La Conner High hosts Skagit County's track elite

The Sedro-Woolley mile relay team was a leg up on its Skagit County foes, but in the end it was a La Conner High quartet standing atop the medal platform.

All because of an unfortun-ate wardrobe malfunction.

Not one of Super Bowl proportions, but enough to elevate the Braves’ relay squad of Alejandro Ruis, Kolbe Rasler, Harrison Orkney, and Mitchell Grant from runnerup status to 4x400 meter titleists on the boys’ side of the 108th Skagit County Track and Field Championships.

The strange turn of events was one that still had fans talking Friday evening as they departed the La Conner High campus, site of this year’s County Meet.

And it might be talked about well into the future as Burlington-Edison ended up edging Sedro-Woolley 162-149 for the boys’ overall team crown.

In a nutshell, it was a case of a Sedro-Woolley runner having donned long leggings for the mile relay, a violation of the uniform code, and led to the Cub team being disqualified from the event.

Aid from the fashion police aside, the La Conner relay group finished in fine style. The Braves’ 4x400 team posted a time of 3:40.89, edging the Burlington-Edison entry that in turn exchanged its bronze for a silver medal.

Grant’s role in the mile relay was but one part of a huge day for the La Conner High junior, who helped lead the Braves to a fifth place overall finish, trailing only the county’s larger enrollment schools.

Grant joined Orkney, Cooper Zavala, and Seth Schuh to mine silver in the sprint relay, posting a :44.96, well ahead of Burlington and Mount Vernon High teams.

He was also La Conner’s lone solo victor, winning the 400 meters with a :51.31 finish, staving off surges by Sedro-Woolley’s Tanner Newton and Austin Hellman of Anacortes.

The fleet Grant added a fifth place effort in the 200 meters, clocking a :23.87, and matching the finish recorded by Orkney in the 100 meter dash.

Orkney edged teammate Sidney Lease by eight-hundredths of a second in the 100. Orkney, a sophomore, hit the tape in :12:02. Lease was timed at :12.10.

It was a busy day for the versatile Lease, as well.

He placed third in the shot put and 13th in the javelin.

Sophomore Josh Summers, who like Lease was a standout on La Conner High’s wrestling team this past winter, held on for fifth place in both the 110 meter hurdles and high jump.

The La Conner boys also made their presence felt in the long distance events. Senior Alec Azure placed ninth at both 1600 and 3200 meters. His 1600 time was 4:59.21. He ran an 11:03.52 in the 3200, finishing just ahead of Braves’ teammate Scott Gregory.

Gregory clinched 11th spot with a time of 11:07.64.

The Braves fared well in field events, which comprised the bulk of Day One activities during the two-day county trials.

Junior Nathaniel Stoppleman placed fifth in the shot, two slots back of Lease. La Conner’s David Thomas, Robert Duckworth, Wylie Thulen, and Michael Page also placed in the upper tier of nearly 40 shot put entrants.

Seth Schuh, Duckworth, and Zach Harris finished 5-6-7 in the discus, and freshman Brady Nelson placed 10th in the javelin, La Conner’s top entry in that event.

On the girls’ side, the Lady Braves were paced by all-purpose runner Jessica Kiser, who excelled at all distances.

Kiser, a senior, finished a close second in the 1600 meters with a time of 5:34.08. She was third in the 800 meter finale after having won that event’s prelim heat. Her 800 prelim time was 2:30.57, which she trimmed to 2:28.38 in the medal round.

Kiser added a fifth place finish at 3200 meters, clocking a time of 12:21.97 for eight laps.

La Conner’s Anna Cook was literally in the running, too. She was fourth in the 800, three-tenths of a second behind Kiser, and clinched 10th spot in the 1600 meters with a sub-6 minute time of 5:59.67.

Cook chipped in an eight place finish in the triple jump with a leap of 30’-3 1/2”. La Conner freshman Sofie Thulen was seventh at 30’-6 1/2”.

Thulen was seventh as well in the 100 meter hurdles, crossing the finish line in :17.36.

The Lady Braves captured fifth place in the 800 meter relay when Heather Henriksen, Nicole Henriksen, Ashley Carlson, and Kyla Crawford combined on a 2:05.09 finish, narrowly beating Sedro-Woolley to the tape.

Nicole Henriksen was consistently effective the entire meet. She ran a 1:08.00 prelim heat in the 400 meters, then placed fifth in the single-lap sprint with a 1:08.79 in Friday’s finals.

The La Conner relay squad had earlier done yeoman work in the field events.

Crawford, a freshman, finished third in the discus, with Heather Henriksen right behind, in fourth spot.

As a team, the Lady Braves placed sixth, seven points ahead of Concrete. Sedro-Woolley claimed fifth place with a 47-33 margin over La Conner.

The Burlington-Edison Lady Tigers completed a County Meet sweep for their school by winning the girls’ championship.

But, in the end, the County Meet was about much more than mere tallies on the leaderboard.

Just ask parent Deb Grant, whose son Mitchell and his fellow La Conner mile relay sprinters offered up their gold medals to the disqualified Sedro-Woolley runners.

“Mitch has gotten a lot of compliments for his running success,” she noted afterward, “but for all his accomplishments I’m by far most proud of the sportsmanship he and his teammates showed the Sedro-Woolley team.”

La Conner High head track coach Peter Voorhees echoed those sentiments, thanking all who had a role in hosting the county competition.

“The kids competed so well,” he stressed. “La Conner has a lot to be proud of by the way the athletes competed and carried themselves. For La Conner, there were lots of personal records set and great camaraderie on display with the kids staying to the end and helping out.”