedule of any high school team in the state. For those of us who watch a lot of basketball, this thing is a Godsend. Shortly after Molly’s accomplishment on the weekend Bruce posted information on Minnesota’s all-time leading scorers by program. He was kind enough to allow us to share it here.

Mogensen is one of two currently active players who holds her school’s all-time scoring record. The other – not suprisingly – is Paige Bueckers of Hopkins. Actually, Bueckers is currently in second place behind the great Leslie Knight, who set the mark in 2004. The record is 2,335. Entering the season Paige needed just 47 points to surpass Knight. She had 14 on Saturday against Becker. A big game on Tuesday against Waconia would do it. Or it could happen on Friday when the Royals face Rosemount at the Hamline University tournament.

Mallory Brake of Hastings is also closing in on her school’s record. The senior, who will be Mogensen’s teammate at Creighton, trails 2018 graduate Krystal Carlson (Sioux Falls) by 300 points. At her usual scoring pace, Brake (#5 in Minnesota’s senior class) should surpass Carlson’s 2,251-point record sometime around the end of January.

Who else has their school’s record?

Mr. Bruce’s list indicates that 18 players graduated this year as their school’s all-time leading scorer. One of those is Hannah Purcell of Annandale, who now plays Division 1 college basketball at DePaul. She holds the record with 1,762 points. Interestingly, the leading scorer in the history of the Annandale boys program is her dad Chip Purcell, who graduated in 1994. Turns out there are multiple familial connections among the current record-holders.

There are a number of siblings who own their school record, including  Rebekah Dahlman and her brother Isaiah from Braham, who have a stunning 8,426 career points between them. That’s a number that will surely never be broken. Siblings Bryn and Ben Woodside from Albert Lea also share the record as do Joel and Judy McDonald at Chisholm, Kenley and Kamille Wahlin of Crookston, Ty and Tesha Buck of Red Wing, and Tera and Marshall Bjorklund of Silver Bay. Sean and Molly Mathiowetz of Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s also hold their school record but current standout Madison Mathiowetz, who averages over 25 points per game, may be on track to eclipse Molly.

These are the 18 recent graduates who top their school’s list:

3,551 – Kacie Borowicz, Roseau (North Dakota)

2,610 – Sara Scalia, Stillwater (Minnesota)

2,576 – Abbey McDonald, Hibbing (St. Cloud State)

2,519 – Tori Nelson, Henry Sibley (South Dakota State)

2,507 – Madi Schirmer, Maple River (St. Thomas)

2,507 – Haley Hungerholt, Leroy-Ostrander (Waldorf)

2,488 – McKenna Hofschild, Prior Lake (Seton Hall)

2,434 – Olivia Lane, Pequot Lakes (North Dakota)

2,433 – Lariah Washington, St. Cloud Apollo (Eastern Illinois)

2,301 – Joey Batt, New Ulm (MSU-Mankato)

2,235 – Makenna Steffel, BOLD (volleyball)

1,983 – Madison Gehloff, Waseca (Southwest Minnesota State)

1,922 – Sidney Fick, Hills-Beaver Creek (Dakota State)

1,762 – Hannah Purcell, Annandale (DePaul)

1,756 – Alyssa Rostad, Houston (Simpson)

1,738 – Cora Kujava, Kittson County Central

1,521 – Megan Voit, St. Cloud Cathedral (Mary)

1,500+ – Shawna Mell, Rush City (Concordia-St. Paul)

There were 15 graduates in the 2018 class who hold their school’s high water mark, including Emily Miletech (Barnum), Ayoka Lee (Byron), Erica Hicks (Champlin Park), Natalie Steichen (DGF), Mikayla Koivisto (Floodwood), Heaven Hamling (Grand Rapids), Krystal Carlson (Hastings); Kelsea Lund (LQPV), Jaclyn Jarnot (Maranatha), Mya Chemielewski (Mayer Lutheran), Sam Haiby (Moorhead), Abby Goodno (Mounds Park Academy), Sydney Schultz (Owatonna), Madison Heiderscheidt (Sleepy Eye) and Anna McCosh (Yellow Medicine East).

Thanks for the info Steven. Thanks for the photos Julie. Thanks for the many entertaining moments Molly. We look forward to many more in the weeks ahead.