No. 5 Crosby-Ironton (26-0), with junior phenom and Gophers commit Tori Oehrlein, would be a popular state tournament team, and is favored to make its third consecutive state tournament appearance. But Proctor (23-3), Pequot Lakes (21-5) and Duluth Marshall (19-7) and won’t be pushovers. Duluth Marshall boasts the top player from the state’s Class of 2028: Chloe Johnson. Crosby-Ironton, coming off a fourth-place finish in the state tournament a year ago, beat Proctor 50-41 just 10 days ago.

A balanced section can make for a lot of fun. This one includes six teams with at least 20 wins: Hillcrest Lutheran (22-4), Breckenridge (21-5), Underwood (21-5), Hancock (20-6), New York Mills (20-6) and West Central Area (20-6). Underwood is the section’s two-time defending champion.

Here are eight section champion predictions from each class:

Class 4A: Section 1-Lakeville North; 2-Eden Prairie; 3-Eastview; 4-East Ridge; 5-Maple Grove; 6-Hopkins; 7-Anoka; 8-St. Michael-Albertville.

Class 3A: 1-Byron; 2-Marshall; 3-Cretin-Derham Hall; 4-DeLaSalle; 5-Monticello; 6-Benilde-St. Margaret’s; 7-Rock Ridge; 8-Alexandria.

Class 2A: 1-Caledonia; 2-New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva; 3-New London-Spicer; 4-Minnehaha Academy; 5-Providence Academy; 6-Sauk Centre; 7-Crosby-Ironton; 8-Pelican Rapids.