Prep Basketball- The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU) released their preseason rankings ahead of tonight’s season openers across the entire state, including a local Southeast Iowa Super Conference showdown between New London and Winfield-Mt. Union.
Class 5A
Johnston enters the season as the favorite after soaring to a perfect 26-0 record and the state championship a year ago. The Dragons return three of their starters from a year ago, including two 300-plus point scorers in Amani Jenkins and Jenica Lewis. Dowling Catholic and Ankeny Centennial round out the top three, respectively.
Iowa City High is expected to have the biggest turnaround this season after going 8-15 a year ago, they are ranked #14 to start the season. #11 Waukee Northwest and #15 Cedar Rapids Washington are two other teams who start the year ranked after touting below 0.500 records last season.
Class 4A
Clear Creek Amana took home the championship a season ago with a perfect record. This year the Clippers are expected to take a small dip as they enter the year ranked #5. Bishop Heelan is the favorite followed by North Polk and Sioux Center, respectively.
A local team to look out for will be #13 Keokuk. The Chiefs have won the Southeast Conference the past three seasons, losing only one conference game in the process. Additionally, Keokuk has lost only 14 games in the last three seasons.
Their full-court pressure defense will cause fits as this team returns almost everyone, graduating only one senior from last year’s team in Makenna Altgilbers, but they also return SEC Player of the Year Kendra Boatman, who averaged 18.6 points, 5 assists, and 4.4 steals per game.
Class 3A
In the biggest surprises of the preseason rankings, Solon, last year’s champions, are outside the top 15. A big reason for the Spartans departure is four of their five starters graduated from a year ago.
Aptly, last year’s runner-up Estherville-Lincoln Central will headline the class. Mount Vernon is #2 and Wahlert Catholic enters at #3. West Delaware is one of the teams expected to make a jump in talent from a year ago as they are ranked #14 to start the year after going 10-13 last season.
Class 2A
Dike-New Hartford’s reign atop Class 2A may finally come to an end as the four-time consecutive state champion is now ranked in the top 15. The loss of Payton Petersen and Maryn Bixby, who contributed over 50% of the team’s point production, is the main reason.
So, taking over the top spot is Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont as the Rockets lost only two games last year, falling to Sioux Central, who is also not ranked to start the season. In fact, half of the teams that made the state tournament are out of the preseason top 15: Grundy Center and Panorama.
Westwood and Cascade enter the list at #2 and #3, respectively.
Class 1A
North Linn is expected to excel again as last year’s champion, but it will start as the #2 team in the Class as Bishop Garrigan, who was eliminated in the state quarterfinal round in 2023, enters the year as the favorite.
Montezuma is ranked #3 followed by #4 Riceville, #5 Mount Ayr, and last year’s runner-up #6 Newell-Fonda.