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The La Conner High track team stayed in the running at the Skagit County Championships last week in Anacortes. Well in the running, at that. While one of the smaller enrollment schools at Rice Field, La Conner High proved long on talent during the intense two-day event. Consider that La Conner sprinter Emma Lee, hurdler Sofie Thulen and jumper Matty Lagerwey were double gold medalists on the girls’ side of the County Meet, which saw the Lady Braves place a strong third in the team standings—ahead of Mount Vernon High, among others. T...
A pair of upset bids weren’t in the cards for the La Conner High softball team last week. So Lady Braves head coach Loran James decided to shuffle the deck – or, rather, the La Conner lineup – a bit. James made wholesale defensive changes in a 19-9 non-league setback at 1A Coupeville on Thursday, prepping his young club for this week’s slate of four key NW2B contests. The Lady Braves were scheduled to play a doubleheader at Concrete Tuesday before returning home for an April 24 twi...
The La Conner High Lady Braves seem to be peaking at the right time. And not just because they spent Saturday in the eastern Cascade foothills. It was what they did at the annual Cashmere Invitational, an elite track-and-field event that regularly draws top small and mid-size school entries from around the state, that shows how lofty the expectations can be for La Conner at the upcoming Skagit County Meet. The Lady Braves, led by gold medalists Emma Lee, Sofie Thulen, and Matty Lagerwey, placed...
La Conner High track team members did their Civic duty on Saturday. As in taking part in the elite Birger Solberg Invitational at Civic Stadium in Bellingham, one of only two high school meets in Washington state that stages the iconic steeplechase event. The grueling 2,000 meter contest challenges entrants with a series of obstacles, most notably a water hazard. And, in the case of Civic Stadium, a water hazard stocked with goldfish. La Conner’s Budda Luna, a multi-sport standout for the Braves, went fishing for gold of another sort when he j...
La Conner High track teams ran with the big dogs last week. The Braves, in fact, nearly matched the Mount Vernon High Bulldogs stride-for-stride in their half of the annual Clash of the Conferences Meet at Whittaker Field on Friday. The 4A Bulldogs nipped La Conner 80-76 for fourth place in the boys’ team standings. Burlington-Edison placed first with a 134.5 total. On the girls’ side, La Conner edged 2A Sedro-Woolley 94-89.5 for fourth place honors. Stanwood compiled 141 points to win the tea...
A La Conner High track coach teaches her charges how to hit the ground running. Yvonne Naughton, who works with the school’s sprinters and jumpers, is an accomplished ultra-runner, who has qualified for the Irish 24-hour team that will compete at the World Championships in Belfast in July. Her journey has been a long one on several levels. “I grew up in Ireland, taking part in track from about the age of six,” says Naughton, now nearly 40, though she sports a far more youthful appearance. “As a...
Ancient history is helping write the next chapter in the life of a La Conner High senior. Brady Nelson, a 5’-11” three-sport standout for the Braves, signed a National Letter of Intent with Everett Community College to compete in the javelin and high jump for the Trojans next year. The versatile Nelson might also train as a decathlete. All are events based on military skills considered essential in ancient Troy. Which seems an ideal fit for the battle-tested — at least in athletic ter...
The La Conner High track teams got out of the blocks in style last week. The Braves had a literal field day in their season home debut, while the Lady Braves made mad dashes that nearly had them sitting atop an eight-school field. The La Conner boys, with Kaden Murdock and Brady Nelson winning two field events apiece, edged Mount Vernon Christian 129-114 for the team title. Grace Academy, with 96 points, finished third. The Lady Braves, meanwhile, placed a close second to Mount Vernon...
When a basketball team scores 120 points, it’s easy for numbers to get lost on the stat sheet. Not so in the case of La Conner High senior Nakiya Edwards, who played a standout role in the 2B team’s 120-68 rout of its 1B opposite number at King’s High School in Edmonds on Saturday. Edwards filled the stat line for the victors in the annual Washington State Girls Basketball Coaches Association Senior All-State Game. Edwards recorded seven points, three rebounds, a steal, and an assist while...
La Conner’s Girls Basketball team was knocked out of the state finals with a narrow win by Walla Walla Academy. Here, La Conner’s Ashley Wilkins, No. 22, makes a successful shot, with Matty Lagerwey, No. 32, and Justine Benson, No. 20, ready to spring into action. – Photo by Don Coyote...
The La Conner High Lady Braves have put together several nice post-season runs in recent years. But don’t look for the local hoop program to hit the finish line anytime soon. If anything, La Conner girls’ basketball — which has treated fans to clutch play on several levels this year — looks to be gearing up for repeated State title drives well into the future. The La Conner eighth-grade girls’ team finished its season last week with a big win over previously unbeaten Conway. With that triumph, the La Conner girls finished the campa...
One more win means one more trip to Spokane for the La Conner High Lady Braves. But a loss Saturday night to Walla Walla Valley Academy would cancel any travel plans for the 20-2 Lady Braves, who played so well at last week’s District Tournament in Sedro-Woolley that not even a wing and a prayer could defeat them. Just ask the Auburn Adventist Lady Falcons. La Conner routed Auburn 62-42 in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicates. The Lady Braves led at one point by 36 points before taking the foot off the pedal. “We came out f...
Call it déjà vu on steroids. The La Conner Braves must defeat a Friday Harbor team that defeated them by 31 points earlier in the season. They’ve done that once. Now they have to do it again. La Conner squares off once more against Friday Harbor tomorrow afternoon, Thursday, in Sedro-Woolley, less than two weeks after closing out regular season play with a dramatic 52-49 win over the Wolverines at Landy James Gym. This time it will be in a District Tournament elimination round, starting at 4:15 p.m. Friday Harbor routed La C...
