After last year's turbulent roller-coaster experience, Wayzata's nearly uneventful tour through this winter's season has been a joyride.
The No. 2-4A Trojans enter their final week of the regular season on an eight-game winning streak with the Lake Conference championship in their pocket. After entertaining Moorhead on Monday, Wayzata (13-2) plays Thursday at No. 5-4A Chaska, a Metro West Conference opponent, and at home Saturday against Duluth East.
There have been no lingering injuries, no shuffling of lineups and very few losses to anguish over for the Trojans, who lost only at No. 8-4A Hopkins (87-80) back on Jan. 19 and at No. 1-3A Minnehaha Academy (70-63) on Feb. 4.
Juniors Camden Heide (19.1 ppg), Carter Bjerke (14.1 ppg) and Drew Berkland (8.2 ppg), and seniors Eddie Beeninga (14.3 ppg) and Kody Williams (8.3 ppg) have been consistent producers throughout the season, helping Wayzata outscore its opponents by more than 19 points a game.
Chaska (12-3) started its out-of-conference section tournament warmup last week with a 61-55 loss at Eden Prairie on Friday. Despite the blemish, Luke Strazzanti (14.7 ppg), Jack Frick (11.7 ppg) and Spencer Goetz (12.1 ppg) have led the Hawks to a strong and consistent regular-season showing.
Thursday's game should be a good playoff primer for each team. Wayzata will compete in the Section 6 tournament, while Chaska plays in Section 2.