The Maysville Wolverines and South Harrison Lady Bulldogs, each picking six of a seven possible first-place votes, are the preseason favorites to win the 2023-2024 Grand River Conference basketball championships.
Maysville, after finishing third in the GRC East last season, returns most of the talent from a big, physical, and talented group, with six first-place votes earning the Wolverines 36 total points. Second-place Milan, with one first place vote, has 28 points. The Wildcats are coming off of a runner-up finish to Gallatin a year ago, and a postseason run that included a district title and trip to the sectional round at Staley High School in Kansas City.
Putnam County is in the third position in the GRC poll with 24 points, followed by Gallatin (19), Polo (18), Trenton (15), and South Harrison with 7 points.
The South Harrison Lady Bulldogs, with six first-place votes and 36 points, are the pick to win the 2023-2024 GRC girls basketball title, followed by Polo, with one first-place vote and 26 points for the Lady Panthers. Trenton is solidly in the third spot with 24 points.\
Milan’s Lady Wildcats are fourth (22 points), Gallatin fifth (20), Putnam County sixth (12), and Maysville in seventh place with 7 points.
The Grand River Conference will remain a seven-school league for a few more months, before the summer 2024 additions of Brookfield and Marceline to push membership to nine schools for the 2024-2025 school year.
The preseason votes in the Grand River Conference West are much more jumbled, with the St. Joseph Christian girls and Princeton boys earning the nods as preseason favorites.
The Lady Lions had 6 of a possible 9 first place votes, with runner-up King City receiving two first-place tallies and third-place Princeton the remaining top vote. St. Joseph Christian has 61 points in the girls poll, followed by King City’s 58 and Princeton’s 51.
North Andrew (40) is fourth, followed by Pattonsburg (34), Stanberry (33), Albany (21), Worth County (18), and North Harrison (8).
Princeton is the favorite to win the GRC West boys title, although the Tigers received less than half of the nine first-place votes. The Tigers have four coaches feeling that they will win the conference title, with PHS picking up a total of 60 points. Second-place St. Joseph Christian, with two first-place votes and 54 points, is followed by third-place Worth County with 48 points and a pair of first-place votes. The remaining first-place nod went to North Andrew, with the Cardinals 39 points good for fifth place. Pattonsburg, with 46 points, is picked fourth.
King City is sixth (21 points), with North Harrison and Stanberry (20 each) in a 7th place tie, with Albany, with 16 points, in ninth.
