The Lake Preview

<p>The Lake Conference athletic directors and coaches had a bit of an easier time scheduling this season as STMA and Buffalo were added to the league. The Lake preview is now. </p> <p>In writing the Breakdown book this year I extended the preseason poll to 30 times for my own interest.  In doing so I realized that the Lake has 7 of the top 25 teams in Class AAAA, including half of the top six.  </p> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <p><strong>State Title Contenders: </strong>Eden Prairie, Wayzata, Hopkins</p> <p>I had Eden Prairie as my number one team in the preseason poll before they lost Ariel Bland to prep school.  That simply dropped them to two in our poll.   Right behind them a few spots is Wayzata and defending champion Hopkins.  Does this mean Hopkins is a long shot to win state? Nope.  It's wide open again, they have a solid shot themselves.  It just means that Hopkins has more to replace from last season.  Meanwhile EP has a super talented senior class that seemingly started playing together when they were four, while Wayzata has a strong much of top young talent and grown seniors. </p> <p><strong>Potential Top Ten:</strong>   Edina</p> <p>The Hornets have a lot more to replace than the rest of last year's Lake Five (most of their rotation was seniors) and they didn't get a transfer or two to help with those replacements.  The Hornets surely can be a top ten squad as I have them ranked just outside the top ten to start the year as their is talent.  They will just have more inexperienced bodies than most playing on day one and two. </p> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: Minnetonka, STMA, Buffalo</p> <p>The Bison were hit by non-graduation harder than anybody I've seen.  Buffalo looked to be a top ten team coming into the year but then Tony Dahl tore his ACL and Aiden Bouman committed to Iowa State and made the choice to graduate high school early (this winter).  Buffalo is still going to be good but they are short a ton of muscle.  Minnetonka will also be very good and has a chance to fight for that top ten spot, but the Skippers are also heading into a new direction and will be playing new bodies.  Then you have STMA who lost a lot from last year but has one of the best sophomores in the league plus a pair of excellent senior forwards. </p> <p><strong>19-20 Conference Predictions</strong></p> <ol> <li>Eden Prairie</li> <li>Wayzata</li> <li>Hopkins</li> <li>Edina</li> <li>Buffalo</li> <li>Minnetonka</li> <li>STMA</li> </ol> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Preseason All Lake Conference </strong></p> <p><strong><u>First Team</u></strong></p> <p>Kerwin Walton of Hopkins (Sr)</p> <p>Camden Heide of Wayzata (Soph)</p> <p>Jacob Hutson of Edina (Sr)</p> <p>Drake Dobbs of Eden Prairie (Sr)</p> <p>Connor Christensen of Eden Prairie (Sr)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Second Team</u></strong></p> <p>Cameron Steele of Minnetonka (Sr)</p> <p>Austin Andrews of Eden Prairie (Sr)</p> <p>John Henry of Eden Prairie (Sr)</p> <p>Matthew Willert of Buffalo (Sr)</p> <p>Kody Williams of Wayzata (Jr)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Third Team</u></strong></p> <p>Andre Gray of Hopkins (Jr)</p> <p>Elvis Nnaji of Hopkins (Soph)</p> <p>Cornell Richardson of Hopkins (Sr)</p> <p>Kale Hoselton of STMA (Sr)</p> <p>Evan Wieker of STMA (Sr)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Fourth Team</u></strong></p> <p>Eddie Beeninga of Wayzata (Jr)</p> <p>Sawyer Shrake of Hopkins (Sr)</p> <p>Miles Frisch of Eden Prairie (Sr)</p> <p>Brandon Maatz of Buffalo (Sr)</p> <p>Carter Bjerke of Wayzata (Soph)</p> <p>Riley O'Connor of Minnetonka (Sr)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Fifth Team</u></strong></p> <p>Jacob Wildermuth of Wayzata (Sr)</p> <p>Jalen Treml of Hopkins (Jr)</p> <p>Antonio Bluiett of Buffalo (Soph)</p> <p>Cohen Kellogg of Minnetonka (Soph)</p> <p>Johnny Tennyson of STMA (Soph)</p> <p>Chandler Reek of Edina (Sr)</p>