Speiser is now up to No. 6 in On3's national rankings (No. 1 shooting guard). No idea about the rankings 20 years ago, but Wecker/Koehn are probably the only recruits in school history in the same ballpark.
https://www.on3.com/her/news/on3-updated-2025-womens-basketball-recruiting-rankings/
Didn't have women's rankings then, but Wecker/Ohlde/Koehn wouldn't have sniffed the top 50, well maybe Kendra. They played AAU locally. They were regional recruits at the time, not national.
Sorry man, but that's just not true. Koehn played USA b-ball and had loads of offers. Wecker did too. Both had offers from UConn.
Ohlde was certainly more regional and unknown because she didn't play the national circuit like the other two did.
Certainly to a lesser degree than Koehn/Wecker, but probably more so than Ohlde, Mahoney and Hanson were fairly highly regarded players as well.
Patterson's recruiting over that 3-4 year stretch was probably better than any kstate program in the last quarter century. Mittie is perhaps getting close now and Huggins/Martin's 1st classes were better, but not sustained beyond those single years.
It's just too bad Patterson couldn't get more than one Sweet 16 out of those classes.
I'll certainly defer to you here. I don't remember Koehn being that big of a deal, individually. Kendra was obviously a big deal and I remember Mahoney being a big get, in that class, as well. I didn't remember Laurie being a national recruit out of Moundridge. IIRC Brie Madden was a big get too, I know I was excited about her. Getting those players in 2 classes was crazy. Coggins also played with Ohlde for one season and the others for two. Five WNBA players on one team and we didn't make the second weekend.
Ousted by fellow NCK studette and, I believe, current KSU Athletics staffer Anne Weese’s Fightin’ Irish*.
Because I'm a loser (aka a media guide hoarder), I actually went back to the media guides from that era as I thought maybe I was wrong. As it turns out, Koehn was definitely a top 50 player - as high as the No. 6 player in the country according to "Full Court Press" (whatever that is). In fairness to Koehn, I never saw her before the knee injury prior to her freshman year - I'm sure she moved a lot better before that.
Andrea Armstrong (post player) was part of the Ohlde/Koehn class and was also a top 100 player.
Wecker was as high as the No. 14 player in the country (same outlet as above), but also in the top 20 in three other rankings (one of which was Rivals).
Madden was also ranked inside the top 50 players in the country.
Mahoney, Hanson and Ohlde didn't have any rankings listed, but knowing the SID at the time, I'm not 100 percent confident that's because they weren't ranked (possible just an oversight). Mahoney (S.D.) and Hanson (N.D.) were both the state players of the year multiple times and Mahoney was actually all-state five times because she played as an eighth grader.
A few years later, Coggins was also a top 100 player as was Carolyn McCullough from KC (she never did much).
The interesting thing is that Ohlde/Wecker/Koehn all played on the same AAU team and that team did advance pretty far in some national tournaments. It's stunning to me that college coaches would have seen Ohlde play and decided not to recruit her. At the time, there really weren't any players in the country with her combination of height/skills (6-5 player with the ability to run the floor, dribble, score off the bounce, etc.). At that time, most players 6-3 or taller were statues (think Olga Firsova).
