Pacesetter Sweet 16 Championships Champlin boys …quantumdatasystems-pacesettersports.townsquareinteractive.com/... · mentored in elementary school. The EVW assistant coaches are

Minnesota Basketball News Summer tournament issue August 25 2015-1016 Page 1

“Tyus put on a show!”

Pacesetter Sweet 16 Championships

the first two games Saturday.

They were coached by Marty Hill and J.T.

Gibson, stars who graduated in 2014. Their high school coach is Mark Tuchscherer.

Story and photosby Bruce Strand

Champlin Park, never a state champion — yet —in basketball, tumbled Hopkins, which has seven state crowns since 2002, in the title game of the Pacesetter Sweet 16 on Aug. 7.

The Rebels beat Mahtomedi 82-77, Caledonia 79-71, and Osseo 78-71 to earn a shot at Hopkins and topped the Royals 93-74 at College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph.

“We feel we have unfinished busi-ness,” said senior-to-be Theo John, a Division I recruit who played on the Rebels’ state runner-up two years ago. He acknowledged that the last three weeks have been encouraging.

Most of the players were in AAU ball in the Howard Pulley League, John said, before getting together for tournaments. “It’s a big adjust-ment from AAU ball, but we’ve gotten it done,” John said. The Rebels won all three tournaments, the others at Hopkins and at the U of M Team Camp.

Theo John, Brian Smith, Marcus

Hill, McKinley Wright, DJ Hunter, Richard Scott, Alex John, Alec Jonason, and Josiah Strong played all four games, and Bennett Otto, Sam Dubois and Irv Russel played

The Rebels — (from left) Coach Marty Hill, Brian Smith, Mar-cus Hill, Mckinley Wright, Theo John, DJ Hunter, Richard Scott, Alex John, Alec Jonason, Josiah Strong, Coach JT Gibson. Not pictured: Bennett Otto, Sam Dubois, Irv Russel.

Champlin’s center Theo John gets fouled by Delaw-rance Aaron of Hopkins, with Si-mon Wright behind him.

Champlin boys top Hopkins for title

SUMMER TOURNAMENTS

ISSUE

“We had a good transition game, we were hard on the ball, we got a lot of of open three’s, and we got the ball inside,” said Gibson, indicating the Rebels were clicking on all cylinders through the weekend.

Gibson said it was very satisfying to finish beating Hopkins. “Definitely, that’s one of the best teams in the state, always. I think we have a great chance this year.”

Hopkins snags second placeHopkins, the reigning state champions, beat Nevis 80-45, Austin 88-78 and Delano 95-78 before losing to Champlin Park 93-74 in the finals, fielding several

new faces in the lineup

“This is a young squad that is learning something new every game and getting better,” said Demondi John-son, the Royals summer coach. He has coached the freshman and is now moving up to varsity assistant.

Hopkins players were Simon Wright, Dane Zimmer, Ishmael El-Amin, Zeke Nnaji, Blaise Beauchamp, Anthony Davis, Andrew Dahnke, Josh Fogel, and DeLawrence Aaron.

Pacesetter Sweet 16 Championships (continued)

Mohamed Kone of Apple Valley lays in two points on a breakaway against Caledonia.

Simon Wright of Hopkins dunks the ball as the Roy-als scored off a turn-over dur-ing their loss to Champlin Park in the Sweet 16 champion-ship game.


Pacesetter Sweet 16 Championships (continued)Osseo grabs third placeThe Osseo Orioles claimed third place, beating Spring Grove 73-59 and Totino-Grace 76-63 before falling to Champlin Park 78-71 in the semifinals. They scuttled Delano 98-82 for third place.

Osseo players were John Bezdicek, Matt Bezdicek, Alex Sinnen, Jazz Boker, Keshawn Sutton, Tyrone Maxwell, Zach Theisen, Maalik Haarut, Maurice Nel-son, Cornell Richardson, Marmar Hughes, and Chike Okonkwo. They were coached by Xavier Reed and Bradford Johnson.

