For the week:

Ten games; 15 new teams (5 duplicates) 162 new players, 1578 miles

For the season: 143 games, 226 teams (24 duplicates), 2251, 13,061.9 miles

Or 22.795 trips back and forth to Ralph Engelstad Arena in Thief River Falls.

This is going to be a two-parter. The rear view mirror portion where I recap last week’s action will roll out tomorrow.

WAITING….WAITING….WAITING….

Could this be the year? These 19 teams are in the hunt for their first state tournament berth:

AAAA (2): Lakeville South; East Ridge

AAA (4): Minneapolis Roosevelt (only three of the Minneapolis schools have made a showing: North, Washburn, South); Mahtomedi; Delano; Rock Ridge (Virginia, part of the new Rock Ridge did go in both 1990 and 1992).

AA (5): Tri-City United (Montgomery-Lonsdale did go in 2002); Windom; St. Agnes; Southwest Christian (the Chaska version, not the Edgerton version), Holdingford

A (8): Edgerton, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley; Breckenridge; Park Christian; Ely, South Ridge; Kelliher-Northome, Kittson County Central (a technicality—Kittson County did go to the state in 2002 (and won it all) and 2004);

Signs point to East Ridge breaking through in AAAA. Roosevelt & Rock Ridge in AAA; no one makes it in AA.

A good chance? KCC or KN in 8A. WHA in 5A

PP100S

Bam! This week’s pp100 has been the highest all year. Even though a lot of the action this week was first round blowouts it still popped. The Centurions ran rampant over the course of the week with seven of the twenty teams (35%) getting that coveted number. As such the winners all together were 101.4 for the week. The losers were only 67.97 leaving the competitive gap a chasm of 33.43. The “best” game of the week was by far the final game of the week: Kelliher-Northome vs Cass Lake-Bena. BOTH teams were over 100 pp100 in an epic battle between conference rivals. There was intensity, physicality and teams making plays. Don’t be misled by thinking no defense was offered.

The only Class was A so ….84.66, but if we separate out the sections…Section 8 tops it all with 89.18; followed by section 1 with 86.95; 6 with 84.85; 3 with 82.58 and 2 trailing badly at 66.

THE BEST THIS SEASON

Week	Leader	Pp100	All pp100
1	Minnetonka	122.2	80.18
2	Rosemount	138.1	76.78
3	Duluth Marshall	115.7	78.23
4	Lakeville North	127.5	75.65
5	Burnsville	88.2	73.14
6	Mankato East	105.3	75.73
7	Fairmont	108.0	81.26
8	Ogilvie	115.8	80.83
9	Rochester Lourdes	96.6	71.82
10	Benilde-St. Margaret’s	105.6	83.9
11	Pelican Rapids	118.2	81.26
12	Shakopee	111.1	76.14
13	St. Peter	120.6	82.58
14	Walker-Hackensack-Akeley	120.0	82.44
15	Underwood	118.0	84.66

With only A teams charted last week it is no shock that an A team leads the week. Underwood is the third A team this year and the second in a row. A good question is who do these teams get their week’s best against? That should show the quality of the pp100 leader. Minnetonka’s came against Lakeville South, playing for the 1AAAA title later this week. BSM’s came against STMA. Pelican Rapids’ came against Sauk Centre, still playing in 6AA. St. Peter’s came against Windom—still alive in 3AA. So of the 15 weeks four have been against opponents still trying to get to state.

31 CLUB

There were a dozen 31 Clubbers in the ten games charted this week. Three of those players went up one more level to the 41 Club. Gabrielle Fineday and Kate Thayer of Kelliher-Northome made that club in the same game. For the second straight week Sienna Duininck of Central MN Christian made the 41 Club. Seniors led the grads with four; the juniors three; and sophs and frosh two each. Even the eighth grade got involved with one. K-N was the only school with a pair….sister Ella joining Kate.

Southwest MN Christian and Walker-Hackensack-Akeley each had a pair of 31 Clubbers. Class A led the way with 10 members. AA had one (only one game), AAA had three (in two games). 31 Clubbers finished with an 11-3 mark on the week. The overall record for 31 Clubbers was 9-3.

THE BEST THIS SEASON

Week	Player	School	Grad	Score
1	Maddyn Greenway	Providence	2026	56
2	Tori Oehrlein	Crosby-Ironton	2026	68
3	Chloe Johnson	Duluth Marshall	2028	63
4	Jocelyn Land	Holy Family	2024	49
5	Livi Downs	Mankato West	2026	44
6	Lauren Bengston	Cretin-Derham Hall	2024	42
7	Rylie Cother	Jackson County Central	2025	54
8	Grace Heins	Ogilvie	2024	51
9	Katelyn Olson	JWP	2026	38
10	Mattea Henry	Woodbury	2024	53
11	Alexis Rose	Becker	2024	57
12	Catherine Walker	Breck	2025	40
13	Rylie Cother	Jackson County Central	2025	64
14	Addison Hoof	Lester Prairie	2025	49
15	Gabrielle Fineday	Cass Lake-Bena	2025	46

The junior (2025) streak builds to four. Fineday is the third A player to lead.

