Notebook: All-star basketball games will be Saturday

Four local basketball players are among the 40 selected for the Minnesota Girls High School All-Star Series to be held Saturday, April 6, at Carleton College in Northfield.

Players chosen from the Sun Thisweek and Dakota County Tribune coverage area are Trinity Wilson and Gabby Betton, both of Lakeville North, Finley Ohnstad of Lakeville South and Avery Moeller of Rosemount.

Wilson and Betton led Lakeville North to the South Suburban Conference and Class 4A, Section 1 championships. The Panthers went on to win the state Class 4A consolation bracket. Wilson will play at Vanderbilt University and Betton will go to Loyola University Maryland.

Ohnstad, who helped Lakeville South reach the Section 1 final, is a Kansas State commit. Moeller, the leading scorer for a Rosemount team that reached the state tournament, will play at Winona State.

Players will be divided among four teams for the all-star series, which will have its games at 1:05 and 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 6. Spectator admission is free. The players will take part in a youth clinic from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

There will be a banquet April 5 at the Grand Event Center in Northfield where the 2024 Miss Basketball winner will be named.

Boys basketball all-stars

The state high school boys basketball all-star series will be Saturday, April 6, at Anoka-Ramsey Community College. The four-team series starts at 12:20 p.m. with two games in the fieldhouse, followed by a third-place game at 1:30 and the championship game at 3:05.

At 2:45 p.m., finalists for the McDonald Award will be honored and the winner announced. The Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association gives the McDonald Award to the state’s top high school senior. Lakeville North’s Jack Robison and Eastview’s Jonathan Mekonnen are two of the 15 McDonald Award finalists.

Forty players will participate in the all-star series. Lakeville North guard Matt Drake will play for the Blue team. Eastview’s Mekonnen was named to the Green team. Lakeville South guards DaMarcus Burks (Gold team) and Ryan Johnson (Maroon) also will play. Farmington forward Brandon Hrncir was named to the Maroon team.

Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for students if purchased online before 8 p.m. Friday, April 5. A link to online ticket sales is available at mshsca.org/boysbasketball. Admission at the door is $10 for adults and $5 for students.

Awards time

Kevin McKenzie of Eagan and Tharen Johnson of Farmington are among the Class 4A boys basketball section coaches of the year named by the Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association. McKenzie was chosen in Section 3 and Johnson is the Section 1 winner.

Both coaches led their teams to the state tournament, with McKenzie’s Eagan squad finishing third in Class 4A. Six of the eight Class 4A section winners coached in the state tournament, including Minnetonka’s Bryce Tesdahl, whose team won the championship.

Among the coaches honored in Class 2A was Harry Sonie, who led Breck to the state championship. Sonie, a former Apple Valley High School player, was the Class 2A, Section 5 coach of the year.

Debuting with the Badgers

Andrew Casey and Bryce Stachewicz apparently run well in red.

The Lakeville North track and field and cross country standouts who graduated in June 2023 now run at the University of Wisconsin, where they are members of a Badgers men’s track and field team that won the 2024 Big Ten Conference men’s indoor championship.

Casey finished fourth in the 800 meters at the Big Ten indoor meet, and his time of 1 minute, 48.50 seconds in the finals is eighth on the school’s all-time list. He also ran the third leg in the 4x400 relay, where Wisconsin finished eighth.

Stachewicz finished 18th in the men’s mile preliminaries. Wisconsin finished fourth points ahead of Nebraska to win its second consecutive conference indoor team championship.

Casey also ran on Wisconsin’s distance medley relay at the NCAA indoor championships March 8 in Boston. The relay finished eight to earn first-team All-America.

In the start of Wisconsin’s outdoor season March 29 at Stanford University, Casey won his heat in the 1,500 meters, finishing in 3:51.15. Stachewicz ran a different heat in the 1,500, placing sixth in 3:49.74, and was third in his heat in the 800 in 1:52.88.

As seniors at Lakeville North, Casey and Stachewicz led the Panthers to third in the state boys Class 3A meet. Casey won the 800 and Stachewicz the 1,600. Both ran on the Panthers’ state championship 4x400 relay. Earlier in the 2023 season they ran on a Lakeville North 4x800 relay that set an all-time state record.