While paging through the latest addition of the Minnesota Basketball News, there’s one thing that stands out in their girls high school basketball preview.

Southern Minnesota will be stacked with some top-notch teams.

Four area teams are ranked in the top 20 of their state class and two of those teams were in the state tournament last season.

The highest ranked team is Hayfield at No. 9 in Class ‘AA’, which returns two serious scoring threats in guard Jordyn Krekling and center Kiley Severson. The two juniors seemed to get better in every playoff game last season as they helped lead the Vikings to a fourth place finish in the Class ‘AA’ state tournament.

The Vikings will miss their main playmaker in Leslie Wilson, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they made a return trip to the state tourney this year.

Grand Meadow comes through with a 15th ranking in Class ‘A’ and the Superlarks could live up to that billing if their all-purpose superstar Jessica Benson has anything to do with it.

Benson is a threat to score from anywhere and she’s very willing to make plays for her teammates as well. The senior averaged 21.4 points, 13.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 5.3 steals, and 2.7 blocks per game last season.

The Austin girls came in ranked 18th in Class ‘AAA’ to start the season. The Packers return most of their front court from last year’s state-qualifying team, but they’ll need some guards to step up as they have to replace Tana Lukes, Brittney Gibson, and Jenni Fisher — all were crucial to Austin’s success last season on defense and offense.

The Blooming Prairie basketball team is ranked 19th in Class ‘AA’ and they play in the same section as Hayfield.

Point guard Resha Koster can trigger the Blossoms on a good run if she stays healthy and finds shots for her teammates.

So this could be winter for the girls, but I’m sure the boys teams aren’t backing down either.