Delano trips Mpls. North, Apple Valley on way to fourth placeDelano, a section runner-up behind Class 3A state champion DeLaSalle this year, knocked off a pair of metro powers before losing twice to finish fifth. The Tigers beat Minneapolis North 79-75 and Apple Valley 92-89 to reach the semifinals, then lost to Hopkins 95-78 and Osseo 98-82.

“Against North, we were down 10 early in the fourth quarter, and picked up defensive pressure to get back in the game,” said coach Tim Techam. “Against Apple Valley, we shot the ball really well from three-point range and the free throw line. It was a fun, exciting game with a lot of points by both teams.”

The Delano players were Mitchell Kurtz, Austin Schneider, Cole Gilmer, Dylan Gilmer, Calvin Wishart, Keegan O’Neill, and Derek Techam.

Apple Valley salvages fifth placeApple Valley captured fifth place. The Eagles beat St. Charles 83-48, lost to Delano 92-89, and tripped Aus-tin 85-65 and Caledonia 75-60 to grab fifth place. The Eagles, led by all-state point guard Tre Jones, played without blue-chip senior-to-be Gary Trent Jr.

EV-W makes most of opportunityEden Valley-Watkins made its first appearance in the Sweet 16 and came away with two wins. The Eagles lost to Austin 77-72, beat Nevis 50-49, lost to Minne-apolis North 63-56, and beat Crosby-Ironton 54-53.

“This was our first Sweet Sixteen invite. It was a great experience for our players,” said Adam Langer, Eagles coach. “With all the great teams there, getting two vic-tories made it even better. Both were one-point victo-ries, so it was nice to see our players make plays down the stretch against such good competition.”

The players were Reese Jansen, Jacob Streit. Greg Lux, Zachary Swenson, Blaine Fodstad, Mitch Moli-tor; Dominic Schlangen, Landon Schlangen, Matthew Notch, Jamison Kuechle; and Justin Streit.

EVW girls coach Tom Jansen was at the helm, coach-ing his son, Reese, and the rest of the group that he mentored in elementary school. The EVW assistant coaches are Jake Anderson and David Lehman.

Mitchell Kurtz leads a fast break by Delano with Keagan O’Neill (21) and Austin Schnei-der trailing.



Story and photos by Bruce Strand

The Hopkins girls are Pacesetter Sweet 16 champions for the third consecutive year.

In the annual invitation-only tournament pitting four powers from each of the four classes against each other, Hopkins beat Mayer Lutheran 81-46, Grand Rapids 77-43. Hutchinson 73-40, and Elk River 90-79 Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 6-7, at College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph.

“We worked hard, we played together, we did a good job pressuring the basketball and pushing the ball up the floor,” said coach Tara Starks. “I’d say from top to bottom we were solid. The kids played their roles.”

Hopkins, which has seven state Class 4A titles since 2004 and was runner-up to Min-netonka this year, has made the Sweet 16 finals four straight years and won the last three. They beat Elk River in the finals the last two years.

The lineup included Angie Ham-

mond and DeeDee Winston, starters on this year’s state runner-up team, and Paige Bueckers and Reanna Suggs, who saw action off the bench.

Also on the squad were Asha Bozicevich, Dlayla Chakolis, Hanna Kleist, Amaya Battle, Kayla Adams, Luci Smith, Tajia Treml, Jada Bagstad, Jaide Prassely, and TeeTee Danso.

Elks are runners-up againElk River has been a highly-ranked 4A team the past three high school seasons but never made state be-cause an even better team, St. Michael-Albertville, always beats them in the section finals.

But the Elks have reached the Sweet 16 finals the last

Pacesetter Sweet 16 Championships

The Royals, champs again — Front (from left): DeeDee Winston, Paige Buckers, Reanna Sug-gs. Middle: Asha Bozicevich, Dlayla Chakolis, Hanna Kleist, Amaya Battle. Back: Kayla Ad-ams, Luci Smith, Angie Hammond, Tajia Treml, Jada Bagstad, Jaide Prassely, TeeTee Danso

DeeDee Winston of Hopkins scores on a leaner in the lane against Elk River in the championship game.

