D1
34 teams in action on Wednesday.
Jocelyn Land, Montana, Holy Family 30-W
Lily Fandre, Lehigh, Eagan 21-W
*Olivia Olson, Michigan, Benilde-St. Margaret’s 21-W
Piper Carlson, Idaho State, St. Michael-Albertville 19-W
*Alyssa Sand, St. Thomas MN, Albany 18-W
Land, Olson and Carlson all set new personal highs for this list this year.
AAAA & AA had two each on the list; Olson the sole AAA rep.
Four went to state—exception Land.
Olson & Carlson won a state titles.
D2
There were 15 teams in action on Wednesday.
Ray’ven Robinson, Georgia Southwestern, Cretin-Derham Hall 23-W
Mya Moorjani, UM Duluth, Eden Prairie 22-W
Anna Vaaler, Sioux Falls, Andover 22-W
Alexis Rose, Sioux Falls, Becker 18-W
Emma Miller, UM Crookston, St. Michael-Albertville 16-L
With the addition of Robinson, the D2 HF listing now has 49. Moorjani hit a personal high.
Using current classifications AAAA had three players, AAA had two.
Four went to state—exception Robinson.
Rose won a state title.
D3
There were 19 schools in action Wednesday.
Elly Schmitz, Bethel MN, Hermantown 26-W
Emily Erickson, Bethel MN, Chisago Lakes 23-W
Evie Schmitz, St. Scholastica, St. Louis Park 23-W
Brianna Nusbaum, St. Mary’s MN, Spring Lake Park 21-W
Mya Morris, Martin Luther, Perham 20-W
Schmitz & Schmitz push the D3 HF totals to 31.
AAAA & AAA each had two members. AA one.
Elly Schmitz and Morris made it to state.
HIGH SCHOOL RESULTS
A typical light Wednesday schedule with action centered in the metro area.
AAAA
#9 Waconia 70, Prior Lake 57
AAA
#4 Cretin-Derham Hall 50, Shakopee 42
AA
#1 Providence 98, Edina 64
RANKED RESULTS
Winner High 98 Providence
Winner Low 46 Simley
Loser High 64 Edina
Loser Low 24 Higher Ground Academy
Biggest Margin 52 St. Paul Harding 76, Higher Ground Academy 24
Smallest Margin 7 Simley v Cooper
Most Combined: 162 Providence v Edina
Least combined: 80 Hastings v Bloomington Kennedy
Margins 30 or more 3
Margins 5 or less 0
Average 54.50
Winner Average 65.167
Loser Average 43.833
Ranked Average 72.667
Nonranked Average 51.905
Average margin 21.33
Average combined: 109
Ranked Upsets: none
AAAA Ave 56.083
AAA Ave 49.000
AA Ave 67.000
A Ave 24.00
AA with Providence and Minneapolis North burning out the scoreboard lights, took the top spot in class warfare with almost 11 points to spare over AAAA.
POINT PARADE
AAAA
Maya Kilian, New Prague 29
AAA none
AA
Maddyn Greenway, Providence 30
Emma Millerbernd, Providence 28
A none
ABOUT LAST NIGHT….WACONIA V PRIOR LAKE
Luckily I was able to get out on Wednesday. On Tuesday I was tied to the house awaiting a service repair that did not arrive early in the timing window preventing me from venturing out. But Wednesday I was able to get to Prior Lake for a 2AAAA section game with Waconia the guests. The Wildcats have had a good start to the year with an eye opener 71-66 win over St. Michael-Albertville at the Hamline Thanksgiving event last weekend. Waconia finished the 2024-25 season 8-18 and was sixth in the Metro West at 4-10. Last night they pushed their 2025-26 mark to a spotless 5-0.
On thing was clear with introductions the Wildcats rely a lot on the 2026 class. The host Lakers are rebuilding with plenty of hits in graduation. In addition, there is a new skipper at the helm. Ellen Thompson, who was an assistant at Minnetonka the past two years, is now running the show at PL.
Early on PL had a 12-7 advantage. Waconia closed the gap to 12-11, but the Lakers had another surge out to 23-16 with 8:41 left in the half. The Wildcats edged forward at 24-23 with 3:45 to go. There were two more lead changes in the half with #12 snapping a 26 tie with a triple which gave Waconia the lead for good. At the break it was 31-26. Waconia’s pp100 at this stage was 88.6, PL’s 72.2. In the second half Waconia heated up to 102.6 with their starters at 120. PL also improved to 83.8, but not nearly to the same level.
The break point came when Waconia broke free from a 47-46 game with seven minutes left in the game. One item I am investigating recently is what I call “string theory.” This refers to consecutive scores or stops. Waconia had a string of three scores to push their lead to 59-47. One of those scores came on a put back off of missed free throws. PL had to burn two time outs in the space of 1:10 (second coming at 4:22) to halt the slide.
Waconia won the rebound battle 39-31, and had a better shooting night with 52.6 from 2s and 33.3 from 3s. The Lakers had marks of 40 and 29.4. Neither team had remarkable touches per turnovers marks at 16…a sign of early season communication and execution issues. Those number need to exceed 30 for deeper runs come March.
4 FACTORS TABLE
| Team | Pt | PP100 | OR/DR | FTA/m | 2A/M | 3A/M | TO/TOTO |
| Waconia | 70 | 95.9 | 15/24 | 12/19 | 20/38 | 6/18 | 21/16.29 |
| Prior Lake | 57 | 78.1 | 12/19 | 14/21 | 14/35 | 5/17 | 22/16.55 |
On the individual level two players were close, but no cigar for the 31 Club for the Wildcats: Addison Bryfczynski and Emma Hanson both ended up one shy. Neither were able to get to the gold standard of 100 pp100 either. The other three starters did with Emersyn Colby topping out at 125.0.
The Lakers did have a 31 Clubber, and she just missed the 41 Club by one. Toni Fisher ended up with a 40. She too was under the gold standard at 95.7. The problem was her support around her only had one player north of 100 pp100 as a starter with the other three under 65.0.
So where does Waconia fit into the “section of death” if we were to borrow a phrase from the upcoming World Cup in soccer? Keep in mind Minnetonka is #2 in the AAAA world. Waconia was #9, Chaska is #10 and Eden Prairie has received votes. So has Chanhassen, but not last week. Prior Lake will get stronger as the year goes on. Even Shakopee pushed #4 Cretin-Derham Hall last night. Waconia will face a greuling schedule in the Metro West with the Cs plus #1AAA Benilde-St. Margaret’s and #2AAA Orono. Expect some nicks in the Wildcats perfect start in the upcoming weeks. I do not expect Waconia to be the #2 seed in 2AAAA.
DAY AHEAD
Three battles are ranked v ranked of the 13 games listed.
AAAA
#3 Lakeville North hosts #6 Maple Grove
AAA
#3 Marshall hosts Harrisburg, SD
#6 Stewartville hosts Lake City
#7 Becker at Totino-Grace
AA
#1 Providence hosts Two Rivers
#3 Crosby-Ironton at Mora
#5 Goodhue hosts #9A Hayfield/Schaeffer Academy
#6 Rochester Lourdes at Kasson-Mantorville
A
#1 Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s hosts Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop
#2 Mountain Iron-Buhl at Hill City/Northland
#7 Mayer Lutheran at West Lutheran
#9 Braham hosts East Central
#3 MACCRAY hosts #9 Central MN Christian