Most years, it's pretty much automatic to say that the Class AAAA champion is the #1 team in the state. But not always. In the 21st century we've named the following teams #1 at the end of the year. All were the AAAA champion unless otherwise indicated.
2000--Mpls. Patrick Henry 28-1, AAA champion. Class AA champion Litchfield defeated Class AAAA champion Tartan 74-49 in a holiday tournament.
2001--Osseo 30-1
2002--Hopkins 28-2
2003--Litchfield 30-2, AA champion. Litch defeated AAA champion Henry 66-44 in the regular season, and Henry won the Minneapolis city title over Class AAAA champion Mpls. North.
2004--Chaska 30-2
2005 and 2006--Hopkins 31-1 and 30-2
2007--St. Thomas 30-2, AAA champion over Buffalo 28-3, AAAA champion
2008--Minnetonka 28-3
2009--Hopkins 31-0
2010--St. Paul Johnson 32-0, AAA champion, defeated AAAA champion Hopkins 86-78 in a holiday tournament.
2011--Hopkins 31-1
2012--Osseo 30-2
2013--DeLaSalle 30-1, AAA champion over Apple Valley 31-1. DeLaSalle beat Park Center while Apple Valley split with Park Center.
2014--#1-rated Apple Valley lost to Cretin in the section final. Lakeville North upset Hopkins in the state final to finish 26-5. We stuck with Apple Valley.
2015--Apple Valley 30-2
2016--Hopkins 31-1
2017--Apple Valley 30-2
2018--Cretin 30-2
2019--Hopkins 27-4 swept 2 games with Class AA champion Minnehaha 29-2.
2020--Eden Prairie 28-0--state tournament was cancelled.
2021--Minnehaha 20-1, AAA champion
2022--Park Center 31-1 split 2 games with AAA champion Totino-Grace so we at least had to think abuot it a little bit.
So you would think that the benefit of the doubt in 2023 would go to Wayzata. They're just 27-4. Only one #1 team this century had 4 losses. But Wayzata started 0-3, then went 24-1 the rest of the way. More to the point, if not Wayzata, who? Only Park Center in AAAA had a better record at 28-3 and Wayzata beat them in the state final. Lakeville North matched Wayzata's 4 losses and beat Wayzata in December (and lost to Park Center in December) and of course lost to Wayzata in the state semi-final.
For the record, there's AAA champion Totino-Grace. They lost 8 times, 5 times to Minnesota teams--3X to Lakeville North and Park Center, but also to Osseo and Minnetonka. So, no.
Among the girls, we picked Hopkins at #1 despite their loss to St. Michael-Albertville in the state final. Hopkins beat St. Michael 2 out of 3, and rallied from a 17 point deficit in the 2nd half to get within one. So this is not quite analogous. Nobody beat Wayzata twice.
1. Wayzata 27-4
2. Park Center 28-3
3. Lakeville North 28-4
4. Totino Grace 24-8
5. DeLaSalle 26-6
6. Eastview 23-9
7. Albany 32-1
8. White Bear Lake 23-8
9. Andover 23-9
10. Minnetonka 23-8
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