Hopkins girls make it a three-peat


Pacesetter Sweet 16 Championships (continued)two years, losing to Hopkins each year. The Elks beat Canby 73-48 and state tournament teams Roseau 80-56 and Winona 66-60. before losing to Hopkins.

The Elk summer coach, Dan Haack, assessed: “We played against a very good Roseau team which had one of the leading scorers (Kylie Borowicz) in the state …. Canby and Winona were loaded with senior leadership so those were some nice victories consider-ing the youth on our roster. Winona had four seniors that will be playing college basketball. Hopkins has some very talented players and a very deep bench so it was quite an accomplishment to compete with them the entire game.”

Elk seniors-to-be Gabi Haack (27 ppg), Kelsie Cox (18 ppg) and Sidney Wentland (12 ppg) teamed with freshmen-to-be Lydia Haack, Mikayla Kanenwisher, Alexa Engebretson and Abby Barschdorf. The fresh-men were 40-3 and won a state tournament, Haack said. Kennedy Boysen joined them Sunday.

Hutchinson snags 3rd placeHutchinson nabbed third place after beating Lyle-Pacelli 50-29 and Anoka 72-58 to reach the semifinals where Hopkins foiled them 73-40. The Tigers topped Winona 57-48 in the third-place game.

Players were Kenzie Rensch, Jenny Schommer, Tori Wortz, Michaela Stamer, Morgan Kurth, Kenzie Dett-man, Gabby Hahn, Liz Lansink, Elle Wheatley, Eliza-beth Wortz, Annika Ellefson, Emily Bassler, Ragan Vilt, and Emma Olberg. Coaching were Greg Wheatley and Paul Hahn. Their school coach is Tim Ellefson.

Hutchinson also won Class 3A of a Breakdown tour-nament on July 17. “We’ve had a lot of success this summer,” Ellefson told the Hutchinson Leader. “We went undefeated in our Norwood league, we went to Wisconsin Dells to play teams from five differ-ent states and went undefeated, and we played in a league at Concordia, St. Paul against a lot of Class 4A schools like Edina and Centennial, and we won all of those games.”

Winona and Anoka in top fiveWinona beat Maranatha Christian 70-63 and Nor-wood-Young America 55-28 before falling to Elk River 66-60 and Hutchinson to finish fourth.

Grabbing fifth place was Anoka, which beat Annan-dale 49-39, lost to Hutchinson 72-58, and beat Grand Rapids 71-60 and Roseau 66-64.

Abby Barschdorf (14) of Elk River leads a break that ended with her scoring on a layup against Winona. Teammate Gabi Haack trails her upcourt. (Pacesetter photo)

Hutchinson’s Elle Wheatley fires up a three-pointer that connected.


“Tyus put

Pacesetter Great Four-State Championships


Four Minnesota teams were among the champions of the seventh annual Pacesetter Great Four-State Basket-ball Championships held in mid-July at Target Center.

The Perham ninth-grade boys led a 1-2-3 Minnesota sweep while the Mountain Iron-Buhl ninth-grade girls, Eden Valley-Watkins eighth-grade girls, and Stewart-ville seventh-grade boys also claimed championships.

The Great State tournaments are eight-team compe-titions between qualifiying teams from Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa.

Runners-up from Minnesota were the St. Charles ninth-grade boys, Lake City eighth-grade boys, Ro-seau seventh-grade girls, and Moose Lake-Willow

River fourth-grade boys.

Placing third were Austin ninth-grade boys, Triton eighth-grade girls, Mankato sixth-grade girls, Eden Valley-Watkins fifth-grade girls, Detroit Lakes fourth-grade girls, and Annandale fourth-grade boys.

9th grade boys: Perham edges St. Charles for crownTwo clutch 3-point shots helped the Perham freshman boys cap their drive to the championship with a 53-48 overtime conquest of St. Charles.

