Napa High’s McChesney captures wrestling title at ASICS Nationals

By Marty James

NOTES AND QUOTES for a Tuesday in the Napa Valley:

Napa High School wrestler Alyx McChesney earned the title of national champion at the ASICS West Coast Nationals, which were held Friday and Saturday in Vallejo.

McChesney, a first-year wrestler, was one of 600 entrants from across the U.S. to compete in the two-day tournament that included a full women’s division. She earned the top honor in the 132-pound girls weight bracket and was coached by Jaret Newton, her regular season coach from Napa High.

McChesney recently earned eighth place and an All-American honor in the U.S. Girls Wrestling Association National Championships in Livionia, Mich.

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Freshman left-hander Matt Leonard of Napa pitched a three-hit shutout as Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo beat visiting UC Riverside, 3-0, in a Big West Conference baseball game Saturday night at Baggett Stadium.

Leonard (3-4), who played at Justin-Siena, notched Cal Poly’s second complete game of the season with nine strikeouts and four walks. His previous longest outing as a Mustang was seven innings against Loyola Marymount in early March.

Leonard didn’t allow any runners to reach third base and only two got to second. He retired the last 11 Highlander batters of the game and threw 130 pitches, 81 for strikes.

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Emily Talley of Napa shot 73-77 — 150 and won the girls 15-17 division — which had a field of 19 players — at the Castlewood Junior April 9-10. Talley, who attends Justin-Siena, won by four shots over Tesse The in the Junior Golf Association of Northern California premier event at Castlewood Country Club in Pleasanton.

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Brett Wallace, a Justin-Siena graduate, continued his torrid hitting by going a perfect 4-for-4 with a double, triple and five RBIs as the No. 9-ranked Sun Devils beat the University of Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday night, 11-8, before a crowd of 2,701 in Tempe, Ariz. Wallace plays first base and now has 59 RBIs.

The Sun Devils play at UC Berkeley in a three-game series starting Friday at 2:30 p.m. at Evans Diamond. Saturday and Sunday’s games begin at 1 p.m.

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Gregory Lane Hunter of St. Helena completed his 13th consecutive Boston Marathon in an official time of 3 hours, 45 minutes and 44 seconds. Hunter finished 9,435th out of 23,087 official entrants, the second-highest number of competitors in race history, in the wettest and windiest race since 1970. The 26.2-mile race is held on a challenging, hilly and scenic course.

The Boston Marathon is the granddaddy of marathons, as it is the world’s oldest continuous marathon, and is considered the world’s premier roadrunning event.

Hunter will run his 75th marathon overall at the July 29 San Francisco Marathon and has qualified to run in the 112th annual Boston Marathon on April 21, 2008. He has competed in and finished at least five marathons per year since 1995.

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Nick Watney, a Dixon native, won his first PGA Tour event by shooting a final round 69 for a 15-under-par 273 total at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, which ended Sunday at the TPC Louisiana in Avondale, La. The three-shot victory was worth $1,098,000 for Watney, 25, who is in his third year on the Tour.

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Ricci Robben of Napa went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, including the game-winner, as the University of Wisconsin beat Illinois-Chicago, 4-3, in a non-conference game last week at the Goodman Softball Complex in Madison, Wis.

Robben, a Vintage graduate who leads the Badgers with a .366 average, doubled down the left field line to drive in the winning run in the seventh inning. It was the eighth win in 10 games for Wisconsin.

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Sarah O’Neill of Napa had three hits as the UC Davis softball team swept a doubleheader Saturday from visiting Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, 2-0 and 4-3, at La Rue Field.

O’Neill, a former Vintage standout, went 2-for-3 with a double and drove in both runs in Game 1.

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Justin-Siena’s Vicky Deely, Kevin Dougherty and Blaize Boles were named to All-Redwood Empire basketball teams by Harold Abend, a Cal-Hi Sports-Bay Area correspondent.

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Farmers Insurance Group has acquired the CIF’s most valuable sponsorship asset and becomes the presenting partner for all CIF section, regional and state championship events. The announcement was made Monday.

The five-year partnership begins August 1 and represents a record investment by any CIF corporate partner

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Jerry Rice (football), Jennifer Azzi (basketball), and Will Clark and Jerry Coleman (baseball) are the inductees for the 28th annual Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame Enshrinement Banquet on April 26 in the Italian Room at the Westin St. Francis Hotel on Union Square in San Francisco. A record crowd of 862 will be attending the banquet, making it a sold out event..

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

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