By Amylynn Richards
GIRLS’ BASKETBALL
The girls’ team went to Mount Vernon to take on the Hurricanes on Tuesday, Jan. 4 in Mount Vernon. The Hurricanes won 42-37.
It was “a big game,” said Coach Marla Quesnell. Quesnell had seen the Hurricanes play, and she said that the teams were a good matchup, “because we are similar teams.”
The two teams were neck and neck throughout the game, “but we came up short it the end,” Quesnell reports. “We had a captain foul out at the end of the game, which impacted our composure a bit. We look forward to playing them a second time in our gym.”
That game will take place on Friday, Jan. 28 at 6 p.m.
On Jan. 14 Aubrey Stewart scored 10 points for the Braves, and Priscilla Ponce Venegas scored 8 rebounds.
On Friday, Jan. 7 the Braves hosted Darrington. The Loggers won 56-36. “We knew we were going to have to play a perfect game against Darrington,” reports Quesnell. “I was happy with the intensity of the team…Although the score didn't show it, we did some good things against a very good and veteran team.”
Nikki Finley was the game’s high scorer with 8 points; Samie Miller had 11 rebounds; and both Aubrey Stewart and Priscilla Ponce-Venegas scored 8 points.
WRESTLING
The wrestling team took on the 2A Burlington-Edison high school junior varsity team on Tuesday, Jan. 4. Burlington Edison won 38-31. The Braves won four of the six matches wrestled: Ben Harper 8-0; Dahlton Zavala by pin in 2:38; Sid Lease 5-2; Wil James and Brandon Drye by forfeit; and Cameron Wischhusen by pin in 30 seconds. Exhibition victories: Brandon Drye won by pin in 46 seconds and William Zeimantz by pin in 2:14.
“La Conner is suffering from a lack of wrestlers in the lower weights and right now we forfeit 6 of the 14 weight classes,” says Coach Mike Compton. “That means our opponents get 6 points or the equivalent of a pin wherever they have a wrestler that we don’t. My hope has always been that we will be able to fill all the weight classes, but so far we haven’t been able to convince enough kids in the high school that wrestling is the sport for them. However, the wrestlers that we do have are steadily improving and many are having good success.”
It’s not too late in the season to join the team.
On Friday, Jan. 7, the team travelled to Concrete for a double-duel among the Darrington Loggers, Concrete Lions and La Conner. The Lions won 60-18, but the team showed great effort against Darrington, Coach Compton reports.
It didn’t help that the Braves lost a whopping 36 points because of forfeits. When the Braves had an athlete to compete in the weight class, La Conner did well. “We pinned 7 of the 8 Darrington wrestlers to score 42 points and ended with a 42-42 tie.” The judges gave the win to La Conner, because the Braves scored the majority of “first point” for the matches. “It was pretty exciting,” Compton said.
Team highlights against Concrete: Dahlton Zavala won by pin in 1:09; Wil James by pin in 4:35; and Brandon Drye by forfeit. Exhibition wins: Ashley Norton won her match by pin in 1:45; Sid Lease by pin in 40 seconds; and Travis Silva won in 3:40.
Team highlights against Darrington, all matches won by pin: Ben Harper in 41 seconds; Hunter Johnson in 3:01; Dahlton Zavala in 53 seconds; Dan Biladeau in 51 seconds; Wil James in 5:41; Brandon Drye in 51 seconds; and Cameron Wischhusen in 5:30. William Zeimantz won the exhibition match by pin in 1:35.
The Braves had a third match last week. On Saturday, Jan. 8 the Braves went to Everett for the Everett classic tournament. Dan Biladeau placed 5th in the varsity tournament with 2 wins and 2 losses; Brandon Drye won his first match by pin, “but was injured slightly and we decided to hold him out of the rest of the tournament for safety reasons,” Compton said.
In the second varsity section, Ben Harper, Travis Silva and William Zeimantz won all 3 of their matches. Robert Duckworth won 2 matches, as did Wyatt Melton.
“Wyatt had the match of the day winning with a late takedown in a 12-10 thriller,” Comtpon said.
La Conner sent two girls to compete among 19 teams at the Woolley Women’s Tournament on Saturday, Jan. 8 at Sedro Woolley high school. The tournament was so large that each brackets had 16 girls in each weight class. Sedro Woolley won the tournament hands down, but La Conner’s Amber Drye placed third, and Ashley Norton placed sixth.
WRESTLER OF THE WEEK
Coach Compton announced that Travis Silva is the Wrestler of the Week, because he displayed great leadership among his peers, and won all of his matches by pin for the week.
JR. CHEER CAMP
It's time again for junior cheer camp. The cheerleading squad will be presenting the annual fundraising cheer camp for grades K-8. Permission slips are available at the elementary school office, and must be turned in and paid up before Wednesday, Jan. 19. Each boy and girl will be given a cheer camp t-shirt. Practice will begin on Monday, Jan. 24 and run through Thursday, Jan. 27. Participants need to be at the Landy James gym on 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 28 for performance.
