Prep Basketball- The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU) released their ninth rankings of the 2024-2025 season and the carousel of local teams continued to spin with one team getting dropped from the top 15 and another ushered in for the first time this season.
Class 5A
The top 15 did not see any change in terms of teams as no one was dropped from the rankings and the top seven stayed intact with Johnston the clear favorite, boasting a 17-0 record. Iowa City Liberty and Cedar Falls both tumbled back two spots to be ranked 10th and 12th respectively.
Class 4A
Class 4A nearly kept their top 15 flush with last week’s rankings with 12 of the 15 teams securing their same spot. Bishop Heelan is still the team to beat followed by North Polk and Maquoketa. Dallas Center-Grimes was the first team to move as they switched positions with Norwalk to now be ranked 6th.
Almost as quickly as Burlington was inserted into the top 15, the Grayhounds were yanked out of the top 15. The culprit? A 70-67 overtime loss to a below 0.500 class 5A Cedar Rapids Kennedy squad. Mylee Stiefel did capture her 1,000th career point in the process to provide a glimmer of good news.
Marion replaced them at the #15 slot.
Class 3A
This is where we start to see the first cracks in the foundation as Estherville Lincoln Central fell four spots in the rankings to #6 after losing 50-44 to #5 Cherokee Washington. Mt. Vernon kept their spot atop the mountain.
West Marshall was kicked out of the top 15 after losing to #7 Roalnd Story 49-34 and Bondurant-Farrar 54-47 in their last three contests.
Vindication is the only way to describe the thought process for Mediapolis as the Bulldogs are 19-1, undefeated against Iowa teams, and have made their first appearance in the rankings at #14. Mediapolis tout a point differential of 36.5 and have scored at least 60 points in 17 of their wins.
The squad has a trio of scorers averaging double figures in Amelia Greier, Josie Hutcheson, and Ellah Wagenbach, while Bryn Wright leads the state in assists with 137. The toughest aspect of this team is their defense, yielding 24.5 steals per game.
Class 2A
The top nine remained unchanged with #1 Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont and #3 Hinton clinging on to their undefeated records. West Lyon had a tough week as the formerly ranked #10 Wildcats have lost back-to-back contests to unranked squads Western Christian and Sioux Center.
Pocahontas Area’s loss to Newell-Fonda did not help them out as they were dropped from the rankings along with the Wildcats. #14 Jesup and #15 West Fork jumped up into the rankings.
Class 1A
Aptly, we end out the article with minimal movement. St. Albert, North Linn, and Newell-Fonda tout the top three spots, and the rest almost was kept the same from a week prior. #7 Springville and #8 Gladbrook-Reinbeck exchanged spots and Saint Ansgar tumbled to #15, uplifting Lenox and Riverside to #13 and #14, respectively.