Carter Cresap swished a shot from 26 feet with five seconds left to send the game to overtime 47-47, Josh Jeziorski nailed another trey seconds into overtime for

Ben Trenary of Stewartville drives against Bismarck in the 7th-grade finals.

MN champs: Perham, Stewartville boys; MI-Buhl, EV-W girls

Eden Valley-Watkins champs for second year in row— Front (from left): Ellie Schmaltz, Ol-ivia Kuechle, Sawyer Kuechle, Meryl Kuechle. Back:Coach Becky Kuechle, Reilly Hennen, Hal-le Jansen, Jaylah Umana, Coach Tom Jansen

The Perham champs — Front (from left): Ty Stammen, Bensen Nyhus, Max Tostenson, Kaleb King, Josh Jezior-ski, Anthony Reese, Carter Cresap. Back: Elijah Schmidt, John Lafond, Colton Kostynick, Clayton Anderson, Jen-son Beachy, Dawson Stevens, Coach Dave Cresap

Nate Heise (1) of Lake City clutches a rebound between two St. John Four Winds players.


the lead, and Cresap sank two free shots for clinchers.

Perham reached the finals beating Turtle Mountain (ND) 51-35 and Minneota 50-41. Turtle Mountain won last year’s eighth-grade tournament.

In the state tournament, Perham beat Hibbing 44-21, St. Charles 42-36 and Austin 33-25 in the finals.

Perham is coached by Dave Cresap. Players are Jenson Beachy, John LaFond, Carter Cresap, Colton Kostynick, Josh Jeziorski, Max Torstenson, Elijah Schmidt, Bensen Nyhus, Anthony Reese, Ty Stammer, Dawson Stevens, Clayton Anderson and Kaleb King.

“Their biggest strengths are their ability to shoot the ball, good team defense, and playing together as a team,” assessed Cresap. “They are a bunch of gym rats that could be a very good varsity team in the upcom-ing years. I really like how they support each other.”

9th grade boys: St. Charles runner-up

St. Charles beat Turtle Mountain (ND) 48-45 and Aus-tin 41-35 to reach the finals where they lost to Perham.They had placed fourth in the Minnesota tournament, beating Esko and losing to Minneota and Perham. The top two normally advance but a qualifier from another state could not attend, St. Charles took their spot and made the best of the opportunity.

Pacesetter Great Four-State Championships (continued)

Dalton Balcome of St. Charles tugs at the ball with Perham’s Kaleb King. Behind them is Dawson Stevens.



St. Charles is coached by Bryan Holtz and Dan Leis-tikow. Players are Hunter Oviatt, Sam Holtz, Drew Leistikow, Bailey Christie, Mitchell Putzier, Dalton Falcom, Sam Lewis, and Eli DeChamps.

9th-grade boys: Austin takes 3rdIt was a rare 1-2-3 sweep by one state as Austin placed third. Austin beat Algona (IA) 42-34, lost to St. Charles 48-43, and beat Minneota 36-30 in the third-place game. The Packers were runners-up to Perham in the state tournament. Austin is coached by Eric Kossoris. Players are Medi Obang, Connor Bryam, Emmanuel Younis, Isaac Kenyon, Gavin Owems, La-Henry Gills, Dogria Deng, Ngor Deng, Jeremy Flores, and Noah Kaercher.

9th grade girls: Mountain Iron-Buhl topples S.D. team in finalsMountain Iron-Buhl scuttled Aberdeen Roncallli (SD) 33-27 in the finals after beating Park River-Grafton-Fordville (ND) 30-17 and Crow Creek/Lower Brule (SD) 37-33 in the first two rounds.

In the Minnesota tournament, MIB beat Pelican Rap-ids 22-17, New Ulm 27-25, and Detroit Lakes 29-20 in the finals.

Mountain Iron-Buhl is coached by Jeff Buffetta and Byron Negan. Players are McKinley Kvas, Macy Savela, Laney Ryan, Miah Gellerstedt, Allie Negev, Madison Overbye, Mia Ganyo, Devyn Dahl, Sarah Blasted, Math Bennett, and Kalisha Niska.