Nearly three months later, the La Conner High girls’ basketball team finds itself back where it started. The Lady Braves face Auburn Adventist — an early season non-league foe — in District Tournament action tonight, Wednesday, in Sedro-Woolley. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. “We beat them 49-33 earlier in the year,” La Conner head coach Scott Novak said Sunday of the Lady Falcons, “but the game was a lot closer than the final score indicates.” Indeed it was. La Conner led by single digits before finishing with a flurry in the final sta...
The Husky pep band wasn’t alone producing positive notes Friday night. So, too, did the La Conner High boys’ basketball team. The Braves closed out NW2B action with an unlikely 52-49 home win over Friday Harbor, thus avenging an earlier 31-point blowout loss to the Wolverines. You could say turnabout is fair play. But, in La Conner’s case, it was more about turnovers than anything else. The Braves committed just 10 in the rematch. They were guilty of 26 such miscues in the earlier meeting on the...
They made fast work of the NW2B girls’ hoop schedule. But unfinished business awaits the La Conner High Lady Braves. Such as a very likely turnaround rematch with Friday Harbor, the conference foe whom La Conner edged 33-27 in its regular season finale at Landy James Gym Friday night. The Lady Braves are poised to face the winner between Friday Harbor and Seattle Lutheran in their District Tournament opener here on Feb. 10. Since the Lady Wolverines defeated Seattle Lutheran by a lopsided m...
It seemed like a perfect storm brewing on Friday for the upset-minded Mount Vernon Christian Hurricanes. They would be playing in front of a large and vocal home crowd and facing a La Conner team that would again be without a key starter — something of a recurring theme for the Braves this year. This time around it would be versatile wing Brady Nelson, a regular double-figure scorer of late, having to sit out. Nelson, a senior, was scratched due to the flu. “We knew that would be a big loss for us going in,” La Conner High head coach Sco...
They didn’t win in a breeze, but the La Conner High Lady Braves didn’t blow an early chance to clinch the NW2B girls’ hoop title, either. La Conner did so with a steady — if unspectacular — 46-37 road triumph over the Mount Vernon Christian Lady Hurricanes on Friday. With the victory, the Lady Braves wrapped up the league championship with a week remaining in the regular season. La Conner took an unblemished 10-0 conference slate into late Monday action with Shoreline Christian. The Lady Braves finish NW2B play at home oppos...
So much for home court advantage. The Orcas Vikings had routed La Conner by 25 points at Landy James Gym in December. But the Braves were able to return the favor at Eastsound last week, posting a crucial 66-62 NW2B triumph that puts La Conner back in contention for the league title. The victory, coupled with an earlier 62-32 blowout of Concrete, saw La Conner improve to 6-2 in conference action. “It was a big win for us, no doubt,” Braves head coach Scott Novak said afterward. His club fig...
They’re perfect in league play thus far. That’s the good news for the La Conner High girls’ basketball team. The better news is the Lady Braves continue to improve. “Our defense and rebounding are really getting better,” insisted La Conner head coach Scott Novak, whose team was 12-2 overall and 6-0 in NW2B action going into Tuesday’s late conference date at Concrete. This after La Conner defeated league rivals Shoreline Christian and Friday Harbor and 1A South Whidbey in succession last week....
It was a Hurricane warning that La Conner High head basketball coach Scott Novak didn’t take lightly. The 1B Mount Vernon Christian Hurricanes were coming to town Friday with a skilled post in Carter Annema and an ability to score from the perimeter. And the Braves would be minus senior wing Brady Nelson, who had drained three deep treys in La Conner’s win over 1A Nooksack Valley at the recent Crush in the Slush hoopfest in Port Townsend. Those worries, though, were eclipsed by a long-awaited Lu...
There would be no blowout — either way — when La Conner High hosted the Mount Vernon Christian Lady Hurricanes in girls’ hoop action on Friday. A hard-fought, batten-down-the-hatches clash was expected. And that’s exactly the scenario that unfolded. In the end, it was La Conner who sailed — though not always smoothly — to a gritty 35-27 victory. “It was kind of a grinder game,” Lady Braves head coach Scott Novak said afterward, “but we found a way to get a win.” For...
Though short-handed, it was La Conner’s Braves who enjoyed the upper hand in terms of roster depth in an emotional rematch victory over Nooksack Valley in Port Townsend on Friday. The La Conner bench played a big role in a hard-fought 45-37 win over the Pioneers on the second and final day of the 10th annual Crush in the Slush Invitational Tournament. Minus two starters – including leading scorer Budda Luna – who had played in a previous home loss to Nooksack, La Conner head coach Scott Novak revamped his lineup and was rewarded w...
In an ebb-and-flow kind of game, it was a late La Conner scoring tsunami that sank the upset-minded Orcas Lady Vikings Wednesday at Landy James Gym. The hosts went on a 35-12 second half run to break open what had been a close contest at intermission and secure a key 57-32 NW2B hoop triumph. Freshman Justine Benson scored 14 of her game-high 23 points after halftime to lead La Conner, which improved to 6-1 going into this week’s Port Townsend Invitational Tournament action. “Justine scored so...
There are ugly wins, but few pretty losses. A rare example of the latter, though, might have been La Conner’s 77-55 non-league home hoop setback to 1A power Mount Baker on Saturday. The double-digit defeat looked much better in hindsight, at least from the perspective and through the lens of Braves’ head coach Scott Novak and his staff. “The Mount Baker game,” Novak said Sunday, upon reflection, “looks like we got blown out, but other than one stretch in the first quarter when we went from bein...
