1A Div II Class Has Tough Substate Pairings

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>To close our look at small school substate brackets, we turn to 1A Div II for updated matchups and some of the players to watch.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Final Season Rankings from the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>1 Almena-Northern Valley 2 McPherson-Elyria Christian 3 Dighton 4 Axtell 5 Hanover 6 Cunningham 7 Lebo 8 Logan - Palco 9 Bird City-Cheylin 10 Bucklin</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Toughest Bracket – Rexford-Golden Plain:</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Every year there are brackets that bring top teams together while other brackets lack any ranked teams. It's an unfortunate reality of the KSHSAA system. It's especially unfortunate when three ranked teams wind up in the same bracket. The battle for the one state bid at the Rexford-Golden Plain bracket will be epic. Only one of three ranked teams - #1 Northern Valley, #8 Logan-Palco, and #9 Cheylin – will survive. There are plenty of stars in this grouping. [player_tooltip player_id='1756349' first='Kenton' last='Thalheim'] leads a balanced group at Northern Valley. [player_tooltip player_id='2169868' first='Rhett' last='Kats'] is the star of Logan-Palco, and [player_tooltip player_id='2314831' first='Pablo' last='Bermudez'] leads a great senior class at Cheyin.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Easiest Bracket – Fowler:</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>#10 Bucklin is the only team with winning record in this bracket, which is sad when you consider how tough a few of the other brackets are. The Red Aces are led by long junior <strong>Kaden Tilley</strong>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Collision Course – Lebo:</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>If #2 Elyria Christian is to make it to state, it will have to get by #7 Lebo. Elyira Christian is led by star [player_tooltip player_id='1772994' first='Ty' last='Romero']. But Lebo has a great post-season pedigree and some big athletes in [player_tooltip player_id='2387736' first='Grayson' last='Shoemaker'] and <strong>Zachary Oswald</strong> to pose a tough challenge.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Collision Course Number 2 – Blue Valley Randolph:</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>An epic battle between #4 Axtell and #5 Hanover awaits if they can get through their semi-final challenges. Axtell has been winning everything lately, and they have big studs all over the place, starting with [player_tooltip player_id='2169874' first='Brandon' last='Schmelzle'] and<strong> [player_tooltip player_id='2393807' first='Eli' last='Broxterman']</strong>. Hanover will counter with rising star sophomore <strong>Braylon Meyn</strong>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Wide Open Bracket – Stafford:</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>There are no ranked teams in the Stafford bracket. The top seed – Beloit-St. Johns/Tipton, has a record of just 10-7.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->