B-T’s Kniseley, Whitehall’s Johnston named to All-Dairyland first team

While both boys’ basketball divisions in the Dairyland Conference had runaway winners, the all-conference teams had representation from a handful of schools.

No team had more than two players on the All-DC first team as cagers from seven different schools made up the nine spots. Two area players were represented on that squad as Blair-Taylor’s Ethan Kniseley and Whitehall’s Caydan Johnston were selected.

Kniseley, a senior, was third in the DC-Small Division in scoring. He averaged 19.4 points per game, while shooting better than 50 percent from the field. He shot better than 40 percent on three-pointers. A four-year varsity starter, Kniseley saw his game improve each year as he saw an increase of four points per game from his junior season. He finished his career with 1,349 points. 

Johnston broke out as a senior going from 7.4 points per game last year to 17.3 this year, while shooting 46.4 percent from the field, 78 percent at the free-throw line, and nearly 35 percent on three-point attempts. He was second in the DC-Large in scoring, behind Osseo-Fairchild’s Jack Steinke.

Steinke averaged 26 points per game and was the only Osseo-Fairchild player selected on the first-team, despite the squad’s 17-3 DC record and Large Division championship. This was O-F’s first year playing in the DC.

Small Division champions Cochrane-Fountain City — which went 20-0 in conference play — had Porter Ehrat and Cameron Lipinski selected on the first team. Lipinski was second in the conference with an average of 21.6 points per game, while Ehrat was fifth, averaging 18.4. 

The Small Division’s leading scorer, Logan Thompson of Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran, was also a first-team pick after averaging 22 points per game. Alma Center Lincoln had two players selected in Jace Paul (20.6 PPG) and Ben Ross (15.4 PPG). Alma/Pepin’s Breckin Hullopeter was the only junior picked in the first team as the post player averaged 17.7 points and a DC-best 12.7 rebounds per game. 

B-T had two players picked for the second team in junior CJ Dummer and senior Hunter Wagner. Dummer averaged 13.5 points per game and Wagner finished with 10.8. 

Independence/Gilmanton was also represented on the second team as junior Nolan Schank was picked by the coaches after he averaged 14 points and 8.1 rebounds per contest. Those were considerable improvements from his sophomore season in which he averaged 0.8 points and 1.4 rebounds per game.

Also picked for the second team were Aeron Hanson, Melrose-Mindoro; Mason Schmidt and Drake Swett Osseo-Fairchild; Reed Schmidtknecht, C-FC; Jay Stetzer, AC Lincoln and Mason Westberg, A/P.