The Trenton Lady Bulldog basketball team, just over eight months removed from finishing fourth in the state in Class 3, apparently raised some eyebrows, in a positive way, in their two-game trip to Columbia, with the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association, in its preseason rankings, placing Trenton High School second in the state for Class 3 girls, behind the two-time defending state champions from Strafford. The team that beat THS in last year’s state semifinal, the Whitfield Lady Warriors, are ranked 3rd, while the team Trenton lost to in a hotly-contested third place game at Mizzou Arena, Lutheran North, is sixth.
Principia is ranked 4th in the poll, with Monroe City fifth, Boonville 7th, Hermann 8th, Park Hills Central 9th, and Father Tolton Catholic, a January 6th opponent for the Trenton Lady Bulldogs, ranked 10th.
Whitfield High School is ranked #1 for Class 3 boys, followed by Kansas City traditional power Hogan Prep. Clark County is fourth.
In Class 1, the North Andrew boys are ranked 2nd, behind Walnut Grove. Worth County is 6th. Walnut Grove paces the Class 1 girls poll, with Southwest Livingston 4th, Norborne 5th, and Jefferson 6th. Defending state champion Mercer, a team hit hard by graduation, is out of the first Top 10 poll of the season.
Other top-ranked teams in the MBCA poll are Skyline (Class 2 girls), Hartville (Class 2 boys), Vashon (Class 4 boys), Incarnate Word (Class 4 girls, with Chillicothe ranked 10th), Kirkwood (Class 5 girls), and Webster Groves (Class 5 boys).
The Trenton girls open the season tonight at 6, playing at East Buchanan High School in Gower, MO (on Hot Country Z 101.7). The season opener for the THS boys will follow at 7:30.
Photo credit – John Cowling / THS basketball / Trenton High School / Trenton, MO
