•  Gruber earns All-Conference and Dahl is honorable mention

The Minnewaska Area boys basketball team went 12-15 this season,  which included a 3-10 mark in the WCC.  The 12 wins by the Lakers is five more than the program had for wins in the last three seasons combined.

The Lakers, coached by Zach Traphagen with help from Brian Walker and Gabe Eisenbacher, started out the season with a 6-2 record before losing six of the next seven games to fall to 8-8.  Minnewaska then went 4-7 the rest of the way, including a loss to Montevideo in the section opener, to end the season 12-15.

Montevideo, the top seed in the Lakers’ half of the sub-section, went on to beat Morris Area for the sub-section title and Jackson County Central (62-61) for the Section 3AA title before going 2-1 at the state tournament to earn the consolation championship.

The Thunderhawks also won the WCC this season with an 11-2 record, followed by Morris Area-CA (10-3), Sauk Centre (9-4), West Central Area (7-6), BOLD (6-7), Minnewaska and Melrose (both 3-10) and Benson (0-7).

Benson is leaving the WCC next winter and will be playing in the Prairie Conference with the likes of Osakis, Upsala, Browerville-EV, Swanville, St. John’s Prep and LPGE.

Seniors lost to graduation from this year’s team are Carter Meyer, Zach Palmer, Levi Johnson, Connor Frey, Jacob Mrnak, Caden Larson, Tenzin Dahl, Ian Mills, Kaiden Harvey, Owen Meulebroeck and Chase Wacker.

“We have a lot to be proud of this season,” Traphagen said.  “We’re going to miss the heck out of our seniors next year, but we love and appreciate every single one of those young men. They helped get this program turned back around and heading in the right direction.  Overall, it was a great season and I was proud to be part of this team.”

With 11 players due to graduate from this year’s team, the Lakers will have a revamped lineup next year.  Minnewaska Area went mainly with a 9-member varsity team this year for most games and only three of them return next season — juniors Tristan O’Neil, Luke Danielson and Marc Gruber.

The Lakers had seven games where at least one player scored 20 or more points, including a 24-point outing by O’Neil during a win over Hancock.  Gruber had three 20-point games, including a 21-point game in the season-opening win over KMS, while O’Neil also had three 20-point games and Dahl had 21 points during a late-season loss to Osakis.

Dahl also had the top rebounding game with 12 during a mid-season loss to BOLD, while Palmer, Danielson and Harvey also had double-digit rebounding games this winter.

The Lakers scored a season-high 91 points during a 91-41 victory over Menahga and 85 during an 85-67 victory over Benson late in the season.  The top defensive games were a 61-27 victory over Litchfield in the playoff opener, the 91-41 win over Menahga and a 61-45 victory over Melrose just before Christmas.

On the other hand, the Lakers scored just 36 points during a mid-season loss to Pipestone and gave up 91 points during a 91-49 loss at home to Montevideo, Jan. 30.

Season statistics

Junior Marc Gruber was named to the 17-member All-Conference team for 2024-25, while  senior Tenzin Dahl earned honorable mention.

Montevideo, Morris Area, West Central Area and Sauk Centre all had three players named All-Conference, while Melrose and BOLD both had two players on the All-WCC team and Minnewaska Area had one.

Gruber led the Lakers in scoring with 309 points, averaging 11.4 points per game, while Dahl was next with 270 points (10 ppg), Tristan O’Neil had 247 (9.2 ppg) and others with at least 100 points this season were Connor Frey (188 points, 7.2 ppg), Levi Johnson (155 points, 5.7 ppg), Luke Danielson (138 points, 5.1 ppg), Zach Palmer (111 points, 4.1 ppg) and Kaiden Harvey (106 points, 4.4 ppg).

The top five rebounders for the Lakers this season were Dahl (131 rebounds), Palmer (112), Danielson (109), Gruber (90) and O’Neil (71), while Palmer led Minnewaska Area with 75 assists, followed by O’Neil (53), Gruber (47), Johnson (42) and Dahl (32).

In addition, Palmer also had a team-best 78 steals followed in the top-five by O’Neil and Dahl (both 40), Danielson (35) and Gruber (32), while Danielson led the Lakers with 16 of their 33 blocks this season.

The top shooters from the field this season with at least 50 field goal attempts were O’Neil (51 percent) and Danielson (49 percent), while the top 3-point shooters for the year were Dahl and Johnson (both 40 percent) and the top free-throw shooters were Gruber (74 percent), Dahl (61 percent) and O’Neil (60 percent).

•  This year’s Minnewaska Area boys basketball roster included seniors Carter Meyer, Zach Palmer, Levi Johnson, Connor Frey, Jacob Mrnak, Caden Larson, Tenzin Dahl, Ian Mills, Kaiden Harvey, Owen Meulebroeck and Chase Wacker; and juniors Tristan O’Neil, Marc Gruber, Luke Danielson, Riley Week, Drew Bleick, Connor Erickson and Oliver VanDerHagen.

Members of the B-squad team were juniors Carter Huckle, Connor Erickson, Drew Bleick, Riley Week, Alan Svec and Oliver Van Der Hagen; sophomores Marshall Kopp, Caden Christensen, Ben Toohey, Caleb Kath, Tydan Stewart and Cale Johnsrud; and ninth-graders Cavin Thorfinnson and Carson Beyer, and members of the C-squad team are ninth-graders Marshall Gruber, Asher Downs, Braden Pribyl, Brayden Scharmer, Carter Myrom, Logan Johnson, Tyreese Hookom, Owen Greene, Tyler Swanson, Aiden McCrory and Thatcher Sherlin; eighth-grader Chase Radermacher; and seventh-grader Taylor Hoffert.

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