The Cranbrook Eagles flew south recently to get some matches against some tough opponents.

That's exactly what they got when they took part in the Inland Northwest Boxing Championships in Liberty Lake, Wash. two weekends ago.

"It's what we expected, and that's why we wanted to take the boys down there," said coach Bill Watson, who was joined in the corner by Larry Adams. "They needed some tough competition and they needed some new faces in the ring."

All three boxers came home with trophies as they were uncontested in their own weight division; they all had to move up to get a fight at the Hub Sports Center just outside Spokane.

Brandon Luke fared best, squaring off with a fellow from Beaverton, Ore.

The 119-pound Luke got to watch his opponent fight the night before.

"We saw that he wasn't in very good shape and he was running out of gas early. Sure enough, near the end of the first round this guy was already sucking wind," said Watson.

Luke's strategy in the next round was to go hard after his opponent.

"He was throwing lots and lots of punches and he ended up winning a unanimous decision," said the coach. "Had it gone one more round, I'm sure Brandon would have stopped the guy - he had nothing left by the end of the fight."

? At Liberty Lake, Colin Adams got into the ring for the first time since representing B.C. at the Canada Winter Games in Halifax last month.

Adams had fought at the equivalent of the 114-pound class out east, and came into Liberty Lake at 118.

Uncontested in his category, he moved up to 125 to fight a fellow from Tacoma that Watson said could win a Canadian championship - were he Canadian.

"The ring was really small. It brought back memories for me and Larry. I'm sure we had both fought in that ring at one time," said Watson, some three decades removed from his boxing career.

"It suited their style because these guys just keep coming forward, keep punching. You take two steps back and your back is on the ropes. You don't have much room to move, and Colin found that out right away."

After getting a bit of proverbial rope burn, Adams met his opponent in the middle of the ring in the third round and traded blows.

"Colin took some wicked body shots from the guy in the second round, and he told me when he came back to the corner, 'Geez, I almost dropped to my knees with those body shots.' But he sucked it up and went out there and made a fight out of it."

He went the distance but lost.

? Bradley Hystad also fought a Tacoma boxer in the 132-pound weight class.

Hystad last fought in November and had been battling the flu a lot over the winter, so the coaches weren't sure what to expect.

"I'll tell you, he sure surprised us. He put up a heck of a fight - he lost a split decision - and one of the judges came up to me afterwards and said 'I thought your boxer won the bout.' It was that close."

Watson said Hystad enjoys trading punches, and it's something he is good at.

"That's what they did for most of the fight: they just stood there and traded punches."

Watson made lots of connections at the event, drawing interest from a few American clubs that are considering attending a mid-May card in Cranbrook.

"They're looking for new blood to fight; they're getting tired of fighting the same opponents down there. They're thinking they come up here, and we're going to draw from Alberta, B.C. and maybe Saskatchewan."