“Our identity is our defense creating opportunities. Our best offense runs through our defense,” said Buf-fetta, who has taken five MIB high school teams to state tournaments. “Everybody contributes but our team runs through the two veterans who have played all six years, Mia Buffetta and Chelsea Mason.”

8th grade boys: Lake City isrunner-up behind No. Dakota team

Lake City beat Lyman-Crow Creek (SD) 40-37 and Kindred-Richland (ND) 45-36 to reach the finals, where they lost to St. John Four Winds (ND) 40-26.

In the state tournament, Lake City was champion, clip-ping Eden Valley-Watkins 29-24, Rockford 32-22, and Hastings 33-29 in the title game.

Lake City is coached by Tony Heise, Greg Berge and Cris Gastner. Players are Nate Heise, Brady Schur-hammer, Devon Federly, Josh Renelt, Andrew Green, Mason White, Jackson Berge, Atticus Heise, Jake Wohlers, Reid Gastner, Mac Heise and Tony Gates.

“The kids play very good team defense, and we had a lot of close games and we always seemed to make the shot that pulled it out,” said Heise about the Tigers’ run. He added that the team has several three-sport kids so they didn’t play much basketball before the Pacesetter tournaments.

“We have a lot of good kids coming through here now,’ said Heise about the team’s potential for high school hoops. “We’ve got a lot of height and some good guards with this group. Usually down here we have one or the other but not both.”

Macy Savela of Mountain Iron-Buhl squares up for a 3-point shot in the frosh title game.

Pacesetter Great Four-State Championships (continued)Minnesota Basketball News Summer tournament issue August 25 2015-1016 Page 9

8th grade girls: Eden Valley-Watkins claims second championship in rowEden Valley-Watkins repeated as eighth-grade cham-pions, rallying to defeat Okoboji, the Iowa champion, in the finals 35-31 in overtime, after trailing by seven late in regulation. They advanced to the finals beat-

ing Spirit Lake Nation (ND) 34-33 and Crow Creek/Lower Brule (SD) 30-20 to reach the finals.

In the Minnesota tourney, EVW beat Fillmore Central 37-12, Willmar 39-29, and Triton 43-36 in the finals,

The Eagles are coached by Becky Kuechle and Tom Jansen. Players are Meryle Kuechle, Ellie Schmaltz, Reilly Hennen, Olivia Kuechle, Sawyer Kuechle, Halle Jansen, and Jaylah Umana.

“We have this core group, which would be the three Kuechle’s, Halle and Jaylah, who have been playing together for a long time,” said coach Becky Kuechle, “and then we added Reilly, who’s just real smart about basketball, and Ellie, who’s very athletic and really fun and wants to be here. They are all good friends and get along well.”

Hennen is a year younger than the rest and joined this summer, while Schmaltz, with no previous basketball team experience, was able to help out as well, replac-ing one regular who could not be there. Five of the players were back from EVW’s 2015 champion team: Jansen, the three Kuechle’s, and Umana.

8th grade girls: Triton places thirdTriton grabbed third place as the Cobras beat Minot (ND) 43-39, lost to Okoboji 47-39, and beat Crow Creek/Lower Brule (SD) 42-38 in the third-place game. Triton is coached by Tracy Peterson. Players are Holly Kubat, Kendra Peterson, Paris Ellinson, Abby Gilliland, Sydney Gilliland, and Chelsea Lasker.

7th grade girls: Roseauis runner-up to Dakota

Roseau clipped two North Dakota teams, Fargo 36-30 and Grafton 39-35, before losing to the North Dakota champion, Dakota Thunder of Bismarck, 32-19, in the finals.

Katie Jamtgaard of Grand Rapids eyes the hoop while guarded closely by McKenna Moehrle of Eden Valley-Watkins in the fifth-grade tournament.


