MINNEAPOLIS — Northern Minnesota will be represented in each of the four classes at the girls basketball state tournament this weekend.
Six teams from rural Northern Minnesota won their section tournaments: Brainerd in Class 4A, Rock Ridge in 3A, Crosby-Ironton in 2A and Walker-Hackensack-Akeley, Cromwell-Wright and Sacred Heart in East Grand Forks in 1A.
The Northlanders will largely be underdogs when they descend on the University of Minnesota campus, starting Wednesday, March 12. WHA is a No. 8 seed, Sacred Heart and Rock Ridge are No. 6 seeds and Cromwell-Wright and Brainerd are No. 5 seeds.
The one exception is Crosby-Ironton. In its third-straight appearance, the Rangers earned the No. 2 seed.
The team is led by Tori Oehrlein, who has over 4,000 career points as a junior and is the only Minnesota girls basketball player to ever average more than 30 points a game for her career, according to the state high school league.
C-I isn’t the only team making a repeat appearance. Rock Ridge and Walker-Hackensack-Akeley both finished sixth in the 2024 tournament.
Last year was Walker’s first-ever state tournament appearance, and the achievement hasn’t lost its sparkle. WHA is canceling school Thursday and Friday; the district says it would be short-staffed because of all the connections to the team.
Rock Ridge is also canceling school, though on Wednesday and Thursday. The local Bantam A and Peewee A teams also advanced to their state tournaments.
This is also the second-ever appearance for the Sacred Heart Eagles, having made their tourney debut in 2016.
Cromwell-Wright made it a little more recently, advancing to the state semifinals in 2020 before the tournament was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But it's been a while for Brainerd, who hasn’t made the tourney in nearly 30 years. The Warriors are led by senior Mya Tautges, who’s averaging almost 19 points a game.
Brainerd will play No. 4 Lakeville North at noon Wednesday at Williams Arena.
The rest of the Northern Minnesota teams will play their quarterfinal matches at Maturi Pavilion.
Rock Ridge will play No. 3 Marshall at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
C-I will play No. 7 Barnesville at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Walker will play No. 1 Goodhue at 11 a.m. Thursday.
Cromwell-Wright will play No. 4 West Central Area at 1 p.m. Thursday.
Sacred Heart will play No. 3 Sleepy Eye Saint Mary's at 5 p.m. Thursday.
The semifinals and finals will be played at Williams Arena. The consolation tournament will be played at Concordia University's Gangelhoff Center.
The rest of the schedule can be found here.
The semifinals and finals will be streamed for free at prep45.com. The rest of the matches will be streamed by NSPN; a subscription is required.
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