Northwestern’s Cole Lahti, Hibbing alum Ayden McDonald commit to UMD basketball
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Wednesday Northwestern High School celebrated five Tigers as they signed their National Letters of Intent to continue their academic and athletic careers at the collegiate level.
One of them is transitioning from a big cat to a Bulldog as Cole Lahti committed to play Division II basketball for the Univeristy of Minnesota Duluth (UMD).
“Being a three-sport athlete I’ve never really had to prioritize one specific sport. Now being able to prioritize one is going to be fun, more my like game will level up hopefully.” Lahti added, “my dad’s actually the assistant softball coach up at UMD, so he already has some softball gear and some UMD gear.”
His fellow Tiger signees were Katie Kyle with St. Scholastica golf, Andrew Bourque with Minnesota Morris football, Maddie Rahman with UW-Eau Claire track and field, and Brynn Hessel with UW-Stout volleyball.
This winter Lahti, a 6’5” senior guard, led Tigers boys basketball in scoring averaging over 22 points and eight rebounds a game. He helped the team to a 23-3 record finishing in the regional finals. Lahti also plays baseball for Northwestern and ran cross country.
This week Northwestern's Cole Lahti and Hibbing native Ayden McDonald announced their commitments to the UMD men's basketball team.
Joining him in maroon and gold will be former high school foe, Hibbing great, Ayden McDonald.
Bluejacket boy’s basketball’s all-time leading scorer announced his commitment to UMD men’s basketball Tuesday on Twitter. Graduating from Hibbing High School in 2022 McDonald finished with 2,432 career points.
He is the son of former longtime Hibbing boy’s basketball head coach Joel McDonald. Ayden was originally committed to Augustana University.