Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 127 - 151 of 570
Friday Harbor converted three straight second quarter La Conner turnovers into touchdowns, securing a convincing 41-0 NW2B grid triumph at Whittaker Field on Thursday. Quarterback Whiley McCutcheon threw a pair of scoring tosses to Triston Bremer and ran for another TD – all in the final 5:14 of the opening half –to break open what had been a closely fought defensive battle in the league opener for both teams. With the win, Friday Harbor improved to 2-1 overall. La Conner, fell to 0-2 after a 28-12 setback to 2A Evergreen of Seattle. The tea...
The new-look La Conner High School volleyball team, beset with heavy graduation losses, produced quite familiar results at NW2B foe Concrete Thursday night. The defending state 2B title winners forged a straight-sets triumph in their league debut, after successive setbacks to tough 1A net programs Lynden Christian and Meridian and a 3-1 loss to a talented 1B Neah Bay club Wednesday at Landy James Gym. Neah Bay swept NW2B Coupeville, a team La Conner is expected to vie for conference top honors, during its long two-match road swing from Cape...
All wasn’t lost when the new-look La Conner High School girls’ soccer team dropped two tough non-league tests to open the 2023 campaign. First-year coach Maddie Huscher was encouraged by her club’s effort in an 8-1 setback to North Mason and 7-0 shutout defeat at Northwest House of Seattle last week. “It was tough competition playing a team not in our division,” Huscher told the Weekly News after the road trip to Northwest, “but it was a great learning experience. We played on a turf field, something we aren’t used to.” Huscher said the team’s...
C.J. Edwards reeled off a 53-yard touchdown run, Ivory Damien delivered a 45-yard scoring strike to Tommy Murdock and the La Conner High School defense recovered five fumbles, but the Braves still fell 28-12 to Evergreen of Seattle in their grid opener at Whittaker Field Friday night. The difference, even more than the Wolverines' 16-point margin of victory, was in roster depth. Evergreen is a 2A King County program that rolls out 57 players. The 2B Braves, by contrast, suit up 20, two of them f...
A major sports website has confirmed what La Conner fans have known for months. That being Ellie Marble, who just graduated from La Conner High School and will attend Central Washington University on a volleyball scholarship in the fall, was the best girls' 2B senior athlete in the state this past year. Marble, who played in a combined six volleyball and basketball state tournaments – it likely would have been eight had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic – has been named the SBLive WaFd Ban...
Tommy Murdock had a leg up on the competition throughout the high school track and field campaign this spring. And a big reason the La Conner High School junior was head and shoulders above all comers was his mental toughness, Braves' head coach Peter Voorhees told the Weekly News after Murdock swept the state 2B boys' 110 and 300-meter hurdles contests at Yakima in May. A case in point, Voorhees noted, was how Murdock handled a late start time for his preliminary heat in the 110s. "In the heat...
Lightning struck twice at the Washington state 2B track and field championships on Saturday. First, an actual lightning storm delayed the final round of action. Then, La Conner High School junior Tommy Murdock repeated as a state hurdles champion. Murdock, who captured one state hurdles title in 2022, swept the 110 and 300-meter hurdles in lightning fast fashion this time around, leading the team at Yakima. Murdock ran a personal best 15.01 in the 110s, which he needed to edge Raymond senior Mor...
La Conner High School golfers nearly left the country to qualify for state competition in the Olympia area this week. Four of its members – Sammy Williams, Gage Tenborg, Abi Udlock and Natalee Koch – emerged from Northwest Tri-District 2B trials at Loomis Trails Golf Course in Blaine with single round scores allowing them to advance to the state tournament at Tumwater Valley Golf Club. Williams carded a 90 to place sixth on the Tri-District boys’ leaderboard. Tenborg was one stroke back, at 91, to clinch seventh place. On the girls’ side, U...
