South Dakota Class AA Girls Tournament Filled with Championship History

The 2018 Class AA State Girls Basketball Tournament begins this week and the eight teams in the field have some championship history behind them.

Aberdeen Central, Brandon Valley, Harrisburg, Rapid City Central, Rapid City Stevens, Lincoln, O'Gorman, and Washington qualified for this year's event at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center. There are nine Class AA championship teams between the schools since the three class system was implemented in 1985.

13 times these schools have made a run to the championship game but fell short. The only team in the field to never make a state championship game appearance is Rapid City Central.

Some teams have championship history outside of Class AA. Harrisburg's only title was won in Class A in 2013, which was also their last season as members of that class before moving up to AA. Sioux Falls Washington has the earliest championship having won the Class A title in 1980.

Here's a look at the full championship history for each school in the 2018 Class AA Girls State Basketball Tournament.

Aberdeen Central (1-2)

• Champions: 2016
• Runner-Up: 2003, 2004

Brandon Valley (1-1)

• Champions: 2011
• Runner-Up: 2009

Harrisburg (1-0 in A) (0-1 in AA)

• Champions: 2013 (A)
• Runner-Up: 2017 (AA)

Rapid City Central (0-0)

• Champions: Never
• Runner-Up: Never

Rapid City Stevens (0-2 in A) (0-1 in AA)

• Champions: Never
• Runner-Up: 1976 (A), 1979 (A), 2010 (AA)

SF Lincoln (0-1 in A) (1-2 in AA)

• Champions: 2013
• Runner-Up: 1984 (A), 1986, 1989

SF O'Gorman (2-4)

• Champions: 1995, 2017
• Runner-Up: 2001, 2006, 2011, 2015

SF Washington (2-0 in A) (4-2 in AA)

• Champions: 1980 (A), 1981 (A), 2008, 2010, 2014, 2015
• Runner-Up: 2012, 2016

Coverage of the Class AA combined state basketball tournaments can be heard on ESPN 99.1 beginning on Thursday.