Photo illustration by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Madison Mathiowetz was named the All-Journal Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year for the third consecutive year.

SLEEPY EYE — Holding just about every basketball record there is at Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s, Madison Mathiowetz’s prep basketball career has been one to behold.

She ended her girls’ basketball career a little more than a week ago as the Knights’ all-time leader in points (3,762), rebounds (1,343), assists (498) and steals (458). The 3,762 points also ranks fourth all-time in the state for girls’ basketball.

Mathiowetz also broke the school’s single-game points record this season with 55 points in a win over Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial on Feb. 22. She already set that single-game points record last season when she scored 50 against Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try to top it this season if the opportunity presented itself.

Her 1,046 points this season was also a school record for most single-season points by any player.

Despite all of the individual records she holds, Mathiowetz has stayed humble and credited her family, friends and team for helping her along the way.

“It’s definitely come from the support I’ve had from my family, my friends and my teammates and coaches, they’ve made it all possible,” Mathiowetz said. “All these years, having success as a team has played a huge part in the individual success I’ve been able to have.”

Mathiowetz is also is a four-time Tomahawk All-Conference Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year and a 2022 Minnesota Miss Basketball Finalist this season. Miss Basketball will be announced April 9.

On Monday, she was also unanimously named the All-Journal Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year for the third consecutive season as voted on by The Journal’s sports staff.

Mathiowetz is the only three-time All-Journal Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year.

With all of her milestones and awards, Mathiowetz said that her biggest accomplishment was making it to the state tournament last season with her team.

“The state tournament experience was something that I’ll never forget and the memories that we made as a team,” she said. “Going to that together and battling it out was really special.”

Mathiowetz and the Knights took down Waterville-Elysian-Morristown in the Section 2A finals on March 25, 2021, to bring St. Mary’s to the state tournament for the first time since 2005.

Mathiowetz had 27 points in that win over WEM and said it was a game that most stood out to her from her career.

“I think our win against Waterville in that section final was probably the best win that I’ve gotten to be a part of in my career,” Mathiowetz said. “We lost to them the year before [in the Section 2A finals], and then our goal all year had been to come back and beat them in that game because we knew it would probably be us two to get a chance at the state tournament. We just played really well as a team and we were actually down most of the game and then we came back and won it. It was just really fun.”

After a 78-67 win over Mayer Lutheran state quarterfinals last year, the Knights were eliminated in the semifinals after a 51-50 loss to Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa.

This season, Mathiowetz averaged 34.9 points, 11.5 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 3.8 steals per game. Mathiowetz’s dominant senior year helped the Knights put together another strong season, but they came up a win short of returning to state after a 58-45 Section 2A finals loss to Mayer Lutheran on March 11. The Knights ended the 2021-22 season with a 27-3 record.

In the closing minutes of this year’s Section 2A title game at Bresnan Arena, Mathiowetz watched her seventh-grade sister Morgan check in to the game with several other younger players. Morgan ended up hitting a 3 for the final basket of the game.

“My time at St. Mary’s was some of the best years,” Mathiowetz said. “Playing with some of my best friends was really special. Watching [Morgan] take the court at the end of the game [March 11] and all those other girls who weren’t in there — they’re going to be fun to watch and they’re going to be a special group. I’m really excited to see where they take the St. Mary’s basketball program as the years progress, and they’ll keep working just as hard as we did and they’ll keep the story rolling.”

Mathiowetz had thoughts of returning to the softball diamond this spring for the Knights, but she decided to continue honing her craft on the basketball court in preparation of her first college basketball season at South Dakota State University this winter.

“I’m really excited,” Mathiowetz said of her upcoming year at SDSU. “There’s going to be a lot of new opportunities and it’s going to be completely different from what I’ve experienced here. The game is just expanded to a whole new level when I go out there and I’m real excited to get to work with my coaches and teammates out there and play with a really good squad. It’ll be really fun.”