La Conner High School’s Tommy Murdock qualified for the 2023 Washington State 2B Track & Field Championships in Yakima May 25-27. Murdock captured top honors in the boys’ Northwest Bi-District 110 and 300-meter hurdles events in Coupeville on Saturday. He leads eight La Conner students into the three-day state trials next week. Murdock ran a 15.45 in the 110s and a 40.07 in the 300s. But that tells only half the story. The junior also secured state berths in the 100 meters, which he won with a 12.53 clocking and as a member of the Bra...
Tommy Murdock is a state champion who never stops looking to improve. That was again the case at the Stanwood Twilight Invitational Track Meet Friday as the La Conner High School junior set new personal marks while winning his signature events. Murdock captured the 110-meter hurdles in 15.19, edging Peter Wilhite of 1A Lynden by two-tenths of a second and claimed top honors in the 300-meter hurdles with a 39.33 clocking. Murdock on Wednesday had swept both boys' hurdles contests at the NW1B/2B...
All's well that ends well. That sums up the 2023 season for La Conner High School's youthful baseball and softball teams, both wrapping up the campaign with non-league home wins over Muckleshoot Tribal School on Thursday. The Braves, with no seniors this year, finished 5-11 overall and 3-10 in conference action following a 17-6 triumph over Muckleshoot. Braves pitchers Logan Burks and Kenai Zimmerman checked the Kings on three hits and fanned four batters. Brogan Masonholder paced the La Conner...
La Conner High School softball and baseball teams continued to post football-type scores against Concrete last week. The Lady Braves (2-14 overall; 2-7 in league) followed up an earlier 35-27 slugfest win at home over Concrete with a 32-27 road victory Thursday to complete a two-game season series sweep of their Skagit County rivals. The Braves (4-10 in all games; 3-9 in NW1B/2B action) followed suit with a 15-11 victory at Concrete. The boys defeated the Lions 14-4 in the teams' first meeting o...
Few can run faster and jump higher than La Conner High School junior Tommy Murdock. Murdock swept the boys' hurdle events at the 115th Skagit County Track and Field Championships at Kirkby Field in Burlington last week, the latest in a string of triumphs this spring for the reigning State 2B titleholder. Murdock claimed the county 110-meter hurdles crown with a 15.77 finish. He captured the Skagit 300-meter hurdles contest by clocking a winning time of 40.10. Murdock, who also placed sixth in...
As a former La Conner High School football standout, Loran James is used to seeing the number 35 on stadium scoreboards. But not when the game being played is softball. James, coach of the high school softball team, was thrilled to see 35 posted on the Lady Braves' side of the scoreboard in a league slugfest with visiting Skagit County rival Concrete last Wednesday. James' charges came from behind to secure a wild 35-27 triumph, the youthful team's first win on the campaign. Across campus, the...
The weather was the worst, but La Conner High School thinclads were at their best in Langley Thursday. The track teams fought off heavy rain and gusty winds to post several personal bests at a non-league invitational meet hosted by South Whidbey High School. As has been the case throughout the spring, reigning state 2B hurdles champ Tommy Murdock paced the Braves, who placed second out of seven team entries, trailing only the hometown Falcons by a 141-101.5 margin. "Tommy's been really consisten...
There is reason to celebrate in La Conner on May 3. La Conner Schools has set the day aside to observe the 50th anniversary of Whittaker Field and to recognize its undefeated 1968 high school football team. Its success paved the way for a lighted athletics venue on campus four years later. Whittaker Field, named for legendary one-armed coach and administrator Jack Whittaker, opened during the 1972-73 school year. It remains home to football, soccer and track and field teams. The May 3 program is at 2 p.m., prior to the league championship track...
The Coupeville High School baseball team stole a win at La Conner last Thursday. Not that the visiting Wolves eked out an unexpected NW2B/1B triumph. A veteran Coupeville lineup, ran wild on the basepaths –19 stolen bases – and prevailed 12-2 over the youthful Braves, who averted a shutout when Kenai Zimmerman delivered a bases-loaded two-run single in the third inning. La Conner, falling to 1-7, kept within striking distance up until the game's midpoint. The Braves received a solid start fro...