Pacesetter Great Four-State Championships (continued)In the Minnesota tournament, Roseau was champion with victories over Mountain Iron-Buhl 39-23, Mankato Power 24-21, and Stewartville 26-20.

Roseau is coached by Tracy Borowicz. Team members are Katie Borowicz, Julia Braaten, Masynn Janice, Hannah Mooney, Abby Hough, Nikki Alarms, Faith Berger, Abby Boris, and Morgan Boroos.

7th grade boys: Stewartville is champ in dominating fashionStewartville topped the Bismarck Bombers 46-35 in the finals — and that was the closest game they had in their run through the state and four-state tournaments.

The Tigers reached the four-state finals by repelling Sioux Falls 54-36 and Albia (Ia.) 49-15. In the state,

they beat Minnesota Valley Lutheran 42-27, Litchfield 38-25, and Hibbing 45-21.

The Tigers are coached by Mike Buri and Bernie Theobald. Team members are Kaleb Hellickson, Lane Sexton, Josh Buri, Ben Ternary, Nolan Stier, Parker Theobald, Mason Schindler, and Trent Einertson

Stewartville won several tournaments including Farib-ault’s eighth-grade tournament, and placed fourth in the top division of the Grades State tourney against some of the best large schools.

Hibbing captured third place, beating Langford-Britton (S.D.) 35-31, losing to Bismarck (35-27 and beating Albia (Ia.) 39-36.

At the state tourney, Hibbing beat Thief River Falls

38-24 and Redwood Falls 38-30 to reach the finals.

Coaches are Joel McDonald and Mikal Brown. Players are Justin Yuretich, Jack Grzybowski, Mayson Brown, Eli Ericsson, River Bussey, Payton Forer, Ayden Mc-Donald, and Parker Maki.

6th grade girls: Mankato gets 3rdMankato, the Minnesota champion, beat Fargo 32-30, lost to Rapid City 34-13, and beat Estherville (IA) 34-27 in the third-place game.

In the state tournament, Mankato topped Leech Lake Nation 30-17, Minneota 25-19 and Austin 40-30 in the finals.

“We have a very complete team from good guard play to a 5-11 post player,” said coach Dave Karge. He added that the roster has five players each from city

Stewartville champions — Front (from left: Ben Trenary, Kaleb Hellickson, Nolan Stier, Mason Schindler. Back: Head coach Mike Buri, Lane Sexton, Josh Buri, Trent Einertson, Parker Theobald, assistant coach Bernie Theobald.


Pacesetter Great Four-State Championships (continued)rivals West and East “but they have some good bonds built through playing together.”

They all played together in the winter also and placed second in the MYAS state tournament in the 1A bracket. They posted a 28-6 overall record, with half the games against seventh-grade teams.

Players are Lexi Karge, Mackenzie Schweim, Lauryn Douglas, Daevya Gagnon, Brooklyn Brovold, Abigail Steirien, Brielle Meyer, Anika Younge, Randi Baier, Lani Schoper, and Taylin Gosch.

5th grade girls: EVW places 3rdEden Valley-Watkins, the Minnesota champion, beat Estherville Lincoln (IA) 18-15, lost to Hamlin (SD) 28-18, and beat Grand Rapids 22-15 for third place.

At state, the Eagles subdued Esko 27-11, Thief River Falls 27-7 and Grand Rapids 25-18 in the finals.

EV-W is coached by Tom Jansen, Adam Langer and Bob Hennen. Players are Kately Utrecht, Catera Da-vis, Ellie Brovold, Brielle Kuechle, Reagan Hennen, Katie Rutland, Whitney Jansen, Levi Langer. Amber Scherer, MicKenna Moehrle, and Mikayla Ballard.

4th grade girls: DL Lakers 3rdDetroit Lakes, the Minnesota champion, nipped Har-risburg (SD) 18-17 in overtime, lost to eventual cham-pion Bismarck 23-8, and beat Mt. Iron-Buhl 17-14 for third place.

