Area girls earn All-DC basketball team honors

Each of the three schools in the Times coverage area was recognized on the All-Dairyland Conference first team for girls basketball.

Blair-Taylor’s Samantha Aguilar, Independence/Gilmanton’s Arabelle Kniseley and Whitehall’s Olivia Killian were each awarded first-team slots with three of the remaining openings going to players on the conference’s best team, Cochrane-Fountain City.

Killian, a senior, helped the Norse win the DC-Large Division by leading the division in scoring and rebounding, averaging 15.3 points and 16 boards per game. The Norse went 8-5 in conference play and 15-9 overall. 

Also earning honors for Whitehall was junior Trinity Aasen, a second-team pick who averaged 7.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.

Kniseley, a sophomore, was the third-leading scorer as the Indees finished second in the DC-Small Division with an 11-2 mark, behind only C-FC. She averaged 12.8 points and made the fourth-most three pointers in the conference. 

The Indees went 19-8 on the season and advanced to the regional final round before losing to Royall, a state-ranked opponent that was later defeated by C-FC. Makiyah Scow, a sophomore, and Nora Schank, a freshman, earned second-team honors. Both Scow and Schank averaged 8.9 points per game and were close in rebounding two as Schank averaged 6 per contest and Scow, 5.9. 

B-T had three players earn all-conference honors after graduating nearly the entire roster of the 2023 team that finished second in the state tournament. The Wildcats got off to a slow start, but rallied at the end to finish 7-6 in DC play — behind only Whitehall in the Large Division — and 11-15 overall.

Aguilar was third in the DC-Large with an average of 12.2 points per game, while second team picks, Andrea Waldera (11.5) and Andi Beck (11.2) finished fourth and sixth. Aguilar also averaged 7.5 rebounds, while Waldera pulled down 8.5 per game. Beck was second in assists with a 3.7 average. All three B-T players are sophomores. 

The three C-FC players earning first-team spots were Isabella Holzer, Alexis Pronschinske and Emma Mann, all seniors. Allidah Luff, a junior from Alma/Pepin, Alma Center Lincoln sophomore Avan Cummings and Avery Glenz, an Eleva-Strum freshman earned the other first-team positions.

Finley Noll of A/P, Cheyenne Wales and Gabi Radichel of Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran and Claire Becker and Cooper Zeman of Melrose-Mindoro were the other second-team picks. 

C-FC was the only DC team that advanced beyond regional play, losing to Argyle/Pecatonica in the sectional final to finish with a 25-2 record on the season.