MILESTONES

Sophomore Maija Lamppa of Rock Ridge is a third generation 1000 point scorer joining father Josh and grandfather Lon. She made the party on February 28 in the 7AAA quarterfinal win over Duluth Denfeld.

TOP OF THE LIST

8A #1s Kittson County Central and Fosston were the final parts needed for this.

AAAA: 1.000 8/8
AAA: 1.000 8/8
AA: 1.000 10/10
A: .846 11/13

Top 10 polls

Underwood & Kelliher-Northome were the final pieces here.

AAAA 10/10 100%
AAA 10/10 100%
AA 10/10 100%
A 10/10 80%

QRF

150 looks like it will happen. To get to 160 I need to see five. Two of them are done for the year. Other schools could pop up in their place with the constant churn. After Wednesday all schools left should be already charted. There is a remote chance one slips by which limits my Friday options.

Rank	Seen	%
1-10	10	100
1-25	25	100
1-50	50	100
1-75	75	100
1-100	100	100
1-125	125	100
1-150	149	99.3
1-175	169	96.6
1-200	180	90.0
1-225	194	86.2
1-250	205	82.0
1-275	214	77.8
1-300	217	72.3

The biggest fish left to fry? Ely at #145.

As for the completeness of each class

AAAA: 100%
AAA: 85.94%—9 to go
AA: 54.33%—58 to go
A: 34.69%—96 to go

Again it could be all A action for the first three days this week.

SOLOISTS

Two remain with a single solitary loss.

Was 2 still 2

AAAA: none
AAA: Delano
AA: Albany
A: none

Danger ahead: Delano takes on #1 Benilde-St. Margaret’s in the 6AAA final. Albany has a semifinal up on Wednesday with sub .500 Annandale. Survive that (The Cardinals have sprung two upsets getting by #4 Legacy Christian and #5 St. Cloud Cathedral in the open rounds) and the Huskies could see either Sauk Centre or Holdingford.

WINLESS

Was 8 still 8

AAAA: none
AAA: 1 Minneapolis Edison
AA: 2 Albert Lea, Cristo Rey Jesuit
A: 5 Immanuel Lutheran, Parnassus Prep, St. Paul City, Ashby, Cook County

STREAKING

Another week, another new leader in AAAA—-East Ridge takes over for Minneapolis Southwest. Hayfield is alone in A. Minneota had one less game. Their winning streak is intact, just not as high as Hayfield.

AAAA: 9 East Ridge
AAA: 20 Benilde-St. Margaret’s
AA: 18 Albany.
A: 13 Hayfield

This is the final edition for the losing streak….All the teams have exited the stage. Edison and Albert Lea share the longest streak heading into 2024-25 with 29.

AAAA: 26 Bloomington Jefferson 26 (all this year after opening with a victory)
AAA: 29 Minneapolis Edison 28+1 ly
AA: 29 Albert Lea 26+3 ly
A: 27 Ashby 26+1 ly

ROAD AHEAD

Thursday is heavy with AAAA & AAA finals with AA & A do the same Friday.

SEEDING THE STATE

One of my selections has already bit the dust. Becker lost in the 5AAA semis to Totino-Grace. The rest of the picks are still healthy. Can they survive another week? Can I survive another week?

AAAA

1. Minnetonka (2)
2. Hopkins (6)
3. Maple Grove (5)
4. Michael-Albertville (8)
5. Lakeville North (1)
6. Rosemount (3)
7. Andover (7)
8. East Ridge (4)

AAA

1. Benilde-St. Margaret’s (6)
2. DeLaSalle (4)
3. Alexandria (8)
4. Byron (1)
5. Peter (2)
6. Rock Ridge (7)
7. Monticello (5)
8. Minneapolis Roosevelt (3)

AA

1. Providence (5)
2. Minnehaha (4)
3. Albany (6)
4. New London-Spicer (3)
5. Crosby-Ironton (7)
6. Perham (8)
7. Winona Cotter (1)
8. Glencoe-Silver Lake (2)

A

1. Goodhue (1)
2. Hancock (6)
3. Mountain Iron-Buhl (7)
4. Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart (2)
5. Minneota (3)
6. Mayer Lutheran (4)
7. Kelliher/Northome (8)
8. Braham (5)