In the state tournament, Detroit Lakes beat Waterville-Elysian-Morristown 14-7, Cass Lake-Bena 21-12 and Mt. Iron-Buhl 18-10.

Detroit Lakes is coached by Michael Gunderson and Bob Jones. Players are Clara Robin, Ava Jones, Grace Gunderson,Ellie Betcher, Ella Okeson, Karly Mace, Sydney Borgman, Hannah Knoop, Brooklyn Markus-son, Anna Askelson, and Helena Daggett.

Coach Gunderson recapped a successful summer by a determined group: “They get mad at the coaches if we do not make them run crushers, as they know it only helps them get better.”

Detroit Lakes won every tournament they played except their home tournament, where they lost to the Detroit Lakes fifth-graders, and the Four-State, where Bismarck became the lone fourth-grade team to beat them this summer.

“The potential of this group is sky high,” Gunderson assessed. “Most of these girls will be taller than aver-age, if you compare them to older siblings and their parents. Easy group to coach, as they are self moti-vated. Defense is what makes them special.”

4th grade boys: Moose Lake-Willow River is runner-up behind Iowa team

Moose Lake-Willow River beat Central Cass (ND) 20-16 and Brainerd 28-20 to reach the finals, where they lost to Pella (IA) 31-11 at Target Center.

Hannah Knoop of Detroit Lakes looks for a teammate while guarded by Gabby Lira of Mountain Iron-Buhl. (Pacesetter photo)

In the state tournament, they tripped Litchfield 20-8 and Brainerd 33-27 b before losing to Annandale 25-16 in the finals. Moose Lake-Willow River is coached by Pat Dewey. Players are Eli Youngs, Kaden Robbins, Adam Neu-mann, Nolan Nelson, Joey Steen, Luke Dewey, Brady Robbins, Hunter Vanheel, Dawson Mortenson, and Tyler Von Reuden.

“They were a great defensive and rebounding team,” said Dewey. “It was a great group of young men. They were very competitive. If they stick together they will be very successful.”

MLWR also won an Esko 3-3 tourney and went un-beaten in the Arrowhead Youth Basketball League.

4th grade boys: Annandale 3rdAnnandale, the Minnesota champion, beat North Star LHM (ND) 30-29 in overtime, lost to Pella 25-15, and beat Brainerd 34-22 for third place.

At the state tournament, Annandale beat Spring Grove 26-17, Minneota 21-19 and MLWR 25-16.

Annandale is coached by Michael Zuehlke, McLain Westerman and Matt Walter. Players are Nathan Green, Thomas Westman, Joseph Healy, Caleb Pur-cell, Nick Walter, Connor Lampi, Hudson Helget, and Graham Zuehlke.

“This group had a fun time playing all year,” Zuehlke said. “They compete as hard as any team on offense and especially on defense. We had a great amount of success throughout the year, and are looking forward to doing it again next year.”



Luke Dewey of the Moose Lake-Willow River Rebels sticks with a Pella, Iowa, guard on a fast break. (Pacesetter photo)

Annandale’s Hudson Helget protects the ball against Brainerd’s Ryan Madsen in their 4th grade 3rd-place game. Connor Lampi is behind them. Annandale won.


Pacesetter Minnesota Varsity Invitationl Tournament

Grand Rapids boys, White Bear Lake girls take top honors


Orange and black were the winning colors at the Pacesetter Minnesota Invitational Tournament as the Grand Rapids boys and White Bear Lake girls captured the top honors.

Grand Rapids beat the lone out-of-state entrant in the boys field, Sioux Falls Washington, 69-47 in the Division I finals.

White Bear Lake, also resplendent in Halloween hues, won a big-vs.-small school duel over Moun-tain Iron-Buhl 50-46 for the girls D-I title.

The MIT is Pacesetter’s secondary varsity tourna-ment behind the Sweet 16, akin to college basket-ball’s NIT alongside the NCAA’s.