La Conner High School hurdles standout Tommy Murdock took top honors in his races at the Skagit Showdown Meet in Sedro-Woolley last Wednesday. Students from various sized schools competed, but Murdock was clearly in a class by himself. The junior swept the boys' 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles, hitting the finish line in 0:16.02 and 42.00, respectively. The reigning state 2B hurdles champ placed a strong third in the 100-meter dash, clocking an 0:11.46 finish, behind Carsten Reynolds (0:11.17)...
Divide and conquer is usually a winning strategy. But it didn't work this past winter for foes of the La Conner Middle School girls' basketball program, which split into two teams and collectively won 18 of 20 contests with one squad going undefeated in its 10 games. Coaches Joel Hingston and Ryan Pino weren't surprised at that level of success. "This is a very good group," Hingston, who teaches Spanish at La Conner Schools and works summers as a hornet hive remover, told the Weekly News....
Home or away, it didn't matter. Matching up with Friday Harbor and Orcas were tough tasks last week for the La Conner High School baseball and softball teams. The Braves (1-6) fell 16-1 at Friday Harbor last Tuesday and were defeated 20-4 by the Wolverines in a rematch at home Friday. The boys dropped a 11-6 decision at Orcas Saturday afternoon. The Lady Braves (0-9), whose roster features several first-year players, lost 21-1 at Friday Harbor April 4 and came up short 9-4 at Orcas Saturday....
Back in the day, PF Flyers claimed its sports shoes could make athletes run faster and jump higher. La Conner's Tommy Murdock does that regardless of what footwear he laces up. The Braves junior, a reigning state hurdles champion, took top honors in three events at an NW1B/2B track and field meet hosted by Mount Vernon Christian Wednesday afternoon. Murdock, as expected, swept both hurdles events at Mount Vernon. He won the 110s with a 0:15.81 clocking and captured the 300s in a 0:41.51 finish....
Growing pains aren't easy, but the La Conner High School baseball team's coaching staff takes solace knowing the youthful Braves are getting stronger. Last week's NW2B/1B action at Darrington and at home against league leading Mount Vernon Christian are examples. Both games ended in the loss column, but the Braves played on equal terms save for one bad inning in each outing. Darrington rode a 13-run second frame to an 18-7 triumph on Thursday. MVC also parlayed a big second inning – the H...
Bigger isn’t necessarily better. La Conner High School’s Tommy Murdock proved that statement beyond doubt Friday, punctuating it with an exclamation point by sweeping the hurdles events at the Bedlington Twilight Track & Field Meet in Lynden, where the reigning State 2B champion fended off challengers from larger schools. Murdock, competing against 1A-3A hurdlers, cruised to twin wins in the 110s (0:16.23) and 300s (0:41.46), a feat all the more impressive when you consider he had done the same just two days prior at an NW1B/2B League meet at...
Former La Conner High School state golf title winner Emma Worgum is back on the links after a superb fall freshman season with the Western Washington University women's team. Worgum and the Lady Vikings placed ninth out of 15 teams entered in the spring opener Fujikura Invitational Tournament hosted by Cal State-San Marcos in Vista, CA. earlier in March. Worgum tied for the second best finish on her team and was 40th overall by carding a two-day score of 160, shooting 80 (8 over par) each...
Sarah Cook was a multiple sports standout at La Conner High School, and she is enjoying similar success as a freshman at Skagit Valley College. After a stellar volleyball season with SVC last fall, Cook joined the Lady Cardinals basketball team and helped Skagit post a 17-12 mark and secure a Northwest Athletic Conference playoff berth. As a result, Cook was a second unit selection to the 2023 NWAC North All-Region Team. She filled the SVC stat sheet much as she did while at La Conner. Cook...