With an OSAA ranking of 10 and an overall record of 16-11, the boys varsity basketball team’s season “went great,” senior Milan Skoro said.

The basketball team finished third in their league and had a league record of 11-5, with losses coming from Wilsonville High School, Rex Putnam High School, and Canby High School.

They were able to participate in many tournaments, which included the Hardwood Invite at Parkrose High School and the Rail City Classic in Nevada in the Hardwood Invite — a highlight of the season for Skoro. 

They faced Redmond High School in their state qualifier play off game, which unfortunately ended in a loss for the Falcons with a final score of 70-75.

This season for the varsity girls basketball team was one filled with “challenges,” according to senior Genna Olson Rocha, with a number of injuries, including an ACL tear, causing many players being forced to step up.

Although they faced much adversity, they were able to overcome and finish second in league with an overall record of 16-10, and an OSAA ranking of 11.

“That’s not really what we wanted, but we did our best and I am proud of us,” Olson Rocha said.

The team then went on to play South Albany High School in a playoff game for the state tournament. The Falcons lost with a final score of 37-58.

A highlight from the season from Olson Rocha was defeating their rivals Wilsonville High School on Senior Night. 

This swim season, led by “a wave of new coaches,” senior Graham Gilmore said, brought in many personal records and breaking of school records for the team.

These accomplishments marked the highlight of many La Salle swimmers’ seasons. For senior Gabby Wolfe, the high point of her final year of her career as a Falcon was “getting to watch Kayla Chapman break the school record twice,” she said.

Wrapping up the 2023-2024 girls swimming season, the team competed in the state meet on Feb. 16-17, having many qualifiers being able to swim, and many swimmers placing. 

Although the team did not qualify for state as a whole, a lot of swimmers attended as alternates. It was “fun seeing my teammates swimming, and we got to joke around with our coaches,” Gilmore said.

Swimmers who qualified for state included Wolfe, junior Kayla Chapman, senior Rachel Yascovick, junior Rowan Mozena, sophomore Alexa Storie, senior Natalia Gonzalez, junior Kari Yatsushiro, freshman Gian Manzon, freshman Jackson Hawkins, sophomore Keenen Geyer, sophomore John Rask, and junior Colby Lavoie.

Swimmers who placed in state included  Chapman, Mozena, Yascovick, Wolfe, and Storie.

This year’s ski team had many things to celebrate, including third place in league, and senior Ryder McCoy-Hansen qualifying for regionals.

After getting third in league, the team moved onto the state competition, where they didn’t have much luck. “The slalom course was really hard because no one on the team got good seeding, so the course was not great,” junior Jonathon Lewis said. This led to a few errors that caused the team to miss the podium. 

Although state was fun for the team, Lewis’ favorite memory was the race prior to state, where two of his teammates tied for fourth and he came in fifth.

With McCoy-Hansen being one of the top skiers in the league, he now has the opportunity to compete in regionals representing Oregon. This competition takes place in Mammoth, California against other states, including California, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, and Minnesota.

On Wednesday, Mar. 13, McCoy-Hansen crashed in his giant slalom race, but has another opportunity on Thursday, Mar. 14, on the slalom, where he says he has a good chance of finishing well. 

With Mt. Hood as their training ground, La Salle’s snowboarding team enjoyed a successful 2023-2024 season.

One thing that changed from last year was the size of the team. “Our team was a lot bigger and I feel like we bonded a lot more,” senior Breslin Nichols said. “We got up [to the mountain] consistently and we had a lot of people attend the competitions and practices, and I think it went a lot smoother than last year.”

The team qualified for state again this year and did well in league competitions given that they were up against some big 6A schools. 

For Nichols, a highlight of the season was when one of their practices took place on a powder day. “We just played around in the snow and hit some huge jumps and we were just all having fun together,” he said.