Section 1 Preview: 2024 MSHSL Girls Lacrosse
Welcome to our 2024 MSHSL Girls Lacrosse Section previews!
Each week, we’ll have our take on what we THINK each section will look like and time its release up with the DTA crew’s pod release.
The records we show by each team was their record last year and we link back to all of our review articles for the teams where we have them (so if you’re a lax sicko and want more of our deep dives and takes, you can get to them easily). After the top 4, the order we list the teams isn’t necessarily the order we see the ENTIRE section, but gives you an idea of how we feel about the section.
Sit back and enjoy as we start our path to the 2024 MSHSL Lax Season!
Right off the bat! Congrats Southwest Christian, we are moving you out of Section 2, against EP, Chan and Minnetonka…and putting you into Section 1 against Lakeville South! Too bad for a Rochester school if they have to drive to Chaska to play you in section quarter finals, because that’s an easy drive at 5:00 on a weekday.
Off to a great start.
We think we like the midfield in Section 1. After you get past South, Farmington and North, there are some real cool stories out there, and then you get to see us dip into a rant on MN Lax Hub utilization by the coaches.
Mrs. Pmac’s Source’s Section 1 2024 Projected Top 4
First – Lakeville South
Second – Farmington
Third – Lakeville North
Fourth – Southwest Christian
Keeping Our Eye On - Mankato
Lakeville South (18-1)
Obviously, Lakeville South is the class of the section again. We won’t go too deep here, but check out our 2023 review write up on them. A few items of important note:
They lose (3) 2023s:
Ms. Lacrosse Emily Moes - 128 points
Gabby Bouman - 95 points
Kayli Starkey - SSC All Conf Honorable Mention - Defense
Their 2024 class is silly deep, highlighted by:
Tori Tschida (M), friend of the pod, 62 points/57 DC, dominates taking the draw - D1 Temple
Katie Grubbs (DM), 50 points/84 DC - D2 Northern Michigan
Sivanna O’Brien (M), 80 points/111 DC - D2 Dominican
Kali Nyberg (D), 15 GB/17 FT - D2 Dominican
Their 2025s aren’t too shabby:
Charlotte Fannin (A), 62 points - Congrats on the recent commit to D2 UCCS!
Addie Hammes (D), 22 GB/24 FT
Kate Bael (GK), 4.84 GAA, 43.2%
Transfers!
Rosemount’s leading point scorer, Ella Mills (2025 M), is now at Lakeville South. Cool man. Congrats to you too on the recent commit to D2 UCCS!
Farmington (9-7)
We think that Farmington and Lakeville North are going to battle for the two spot, with Farmington coming out on top.
So, their breakdown:
They lost (2) 2023s
Makenna Kadrlik - 57 points
Madison Kadrlik - 20 points
(11) 2025s on last year’s roster.
They got whipped 2X by South and 1X by Prior Lake, but their only other bad loss was 10-7 against a gettable Eastview/Eagan team, although they had closer wins against teams like Shakopee, Apple Valley/Burnsville, and North than they should have…but they beat a higher decorated (and perpetually disappointing) Hill-Murray squad.
We see some things to like in Farmington:
2025 Riley Wicklund (A/M) - 34 points
2025 Kendall Sainsbury (D) - 19 GB/33 FT
2025 Caprese Meier (A/M) - 38 points
2026 Jaida Steffes (M) - 32 points
They also have (2) goalies returning and we’re seeing the team starting to participate in the off season stuff we talk about all the time.
New coach this year should also inject some refreshing life into the program too.
