2018-19 Section 1AAAA Preview

This is the 20th preview in my 2018-2019 season preview series.  Now we begin our look at all of the class AAAA sections going in numerical order.  For a list of all the season previews and how they are generated, click here.

Section 1AAAA (8 teams)
Defending Champion: Lakeville North

Tournament Schedule:
Quarterfinals: Wednesday, March 6th
Semifinals: Saturday, March 9th at Rochester Civic Arena
Finals: Friday, March 16th at Rochester Civic Auditorium

Predicted Seeding

1. Lakeville North
2. Rochester John Marshall
3. New Prague
4. Rochester Mayo
5. Lakeville South  
6. Farmington
7. Owatonna
8. Rochester Century

At the top of the section you could see 3 conference champions.  Lakeville North with Tyler Wahl will be a big factor in the South Suburban.  Matt Hurt and Rochester John Marshall will be big contenders in the Big 9.  New Prague should be right there in the Wright County East.  The Trojans return 4 of their top 5 for new coach Dan Peterka.  That includes a big and talented front line of Tyler Kemp and Nathan Brusseau.  Rochester Mayo returns their top 3 scorers including Gabe and Mason Madsen  who combined for over 35 PPG.  Farmington with the loss of Adam Weed due a knee injury gets flip-flopped with Lakeville South here but with Miles Mendes they don't drop further.  Owatonna has to replace 2 top scorers but are probably better than an average 7 seed.  Century remains at the bottom.

Sleeper: Farmington.  The Tigers were better than expected last year and they proved they could play with anybody.  Thanks to a nasty 1-3-1 zone, I could see them pulling a suprise.

Section Winner: Lakeville North. The Panthers have been the roadblock for Rochester John Marshall for the last 6 years in this section.  So I stay with them as the pick.  Matt Hurt still gets his but Tyler Wahl gets more help.