Power 25 Update: Week 4

May 2, 2016

By Steve Nielsen
Scouting Supervisor - Wisconsin/Illinois

This week’s Power 25 finally saw a good amount of shake ups at the top of the rankings. As we get deeper into conference play teams are starting to sort themselves out along with a few interesting cross conference match-ups on the horizon.

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At No. 1 Arrowhead continued their dominance staying unbeaten at 11-0. Nothing too significant this week in the win column for the Warhawks, a pair of 10-0 wins over Catholic Memorial highlighted their week. Arrowhead will have a big test this Friday as they face No. 12 Kenosha Tremper.

After Arrowhead is where the circus begins. You could make a case for one of any of the next 10 teams to be slotted in that No. 2 spot. In fact No. 2-11 are separated by the smallest of margins, each near the top of their respective conferences with quality wins on their resume.

The shakeups began with Janesville Craig taking two losses on the chin last week, one to a surging Middleton and Madison West. Craig fell to No. 8 but in the highly competitive Big Eight, they’ll have plenty of chances to rebound.

Indian Trail (9-1) took over the No. 2 spot, even though they took a loss last week to Kenosha Bradford, the Hawks swept Kenosha Tremper in two game last week, solidifying their hold on the top spot in the Southeast Conference.

Middleton (10-1) jumps a crowded pack of one and two loss teams to take the No. 3 spot. They beat Janesville Craig last week and their only loss of the year came on a seventh inning nailbiter to Sun Prairie 4-3.

No. 4 Green Bay Preble (11-1), No. 5 Milwaukee Lutheran (9-1), No. 6 Eau Claire Memorial (8-1) and No. 7 Eau Claire North (11-1) all took care of business last week and therefore move up accordingly. Preble put a notch in their belt with a win over No. 17 Bay Port while the Eau Claire teams continue to dominate the Big Rivers. Memorial did take their first loss of the season last week to Hudson, otherwise the Old Abes could have likely taken the No. 2 spot. Memorial bested North earlier in the year but North continues to rack up quality wins including a tough one against Chippewa Falls ace Trevor Olson last week, making the case for both teams to make a jump.

Janesville Craig (9-2), Sun Prairie (10-2) and Oconomowoc (10-1) round out the top ten. A pretty simple order when you look at head to head matchups. Despite losing twice last week, Janesville Craig beat Sun Prairie earlier in the year and Sun Prairie topped Oconomowoc last week. A tough blow for Oconomowoc in terms of the Power 25, as they really have yet to be tested this year. Without a Power 25 win yet, the Racoons have only faced two teams with winning records before losing to Sun Prairie last week.. Their real test won’t come until the last week of the season when four of their last five games are played against No. 1 Arrowhead and No. 5 Milwaukee Lutheran.

RANK	LAST	TEAM	DIVISION	2016 RECORD
1	1	Arrowhead	1	11-0
2	3	Indian Trail	1	9-1
3	10	Middleton	1	10-1
4	7	Green Bay Preble	1	11-1
5	6	Milwaukee Lutheran	2	9-1
6	8	Eau Claire Memorial	1	8-1
7	11	Eau Claire North	1	11-1
8	2	Janesville Craig	1	9-2
9	9	Sun Prairie	1	10-2
10	4	Oconomowoc	1	10-1

Stevens Point (10-1) rattled off two more wins last week and moved up to No. 11. The Panthers don’t have any upcoming opportunities against Power 25 teams the rest of the way so their split with Preble remains their resume highlight. If the Panthers continue at this pace they should slowly continue to climb the ranks.

The Fox Valley Association continues to beat up on each other as a trio of three loss teams round out the top fifteen, again a distinguishable order according to head to head play as No. 13 Hortonville (8-3) beat No. 14 Appleton North (9-3) earlier this year and the Lightning topped No. 15 KImberly last week.

Coleman holds as the top Division 3 teams at No. 16. They stay undefeated at (12-0) with an impressive resume of dominance on the field.