From Register Staff

Jean Rabaino, a senior at Vintage High School, impressed with a fifth-place finish at the California Girls State Wrestling Championships this past weekend at Hanford West High School. More than 400 girls competed in this year’s tournament.

Rabaino put together a strong showing in the 154-pound weight class and outperformed her sixth-place finish two weeks ago at the Northern California Sectional tournament.

“Jean was really sick with that nasty bug that’s going around at NorCals, so it was great to see her healthy and wrestling at the top of her game at state. I can’t tell you how proud we are of her and the progress she’s made this year,” said Rob Lanterman, the Vintage girls wrestling team coach. “She’s the one the girls on our team look to for inspiration.”

Rabaino went 5-2 for the weekend with all of her wins coming by pin. She lost once by pin to Hogan’s Monica Gonzalez, the eventual state champion, and lost in the consolation semifinals, which put her in the fifth-place bracket, where she defeated Sarah Aguilera of Edison-Stockton.

“I’m happy I was able to wrestle so well in my senior year,” said Rabaino.

Also wrestling for Vintage were Alexis Soto, Taidae Guerra-Martinez and Tiffany Hui.

Soto went 2-2 in the 108-pound class, while Guerra-Martinez and Hui each went 1-2 in the 103- and 126-pound classes, respectively.

Vintage finished in 32nd out of 120 teams on the weekend.

“We’re a young team and it was a great experience for these girls to come here and find out that they can compete at this level,” said Lanterman. “Injuries and other issues have really hurt this team this year. We had pretty high expectations with five girls in the top 8 in the preseason rankings.

“It would be easy to say this season has been a disappointment, but when you see the up-and-coming wrestlers perform well here, it gives you a lot to be excited about. We’re only losing one wrestler to graduation, albeit a good one, so the future looks like a lot of fun.”

Alyx McChesney of Napa High took sixth place in the 122-pound weight class, and Samantha Gardner wrestled well en route to a 2-2 record.

The Vintage girls team will now turn its attention to the upcoming U.S. Girls Wrestling Association Northern California Championships on March 2 at Springstowne Middle School in Vallejo and the National Championships in Livonia, Mich., March 29 and 30.

Varsity Boys Wrestling

• Indians place in Oakland

Seven Napa High wrestlers competed in the 13th annual Oakland Classic at Oakland High School Saturday.

Napa placed fourth out of 30 teams that competed in the tournament.

Conor Trombetta at 160 pounds and Xavier Bahena at 215 pounds were crowned champions in their respective weight classes.

Also performing well was Charlie Schumacher, who placed third at heavyweight. Henry Rabanales (119) and Brandon Rogerson (160) placed fourth. Kevin Nickerson (135) and Cole Farley (189) placed fifth.

Varsity Girls Basketball

• Napa Christian 35, Cornerstone Christian 27

In a nonleague game Monday in Antioch, Napa Christian (8-11 overall, 8-1 Small School Bridge League) was led Ruby Schuler with two points, five assists and six steals; Marcy Chislom with 11 points, two blocked shots, three assists, two steals and 15 rebounds; and Kendall Trood with 10 points.

“We played a good game,” said Napa coach Darren Smith.