Lakeville North (8-7)
Lakeville North will be nipping on Farmington’s heels, with basically all of their points and their goalie all coming back…notably:
2025 Shay Swanson (A) - 61 points
2024 Izzy Bohlman (M) - 34 points - D3 College of St. Benedict’s
2024 Kayla Ross (M) - 23 points
2024 GK Brooke Wagenbach (GK) - 10.31 GAA/46.6%.
What are they missing? Of the (6) 2023s, (5) were defenders and (4) of those contributed significantly. That leaves Wagenbach with a less experienced defensive front when she already faced a lot of shots last year, due in part of having a tough set of losses:
Edina: Lost 14-4
Lakeville South: Lost 18-4
Rosemount: Lost 8-7
Prior Lake: Lost 17-3
Minnetonka: Lost 16-8
Farmington: Lost 15-4 and 12-8
Southwest Christian (13-2)
Our affection for Southwest Christian is well documented. We have them winning our fictitious Class A state championship every year, if MSHSL every split girls lax into two classes. Life begins and ends with 2025 Gisella Harder. They lost 2nd leading point scorer (Biz Olimb: 37 points) to graduation, but return the next two point earners, a committed defender. and a goalie:
2025 Gisella Harder (M) - 91 points/95 DCs - D1 High Point
2024 Lily Gauger (M) - 33 points
2026 Elyse Toews (M) - 30 points
2025 Chloe Johanson (D) - 24 GB/19 FT - D2 Concordia St. Paul
2024 Addison Kraus (GK) - 6.70 GAA/52.0%
They lose (7) 2023s, so thats a lot of leadership, but have (8) 2024s to fill the leadership role.
They were 13-2 in 2023 (Lost 9-8 to Hutchinson and 21-6 to Eden Prairie in Sections).
Notables scheduled this year are Chaska, Hutchinson, St. Louis Park and Minnetonka. They are also playing in the Chaska scrimmage jamboree against Chaska, Chanhassen, Prior Lake, Eden Prairie, and Gentry Academy on April 6.
Owatonna (11-4)
Owatonna loses their big gun in Annika Moran (80 points), but returns next two scorers and has a returning goalie who is only a 2026. We also see them dabbling in a few off season events…that tells us there is a drive down I35 (pun intended) we like to see.
EDITOR’S NOTE Post Live Show, Pre-Pod Release: We DID show this as Owatonna is losing Moran as a 2023 - PMAC mistakingly said she’s coming back.
New Prague (7-7)
Lots of pieces coming back for New Prague, including their goalie. Very 2024 heavy.
Mankato (6-9)
Something that is really curious and has our attention is Mankato. Sure, the 1st and 4th leading point scorers graduated, but they have a 2025 between the pipes, and (3) 2027s (!) as their 2nd, 3rd and 5th leading scorers, with a 2025 as their 6th leading scorer! Looking at their schedule last year, totally obvious to see a young team improving as the season wore on:
vs Northfield: lost 7-8 on 4/13, won 9-4 on 5/9
vs Owatonna: lost 3-16 on 4/25, lost 6-14 on 5/11
vs Century: lost 3-15 on 4/27, won 12-11 on 5/22
vs Mayo: lost 2-17 on 5/1, lost 6-8 on 5/17
Legit and marked improvement against 4 teams they played twice. Can anything else describe a young and inexperienced team better than that?
Yeah – not going to upset South this year in sections, but imagine if this team was in a Class A and was completing against the bottom of this section to get to state? They’d 100% be one to watch out for in the next 2-4 years.
Go find us a more insightful Mankato girls lacrosse preview anywhere else, please (hint: the best one you’ll find is from us, last week, in the Best of Rest review). Forget about South Suburban bias…there’s not much more lax bias that is different then SSC bias, then spending time in back to back articles on Mankato!
Rochester Mayo (8-7)
You make it really hard to talk about your squad, if you don’t provide info on it. Missing grad years. We know that top 2 point scorers are gone…
Rochester Century (7-7)
Same goes for you, except we only know that you lost your top point scorer.
Northfield (2-12)
Finally…you don’t even list a roster on MN Lax Hub. We get it, but man, we want to talk about teams not in the metro, but if we have to hunt around on social media just for a roster…come on. We see you posted your schedule on Instagram though, so maybe there’s hope.
Rochester John Marshall/Lourdes (1-13)
Rant over. You have points, you have a roster, and you have grad years. And you have at least your top 3 pointer earners returning (2025, 2025, and 2028), along with two goalies (both 2026s). We are rooting for you to be the top Rochester, if only because you’re helping us help you.