The Mid-State Preview

<p>The Mid-State Conference is a six team league in the middle of Minnesota.  Will C-I win the league again?  Detroit Lakes ready to challenge?  Today we preview!</p> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <p><strong>Potential Top Ten:</strong>  Crosby-Ironton</p> <p>If anybody from this league makes a push to the top ten it will be C-I although they lost their top three scorers and have to replace most of their starting line-up. The Rangers do have a very good senior group though that has been reserves and JV just ready to for the big games.</p> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: Pequot Lakes, Detroit Lakes, Aitkin</p> <p>The Patriots lost six of their top seven guys to graduation so matching the 23-7 record of 18-19 will be quite tough. That said, Pequot Lakes is an established program that has some good juniors so they should still be solid. I don’t believe Detroit Lakes will hit the Class AAA rankings this year but I certainly believe they can challenge for the Mid-State title. Detroit Lakes lost their best two players but after that their next five guys return. Aitkin could hit the double figure win territory with two of their top three players returning.</p> <p><strong>Rebuilding:</strong> Park Rapids Area, Staples Motley</p> <p>Park Rapids leaned on two guys for most of their scoring and those players led their team to an eight win year. Those players are gone and little scoring returns, and only a bit of experience. Staples-Motley, look, they were 2-24 a season ago and played a lot of seniors. That’s the definition of a rebuild.</p> <p><strong>19-20 Conference Predictions</strong></p> <ol> <li>Crosby-Ironton</li> <li>Detroit Lakes</li> <li>Pequot Lakes</li> <li>Aitkin</li> <li>Park Rapids</li> <li>Staples-Motley</li> </ol> <p><strong>Preseason All Mid-State Conference </strong></p> <p><strong><u>First Team</u></strong></p> <p>Cayden Turk of Crosby-Ironton (Sr)</p> <p>Bode Magnuson of Pequot Lakes (Jr)</p> <p>Tate Kerzman of Detroit Lakes (Sr)</p> <p>Dakota Mitchell of Crosby-Ironton (Sr)</p> <p>Nate Cihak of Detroit Lakes (Soph)</p> <p>Kade Hooperstad of Aitkin (Sr)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Second Team</u></strong></p> <p>Gabe Hannienen of Detroit Lakes (Sr)</p> <p>Max Gunderson of Detroit Lakes (Sr)</p> <p>Carsen Turk of Crosby-Ironton (Soph)</p> <p>Alex Morgan of Pequot Lakes (Jr)</p> <p>Sivert Klefsaas of Staples-Motley (Soph)</p> <p>Hunter Nissen of Aitkin (Jr)</p>