After three games of pool play Saturday, teams were divided into five four-team tournaments on Sunday: Division I, II, III, IV and V. Grand Rapids cruises to title

Grand Rapids captured the boys championship at the Pacesetter Minnesota Invitational Tournament over the

weekend, blitzing Sioux Falls Washing-ton 69-47 in the finals on Sunday.

Grand Rapids placed first in their pool after three games on Saturday, then drubbed Crosby-Ironton 67-39 in the semifinals Sunday to advance to the title game at College of St. Benedict.

“I like where we are at,” said coach Dan Elhard, after his tall, lanky team cruised in both games Sunday, excelling at 3-point shooting and setting a furious pace. “We have high goals and expecta-tions for next year.”

White Bear Lake champs — Front (from left): Al-exa Molin, Annika Koll, Anna Sanders, Tessa An-derson, Michaela Craigan, Lauren Sicard, Court-ney Crouch. Back: Coach Dustin Holman, Brianna Corey, Sydney Steere, Ella Janicki, Katie Regnier, Sophie Janicki, Jordan Ferrand, Claire Odmark, Erika Townley, Coach Sara Shoenthaler

Grand Rapids — (From left): Tyler Baird, Nate Seelye, Stacy Washington, Jack Namyst, Brock Schrom, Jacob Anderson, Christian George, Jake Skelly, Bryce Prochazka


Pacesetter Minnesota Invitationl Tournament (continued)Point guard Jake Skelly and center Brock Schrod led the way, with Nate Selye, Christian George and Jack Namyst also in the starting lineup and Bryce Prochacka, Stacy Washington, Jacob Anderson and Tyler Baird coming off the bench.

Sioux Falls Washington topped St. Anthony Village in the semifinals. Crosby-Ironton won third-place 65-50 over St. Anthony Village.

White Bear nips MIB

The White Bear Lake girls, who’ve made six state trips in the last 12 years in Class 4A, pre-vailed 50-46 over Mountain Iron-Buhl, which has made five straight state trips in Class 1A.

“This is the first time we’ve had

the whole team and the girls played pretty well,” said coach Jeremy Post, adding that they’ve missed players with AAU or soccer com-mitments previously and still have

two players out with injuries. The summer team had the same balanced scoring as the state fourth-place team in this winter: “That’s how we get things done.”

The Bears beat Esko 64-47 in the semifinals, then took a big lead against another Iron Range squad. Their 13-point margin over Moun-tain Iron-Buhl late in the fourth quarter dwindled to two points when the Rangers rallied with several steals and three 3-point shots. But Sophie Janicke sank two free shots with 13 seconds left to give the Bears breathing room.

Jordan Ferrand, 6-foot-2 forward, controlled the rims on both ends, and made one coast-to-coast drive for a layup after snagging a re-bound. Alexa Molin supplied big 3-point shots. Courtney Crouch, Claire Odmark and Erica Towney were the others in the top six.

MIB beat Waseca 51-43 in the semifinals. Esko beat Waseca 32-31 in the third-place game.

Shakopee, North Star nab Division-II titlesShakopee boys won Division II, beating Farmington 47-43 and Northfield 47-43. Jake Kutina and Jacob Edelman were offensive leaders and Tony Monroe was the defensive catalyst,.“I thought we really played well as a team,” said coach Bruce Kugath. “We played especially well in the Sunday games taking a double digit lead in both games with all players con-tributing.”

The lone North Dakota girls en-trant, North Star, was the Division II winner, beating Willmar 55-46 and Goodhue 53-28. (See story in North Dakota newsmagazine.)

GR’s Jake Skelly slides pur-suing a loose ball with SF Washington’s Noah Brown.

Shakopee’s Tony Monroe (left) and Northfield’s Lars Prestemon wrestle for the ball. Charlie Katona follows the action. (Pacesetter photo)WBL’s Jordan Ferrand lines

up a free shot vs. MIB.

Documents

Pacesetter Sweet 16 Championships Champlin boys …quantumdatasystems-pacesettersports.townsquareinteractive.com/... · mentored in elementary school. The EVW assistant coaches are