Section 3A – Class A could see a 4th state title in five years?

<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Section Predictions</h2>   <ol class="wp-block-list"> <li>Central Minnesota Christian. CMC was 28-2 last season and they only had two seniors (one of which missed the last two months of the year) on their team a year ago. They have five double figure scorers returning. </li>   <li>Dawson-Boyd. The Jacks lost their best player (Liebl) but they return everything else from the rotation on a team that went 21-6.</li>   <li>Hills-Beaver Creek. The state champs won 30 games last season and they return three starters but they do lose two all state players. A team that is top ten level.</li>   <li>Wabasso. Wabasso was a 26-4 team last year with some good up and coming players, but they also lost three seniors from the rotation including the top scorer. </li>   <li>Renville County West. RCW was an 18-8 team last year and they bring back all of their top players. Much like CMC, DB, and Wabasso, Renville County West has the pieces back to be a top ten level team.</li>   <li>Southwest Minnesota Christian. The Eagles won 24 games last year and they bring all of their key players back. This will be a good team but all of their losses last year were double figure losses to the best teams in the section. </li>   <li>Westbrook-Walnut Grove. WWG has half their pieces back from a 15-win team and should be good again.</li>   <li>Murray County Central MCC lost their top guys but they were an 18 win team that has enough returning to be a solid team.</li>   <li>Canby. Canby had a young line-up that struggled to start losing 14 of their first 16 games. But as the year went on they beat MACCRAY, Minneota and a few others, plus they had close losses with LQPV and Lakeview. Key pieces are back.</li>   <li>Edgerton. The Flying Dutchmen won 16 games and still have enough to keep flying but they did lose two two-time all league players. </li>   <li>Tracy-Milroy-Balaton. TMB has half of their rotation back but they lost their two best players from a 12-win team. </li>   <li>MACCRAY. The Wolverines were an 8-win team year ago and they have their top player back but lose a healthy amount of the rotation to graduation. </li>   <li>RTR. The Knights were 15-12 last season but all of their top players graduated. </li>   <li>Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda. A team that went from three wins to six wins last year and with their best player back they could take another step.</li>   <li>Minneota. The Vikings were an eight win teams last year and they lost half of their rotation. </li>   <li>LQPV. A team that won four games last year but returns all of their key pieces.</li>   <li>Red Rock Central. RRC was a seven win team last year but have just one starter returning.</li>   <li>Yellow Medicine East. Won four games last year and return their big, but lost main guards to graduation. </li>   <li>Lakeview. A nine win team that lost their best five players to graduation. </li>   <li>Adrian/Ellsworth. A three win team that has half the rotation back.</li> </ol>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">All Section</h2>   First Team   [player_tooltip player_id='2877054' first='Asher' last='Wieberdink'] of CMC (Sr).  Asher is a top 25 player in the state this year and he averaged 24 points and 12 boards a game.   Jaxson Hastad of Dawson-Boyd (Sr).  Hastad scored 19.5 points a game last year.  He is a 6'4 forward.    [player_tooltip player_id='2840083' first='Brodie' last='Metzger'] of Hills-Beaver Creek (Jr). Brodie scored 14-15 a game on the state championship team last year and the 6'4 forward enters this season as an all state player.   Drew Kemp of Wabasso (jr). Kemp is a guard that scored nearly 18 points a game for a top ten team that was 26-4.   Jonathan Driggs of Renville County West (Sr).  A 6'4, Driggs averaged 19 points a game as a forward.    Second Team   Riggins Rheault of Hills-Beaver Creek (Sr). A senior now that scored twelve points a game last year for the champs.   [player_tooltip player_id='2394101' first='Landon' last='Taatjes'] of CMC (Soph).  Landon scored over 11.5 points a game as a 6'4 forward and he had a great 15u season as well.    Carter Taatjes of CMC (Sr). A guard that scored 15 points per game last year as a 6'3 guard.   [player_tooltip player_id='2875204' first='Grant' last='Novotny'] of Renville County West (Soph). Grant was one of the top freshman scorers in the state last year scoring 16 a game. A six foot guard.   [player_tooltip player_id='2843018' first='Josiah' last='Mark Hoftyzer'] of Southwest MN Christian (Sr).  A 6'4 frontcourt player that was all league and a top scorer in the section.    Ryan Pap of Southwest MN Christian (Sr).  A two time all league guard that has another season in front of him as a top player in the section.     Third Team   [player_tooltip player_id='2862709' first='Karson' last='Metzger'] of Hills-Beaver Creek (Jr). Karson was a starter for the state champs that scored nine points a game as a 6'3 forward.    Jackson Jenniges of Westbrook-Walnut Grove (Sr).  Top returning player for WWG, a 15ppg guy from last season.   [player_tooltip player_id='3066651' first='Owen' last='Peterson'] of Canby (Jr).  A 6'2 guard that scored 15 points a game as a sophomore and will lead the team into his upperclassmen years.    [player_tooltip player_id='3691929' first='Caden' last='Frericks'] of Wabasso (Sr). A 6'2 forward that scored over a dozen points a contest last season.    [player_tooltip player_id='2132770' first='Carson' last='Stratmoen'] of Dawson-Boyd (Sr).  Carson is a six foot guard that scored about a dozen a game last season.      Fourth Team   Jonah Janssen of MACCRAY (Sr). A 6'2 guard that scored 16 points a game last season.    [player_tooltip player_id='2863221' first='Humberto' last='Ramirez'] of Renville County West (jr). Humberto scored over 14 a game last season as a sophomore.   [player_tooltip player_id='3066654' first='Tanner' last='Thomsen'] of Edgerton (jr). Two time all league honored player.   Bryce Nielsen of Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda (Sr). A two time all league player.   Calen Asake of CMC (Jr). A 5'11 junior guard that scored almost 11 points a game last season.     Fifth Team   Gunner Fagen of Yellow Medicine East (Jr).  A 6'5 forward that scored 14 points a game.    Jace Rangaard of Canby (Sr). A 6'2 guard that scored 13.4 points a game.    [player_tooltip player_id='2444899' first='Eli' last='Gerdes'] of CMC (Sr). Gerdes is a 6'1 shooting guard that scored just over ten points a game last season.    [player_tooltip player_id='3652186' first='Jax' last='Rime'] of Central MN Christian (jr).  Came off the bench last year as a 5'10 guard     <h2 class="wp-block-heading">3A Section Summary</h2>   Could the state champion come from Section 3A yet again? It sure could   RTR won it all in 2023, Dawson-Boyd won the A championship in 2025, Hills-Beaver Creek won the title in 2026, and we think Central Minnesota Christian could be in a spot to win it all in 2027.    CMC was just a two lose team last season and we ranked them as the third best team in the Class A poll when the season was done.  HBC losses two all state players and Henning (number two) lost their everything in Kale Misegades.  CMC has Asher and several others back and we think they have the best balance of talent, experience, size and depth in all of Class A.  Plus Wieberdink will compete with Isaac Asuma and [player_tooltip player_id='2824358' first='Nicholas' last='Taylor'] in a close battle for Class A Player of the Year.    But….. HBC still has three starters back.  The Jacks return all but one guy.  Wabassa was top ten last year.  RCW and Southwest MN Christian also have top ten potential.  Section 3A six teams that could be in the top ten next year.