The Pine to Prairie Preview
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The class of the league in 22-23 was Fosston, Fertile-Beltrami, and Ada Borup-West. What changes in 2023-24? It’s Pine to the Prairie time! Conference Commentary Top Ten in State: Ada Borup West, Fertile-Beltrami It’s Ada Borup time. They return their…
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Continue ReadingThe class of the league in 22-23 was Fosston, Fertile-Beltrami, and Ada Borup-West. What changes in 2023-24? It’s Pine to the Prairie time!
Conference Commentary
Top Ten in State: Ada Borup West, Fertile-Beltrami
It’s Ada Borup time. They return their top six players from a team that won 19 games. The Cougars time is now and if they can figure out the big game the sky is the limit. We have them in the top ten but on the edge because they have come up short in those big games, but they are likely matured and ready for the run. Fertile-Beltrami is also a top ten team after winning 22 games and bringing back six of their top seven players. Caiden Swenby Caiden Swenby 6'3" | SG Fertile-Beltrami | 2024 State MN and Derek Soerenson are one of the better Class A backcourts.
Top Ten in State Potential: Win-E-Mac
Win-E-Mac was just 15-12 last season but they have one of the top scorers in Minnesota in Justin Courneya Justin Courneya 6'1" | PG Win-E-Mac | 2024 State MN plus others returning. If they continue to score at this rate and the defense improves they could move from top 30 to maybe close to top ten.
Compete with Most: Mahnomen/Waubun, Lake Park-Audubon, Park Christian, NCE/UH, Climax-Fisher
Mahnomen/Waubun is likely to be in a similar spot. They were three games over .500 but they lost their best two players, but also have a good senior core. We expect a similar season. Lake Park-Audubon should take a step forward. The Raiders return their best two players, they have a decent amount of size and while they aren’t likely a 20 win team, they should at least flip their record. With four starters back I would expect Park Christian to take a very similar jump to what we expect from Lake Park-Audubon. Park Christian was an underclassmen crew a season ago and did all right consider so much of the on the floor production came from sophomores and freshmen. A year older and likely a year better. NCE/UH should also be competitive and improve on their nine win season from a year ago. Climax-Fisher should be a bit better. Likely not a double figure win team but they should not be losing by an average of 28 points a game either.
Rebuilding: Fosston, Bagley
You would expect Fosston to be solid but you don’t know. They had such a strong senior class last year that was 25-6 but so much of this year will be last year’s talented JV team. But again, tough to predict what to expect from them when there will be so many new bodies. Put Bagley on that list of teams that never turn anything in for the Breakdown book, that never have any stats, no social media, nothing. Really don’t know much about what is going on up there.
23-24 Pine to Prairie Conference Predictions
North
- Fertile-Beltrami
- Win-E-Mac
- Fosston
- Climax-Fisher
- Bagley
South
- Ada Borup West
- Lake Park-Audubon
- Park Christian
- Mahnomen/Waubun
- NCE/UH
Power Rankings
- Fertile-Beltrami
- Ada Borup West
- Win-E-Mac
- Lake Park-Audubon
- Park Christian
- Fosston
- Mahnomen/Waubun
- NCE/UH
- Climax-Fisher
- Bagley
Preseason All Pine to Prairie Conference
First Team
Justin Courneya Justin Courneya 6'1" | PG Win-E-Mac | 2024 State MN of Win-E-Mac (sr)
Caiden Swenby Caiden Swenby 6'3" | SG Fertile-Beltrami | 2024 State MN of Fertile-Beltrami (sr)
Cameron Spaeth Cameron Spaeth 6'0" | PG Ada-Borup | 2024 State MN of Ada Borup West (sr)
Derek Sorenson Derek Sorenson 5'11" | SG Fertile-Beltrami | 2024 State MN of Fertile-Beltrami (sr)
Cadyn Dahl Cadyn Dahl 6'1" | SG Ada-Borup-West | 2025 State MN of Ada Borup West (jr)
Second Team
Ryan Kangas Ryan Kangas 6'5" | PF Win-E-Mac | 2024 State MN of Win-E-Mac (sr)
Colby Poegel of Lake Park-Audubon (sr)
Bridger Carlson Bridger Carlson 6'5" | PF Park Christian | 2025 State MN of Park Christian (jr)
Austin McCraven Austin McCraven 5'11" | PG Ada-Borup West | 2025 State MN of Ada Borup West (jr)
Isaac Jacobson Isaac Jacobson 6'2" | PG Park Christian | 2026 State MN of Park Christian (soph)
Third Team
Teigan Bjerke of Lake Park-Audubon (jr)
Preston Hanson Preston Hanson 6'5" | PF Fertile-Beltrami | 2026 State MN of Fertile-Beltrami (soph)
Aidan Flaten of NCE/UH (sr)
Masen Nowacki of Fertile-Beltrami (sr)
Daniel Swiers of Park Christian (jr)
Fourth Team
Carter Clark of Mahnomen/Waubun (sr)
Hudson Boushee of Fosston (sr)
Ryan Morris of Climax-Fisher (sr)
Charles Scholl of Ada Borup West (sr)
Tyler Loeb of Park Christian (jr)