While the boys races are deep and interesting, the girls 1A race looks like a five-team competition. It’s possible, even likely, that none of last year’s section final four teams, return. Goodhue won’t, as they are 1AA. L/P (3-10) is down. GM (6-5) and Hayfield (5-7) are in the mix, but haven’t won a key section game. The section’s top squad is #5 Blooming Prairie (9-1). Their sole loss is to Goodhue 60-53. Downing Southland 55-30 was a big section win. Their next best win is AA Triton (7-4) 66-58. They also just nipped Hayfield 40-38. Southland (8-3) checks in next, having beat Kingsland 68-57 and FC 51-48. Aside from the BP defeat, they fell to Class AA teams D-E (66-41) and Byron (54-40). FC (8-4) posted its best section over Kingsland 63-56 while also beating Hayfield 60-47. Outside of Southland, the Falcons fell 68-45 to Cotter (12-3), 58-32 to Z-M, and 32-28 to Decorah. Houston (7-3) has the most section victories (6-0) of the five teams. Wins over GM 39-32 and Hayfield 52-37 are their best “W”s. The Hurricanes have three Class AA losses, 61-50 to Z-M (9-5), 72-59 to D-E (10-2), and 68-58 to St. Charles, plus 64-45 to Iowa’s Turkey Valley (10-1). Finally, Kingsland (9-5) checks in. The Knights beat GM 58-45 for their best section win. A 54-50 win over AA St. Charles was nice also. They have losses to FC 63-56, Southland 68-57, Goodhue 81-49, Central Elkader 48-44, and D-E 73-56. BP, Southland, Houston, FC, Kingsland, and GM are the only teams in the section above .500. Section 1AA has eight teams plus-500, a grouping headed by #2 Lourdes (11-2), #11 Goodhue (13-1), #9 Cotter (12-3), D-E (10-2), Lake City (11-4), Stewartville (9-4), and Z-M (9-5).
Girls Section 1A: More Formulaic
