Story and photography by Bill Reynolds

Photo caption: La Conner’s Vireo Angell running a heat of the 300 meter hurdles at the Western Washington University High School Invitational Meet at Bellingham’s Civic Stadium on Saturday.

Collegiate track athletes had high schoolers following in their footsteps at Bellingham’s Civic Stadium last weekend.

Those prep thinclads — including ones from La Conner High School, the smallest school invited to a major two-day meet hosted by Western Washington University — weren’t far behind, though.

The La Conner girls ran third on Friday and fourth on Saturday in a 12-school field that shared the oval with 14 college teams that competed concurrently both days of the invitational.

The Braves boys were fourth on Friday and eighth the next day in their division.

La Conner head coach Peter Voorhees said the Bellingham meet served two purposes. First, it pitted the Braves against big school competition. Second, it allowed them to see college athletes perform up close and personal at the same venue.

“There’s a really neat vibe to this meet,” Voorhees said. “On the bus ride up here, I was telling the kids that you’ll see some of the (college) events and think, ‘I can do that,’ and you’ll see others and think, ‘That’s impressive.’”

The La Conner boys were paced by solo victors Yandel Rosales-Rojas and Flint Huizenga.

Rosales-Rojas captured the long jump crown with a leap of 21-4. Huizenga won the javelin throw by six feet, recording a toss of 166-2.

On the girls’ side, La Conner’s Maeve McCormick claimed the pole vault title at 10-2, two feet higher than her nearest competitor, and Faith Jenkins placed first in the 200 meters at 25.69.

The weekend, during which La Conner squared off against 1A-3A teams, yielded multiple highlights for the Braves.

In addition to his triumph in the javelin, Huizenga placed third in the discus with a throw of 40.46 and fifth in the shot put with a 42-6 heave.

Rosales-Rojas added a seventh place finish in the 200 meters with a 23.38 clocking.

Hurdlers Kale Navarrete Higgins and Vireo Angell likewise contributed to the La Conner point total. Navarrete Higgins placed seventh in both the 110s (19.24) and 300s (48.02) and Angell finished eighth in the 110s, just behind Navarrete Higgins at 19.53. Angell was ninth in the 300s with a time of 48.28.

The Braves’ Colin Wigal secured eighth place in the boys’ pole vault, clearing the bar at 8-3, while the 4×100 relay team of Rosales-Rojas, Navarrete Higgins, Angell and Ryan Reynolds rounded out the La Conner boys’ point total by finishing eighth at 47.91.

Though it didn’t translate into points, one of the La Conner boys’ meet highlights was freshman Conor Hornick’s run in the 400 meters. Due to a couple scratches, Hornick had to run his 400 meter heat solo on Saturday afternoon. The meet’s public address announcer revved up the crowd to cheer Hornick on as he rounded into the home stretch. Hornick crossed the finish line in just over 1:08 to a loud ovation.

“It was tough,” Hornick said of running the heat alone, “but I got a new PR (personal record).”

When asked how it felt to hear the entire crowd cheering for him, Hornick simply flashed two thumbs-up.

There were plenty of two thumbs-up performances in Bellingham by the La Conner girls.

Faith Jenkins followed up her 200 meters win by finishing a close second in the 100 to Sedro-Woolley standout Lyla Self. Self hit the tape at 12.50, just ahead of Jenkins who clocked a 12.66.

Faith Jenkins also teamed with her sister, Kiana Jenkins, and sisters Maeve and Nora McCormick, to run second in the 4×200 relay (1:47.48) and third in the 4×100 (50.93).

In addition, Kiana Jenkins and Maeve McCormick finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 400 meters. Jenkins was timed at 1:02.63. McCormick finished in 1:03.14.

Nora McCormick, meanwhile, mined silver in the 300 meter hurdles, placing second at 49.47.

The La Conner girls, bolstered by Maeve McCormick’s victory in the pole vault, enjoyed several strong showings in the field events.

Reese Bird finished second in the discus at 98-6, just 7 inches back of winner Taylor Tellefson of Sehome, and added a seventh place effort in the javelin with a toss of 98-9.

Cecelia Keith landed second place in the high jump (4-10) and Aisley Zimmerman was third in the pole vault (7.85) and seventh in the triple jump (30-11).

In the collegiate meet, which Voorhees said included a Canadian Olympian, the WWU men and women each topped the leaderboard.

Western’s men topped Simon Fraser 222-55 on Friday and the Viking women also finished ahead of Simon Fraser, by a 174-44 margin.

On Saturday, the Western men easily outdistanced second place Spokane Community College 213-79 and the WWU women topped the University of British Columbia 192-105.

La Conner now turns its attention to this week’s 118th Skagit County Track & Field Championships April 29-May 1 here at Whittaker Field.

Events begin at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, and at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.

Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.