New Prague wrestler Lawson Eller grabbed the leg of Simley wrestler Austin Grzywinski during the 2023 Class 2A state tournament. Next season New Prague will be a Class 3A wrestling team. (Alex Kormann, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Section assignments released Friday by the MSHSL make two matters abundantly clear:

1. Most high schools don't face significant changes.

2. The ones that do are likely to need some time to adjust.

The Minnesota State High School League's Athletic/Activities Director Advisory committee undertook the arduous process of updating section alignments to reflect changes in enrollment. The MSHSL board of directors approved the new section placements for the next two school years Thursday and revealed them Friday.

Among the schools with the most to absorb is New Prague.

According to figures provided by the league at www.mshsl.org, New Prague's enrollment is up to 1,255, the 55^th largest in the state. Being classified among the state's largest 64 schools will bump New Prague into the big-school classes.

In hockey, New Prague and Northfield will move up to Class 2A. Northfield beat New Prague in the Class 1A, Section 1 in early March to qualify for the state tournament. Both have now been placed in Class 2A, Section 1, where among their challengers will be the three Rochester public high schools, Century, John Marshall and Mayo, as well as Lakeville North and Lakeville South.

In wrestling, New Prague's reward for a successful postseason — the Trojans were runners-up to Simley in the Class 2A team competition and had four individual champions — was to get moved into Class 3A, Section 1 alongside such top-flight programs as Apple Valley, Eastview, Farmington and Prior Lake.

It's the same story for New Prague in basketball, where it supplants Northfield in Class 4A, Section 1. The Raiders drop to Class 3A. New Prague moves from 3A to 4A in volleyball as well, going from Section 6 to Section 1.

In other notable changes

After going 15-29 over its past five seasons, including 1-8 seasons in 2021 and 2022, the Totino-Grace football program is now in Class 4A, where its enrollment says it should be. The Eagles have long been lauded for opting up in football, and they won the Class 6A title in 2016 and were runners-up in 6A in 2014. But cutoff for enrollment for Class 6A schools is 1,630. According to the MSHSL, Totino-Grace's enrollment for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years is 691, placing the school squarely in Class 4A, which is for schools with enrollments between 598 and 1,016.
Rochester Mayo and Buffalo were elevated to the state's largest class in football, 6A, replacing Brainerd and Totino-Grace.
Cooper's time as a Class 4A basketball school is over. The Hawks, whose girls team won the 3A title in 2018, spent the past two seasons in Class 4A but will once again be a Class 3A team.

The MSHSL has long based section placement on enrollment. The league approaches its classification process by giving priority to two factors, according to league by-laws: geographic congruity and competitive integrity. Relative strength of programs within a section is not taken into account.