NOTES AND QUOTES for a Sunday in the Napa Valley:

Three members of the Vintage High School girls wrestling team — Michele Querin, Danni Beltran and Heather Farace — medaled at the U.S. Girls Wrestling Association-Northern California Championships last weekend at Springstowne Middle School in Vallejo.

Querin led the Crushers with a second-place finish, including a pin of Vallejo’s Angie Miller, whom Querin had faced four times previously without a victory. Beltran and Farace each finished fourth while performing well at the event.

Querin, competing with Team California, wrestled the previous day in Portland, Ore., at the USGWA Oregon Championships and placed fourth there. Then Team California drove all night to get back in time for the event in Vallejo.

Next up for the team is the USGWA Nationals in Lake Orion, Mich., April 1-2. Joining the team for this event will be Lauren Philipps of Napa High and Megan Wiles of Etna High School in Siskiyou County.

The Northern California High School Mountain Bike League began the 2005-06 season with the Central Coast Invitational, which was held last Sunday at Fort Ord. The course, a five-mile loop through rolling hills, included 400 feet of climbing per lap, and proved to be a good fitness test for the 217 riders entered.

Tom Bunter, who rides for the Vintage High mountain bike team, was forced to make a chain repair at the beginning of the race, but caught the pack midway through and finished 23rd in Division 2. The race was won by Eric Ebberoth of Monterey High, followed by Nitish Nag from Oakland.

“I got a little cocky,” said Bunter. “I didn’t know what I was in for, but I hung in there and managed to pass a few riders that I ended up feeling pretty good for my first race.”

The next race is today at Granite Bay on Folsom Lake.

Justin-Siena graduate Michelle Lopez has been named as Fort Bragg’s (N.C.) Female Athlete of the Year for the entire post.

Lopez, 25, ran cross country and track at Justin-Siena for coach Frank Defilippis and attended West Point for two years. She is a staff sergeant in the Army and a long distance runner.

The Silverado Resort team of Tim Long, Mark Coleman, Scott Jenson and Dennis Smith finished second by one stroke to Mayacama (Sonoma County) at the Northern California Golf Association’s North Bay Zone Championship, which was held earlier in the week at Spyglass Hill in Pebble Beach.

The format takes the two best net scores of four per hole. Both Mayacama (132-134 — 266) and Silverado (133-134 — 267) will return for the zone championship, to be played August 21-22.

Other Napa Valley teams participating were Napa Golf Course at Kennedy Park (Steve Perry, Bob Herlocker, Dick Lopez and Brad Lynch, 269), Meadowood Resort of St. Helena (Trent Moffett, Brett Ronayne, Rick Estes and Garry Rose, 271), Aetna Springs of Pope Valley (David Lee, Michael Herdell, David Navone and Stephen Brown, 272), Napa Valley Country Club (Paul Han, William Hardy, Jim Duncan and Michael Wilson, 173), Vintner’s Golf Club of Yountville (Gregory Winkle, Daniel Sakai, Steve Kline and Dennis Jobe, 275), Vineyard Knolls of Napa (Jeff Mallett, Marcelo Cortez, Kevin Hall and Loren Corotto, 282), and Mount St. Helena of Calistoga (Edgar Massoletti, Larry Kuzdenyi, Randy Pugh and Jim Hunter, 307).

The University of Dallas baseball team, which has Trinity Prep graduate Augie Kersting, has a Northern California road trip this week, facing Simpson College of Redding Monday, Menlo College of Atherton Tuesday and Wednesday, and Cal State East Bay of Hayward Friday and Saturday.

Marressha Lynch, a 5-foot-11 senior who scored 13 points for Oakland Tech in the Bulldogs’ 53-51 Northern California Division I semifinal loss to the Napa High girls basketball team Thursday, is the sister of University of California running back Marshawn Lynch.

E-mail Executive Sports Editor Marty James at mjames@napanews.com or call 256-2223.