Girls Lax: Conference Shakedown
Uncle Ted put the bat signal out for us during the latest podcast for a deep dive into the conference situations across the state. Challenge accepted.
We are going in the order that MN Lax Hub has them listed, will give our thoughts and tell you what happened. Go check it out on their site, here:
All records and match ups talked about here are conference specific and NOT overall records/games, unless otherwise indicated.
And for the record, we are ignoring this nasty rumor that there are no tie-breakers for conference title and that we have co-champs if a tie in record. As you go through this, you’ll realize if they don’t take this seriously, we sure aren’t either. And the end result is going to be our recommendation to do away with conferences and their associated titles, in lax. Its one more thing holding back the game in MN and there are to many things doing that already.
Big 9 - Conference Champion: OWATONNA
Owatonna: 8-1
Rochester Century: 6-3
Rochester Mayo: 6-3
Mankato: 5-4
Those are the top 4 in the conference.
There was a lot going on with this conference this week…too much to really say accurately…but Owatonna sealed the deal and can crown themselves champs.
Greater West Metro - Conference champion: LITERALLY, WHO KNOWS, BUT SHOULD BE CHISAGO LAKES
Monticello: 5-2
Chisago Lakes: 4-0
St. Cloud: 3-1
Those are the top 3 in the conference.
Hmmmm…the entire conference doesn’t even play each other, while some play each other twice. This is totally messed up and is ANOTHER data point proving that MSHSL lacrosse is broken and we need to fix it. Never fear - we are working on that article too.
Anyway, Chisago Lakes is done, are undefeated overall, are 4-0 in conference…and beat Monticello 2X (13-4 & 6-5).
Monticello has more wins, and thus more points in the MLH standings. Why? Because this scheduling makes no sense.
How can a conference say conference championships don’t matter, without saying conference championships don’t matter? By creating this scheduling nightmare. Be better.
If someone has the audacity to say co-champs, we’re going to throw up.
Independent Metro Athletic - Conference Champion: BLAKE
Blake: 2-0
Breck: 1-1
St. Paul Academy: 0-2
That’s the entire conference.
Blake has locked the conference up, beating the other two conference opponents, handily.
Independent - Conference Champion: LITERALLY, WHO KNOWS
Brainerd: 2-1
Gentry: 1-0
Moorhead: 1-1
Rocori: 0-2
That’s the entire conference.
Brainerd is 2-1, but lost to Moorhead 12-6. Gentry beat Moorhead 21-4 and that’s their only conference game. So…Brainerd is the conference champ with a loss to Moorhead who has a loss to Gentry…and neither MH or Gentry played Rocori. Right. Thanks for another point where the teams don’t care about the conferences, so why should we (hint: we’ll have a serious talk about conferences in our MSHSL lax is broken article on later).
Gentry should be conference champions, but Brainerd has more conference wins, with their 2 wins over Rocori, despite their loss to Moorhead and not playing Gentry.
Lake - Conference Champion: EDEN PRAIRIE
Eden Prairie: 6-0
Minnetonka: 5-1
Edina: 4-2
Wayzata: 3-3
That’s the top 4 of the conference.
Congrats to Eden Prairie! EP holds the points and head to head over Tonka.
Lake Superior - Conference Champion: GRAND RAPIDS/GREENWAY
Grand Rapids/Greenway: 4-0
Duluth: 3-3
Duluth Marshall: 1-2
Hermantown/Proctor: 1-3
That’s the entire conference.
This past weekend, there was a path for Duluth to the trophy, beating GRG and then H/P (on 5/23, giving them 6 conference games), but that was shut down.
We don’t like the unbalanced schedules within the conference, but it didn’t matter.
Metro East - Conference Champion: HILL-MURRAY
Hill-Murray: 5-0
Mahtomedi: 4-1
Simley: 3-2
Hastings: 2-3
Those are the top 4 in the conference.
This section is wrapped up nicely and neatly.
Metro West - Conference Champion: BENILDE-ST. MARGARET’S
BSM 7-0
Orono: 6-1
Chanhassen: 5-2
Chaska: 4-3
Those are the top 4 in the conference.
Nothing can happen to upset the Scarlet Knight Metro West train..including tying a non-conference opponent in a thurnderstdorm (WHAT?)
Northwest Suburban - Conference Champion: MAPLE GROVE
Maple Grove: 8-0
Champlin Park: 7-1
Elk River/Zimmerman: 7-2
Robinsdale A/C: 7-2
Those are the top 4 in the conference.
Well, well, well. Maple Grove all over the placee. Tying BSM…beat Champlin park and then going into triple OT against Wayzata.
Glad the NWSC split ended up with what we wanted: two clear top teams battling for the conference crown. Great to see.
Those niceties said, a possible monkey wrench could that that ERZ squad getting 9 games. Sigh. We supposes its because of an unbalanced conference split, but its why we can’t have nice things.
South Suburban - Conference Champion: LAKEVILLE SOUTH
Lakeville South: 7-0
Prior Lake: 6-1
Rosemount: 5-2
Lakeville North: 4-3
Those are the top 4 in the conference.
SSC seems to have things squared away that everyone plays everyone else. #1 in conference and state beat #2 in conference and state earlier to settle this out.
Suburban East - Conference Champion: STILLWATER - maybe? PARK - maybe? Co-Champs = gross
Stillwater: 8-1
Park: 8-1
East Ridge: 7-2
CDH: 6-3
Those are the top 4 in the conference.
OK, so all that matter are Park and Stillwater…who played each other.
Both are 8-1.
Stillwater beat Park 11-5 on 5/1. To us, that gives them the head to head in the event of a tie…which HAS to be the tie breaker if two teams are tied…right?
Stillwater’s loss was to WBL…THE FOLLOWING GAME, on 5/3, 8-6. WBL finished 5-4 in the conference, and were not involved in the conference title race…besides beating Stillwater. Stillwater - we blame you guys for this one…you should have taken care of business against WBL…even if you had 1000 YCs that game.
Anyway is Park posting on their IG that they were conference champions, which they have better meant co-champs…because…it is that in the most generous of terms.
I’m not going to listen to any argument where that is the case. Get rid of conferences now.
Tri-Metro - Conference Champion: ST. CROIX PREP
St. Croix Prep: 7-0
Holy Angels: 5-2
Bloomington Kennedy/Burnsville: 3-4
Columbia Heights: 3-4
Those are the top 4 in the conference.
Huge game on 5/20: St. Croix Prep @ Holy Angels. The Hedge Fund already worked Holy Angels over on 5/9 (20-5) and they didn’t disappoint on 5/20 (winning 18-5).
Wright County - Conference Champion: SOUTHWEST CHRISTIAN
SW Christian: 7-0
Delano/Rockford: 6-2
Hutchinson: 3-4
Holy Family: 3-5
Those are the top 4 in the conference.
So…SWC and Hutch get 7 conference games…and Delano, Holy Family and Mount Westonka each get 8. Makes total sense.
Again…if its not even an even # of games played within the conference, what are we doing with conferences?
Final Take
Sorry that this turned so snippy. We assume there are teams out there that really care about conference championships and we just took a dump on them, which means Uncle Ted will get some hate mail (or you leave Uncle Ted out of it and harass us direct at mrspmacssource@gmail.com). But the point remains true: if conferences throughout the state are in such a state of disorganization, it ABSOLUTELY should not be a reason to not radically change how MSHSL lacrosse is treated. More to come on that.