NOTES AND QUOTES for a Saturday in the Napa Valley:

The city of Napa made the list of the Sporting News’ Best Sports Cities rankings, which were announced earlier this week.

Napa, the summer home of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders, Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon, the Eagle Cycling Club’s Cherry Pie Criterium and 10-plus months of high school and community college sports action, came in at No. 343 on a list of 400 cities and towns in the U.S. and Canada.

Napa is also the home of Olympic bronze medalist Donny Robinson, one of the top BMX riders in the world. The defending CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I football champions (Napa) and North Coast Section Div. IV girls basketball champions (Justin-Siena) also reside here.

The Best Sports City rankings, which looked at the 12 months from roughly October 2007 to October 2008, are based on point values assigned to various categories, including but not limited to regular-season won-lost records, postseason and bowl appearances, tournament bids, applicable power ratings, number of teams and attendance.

Boston, a city on a remarkable sports run, was No. 1 for the third time in five years.

Cities are also ranked based on a variety of factors, including each city’s number of teams and their championships, competition, fan fervor, stadium/arena quality, ticket prices/availability, franchise ownership, and marquee appeal of athletes.

“When the teams in your city are doing well, you feel good about where you live, not just as a sports fan but as a citizen,” said Sporting News Chief of Correspondents Bob Hille. “That’s what we try to tap into with this list, especially at the top of it. We want to celebrate what’s unique about so many great sports cities in the U.S. and Canada.”

Sporting News began its Best Sports City rankings in 1993.

Following Boston in the Top 10 are Detroit (Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti), Dallas-Fort Worth, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix (Tempe), Denver (Boulder), Los Angeles, Chicago (Evanston), and Washington.

Other California cities on the list include Anaheim (No. 17), San Jose (Palo Alto, Santa Clara, 21), San Diego (27), Oakland (Berkeley, 36), San Francisco (49), Sacramento (52), Moraga (106), Fresno (108), Fullerton (145), Santa Barbara (157), Stockton (168), Irvine (180), San Luis Obispo (217), Riverside (245), Bakersfield 258), Davis (259), Fontana (276), Sonoma (281), La Quinta (301), Carlsbad (309), Monterey (310), Lancaster (346), Lake Elsinore (351), Rancho Cucamonga (355), Modesto (358), San Bernardino (359), Visalia (362) and Adelanto (370).

Full coverage will be in the Oct. 13 issue of Sporting News, which went on sale Wednesday at Barnes and Noble, Borders and Hudson Retail outlets.

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Going into Week No. 5 of the football season, Napa High wasn’t in the top 10, but was among nine other schools listed in the CIF State Bowl Game Rankings for the Division I North, according to CalHiSports.com.

Bellarmine-San Jose was No. 1, followed by De La Salle-Concord, Oak Grove-San Jose, Granite Bay, Grant-Sacramento, San Ramon Valley-Danville, Monte Vista-Danville, Gilroy, California-San Ramon and Elk Grove.

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Jimmy Cacho was the top finisher for the Santa Clara University men’s golf team, shooting 76-72-72 — 220 to place in a tie for 32nd at the Windon Invitational hosted by Northwestern earlier this week.

He was 7-over-par for the event, which was held at the North Shore Country Club in Glenview, Ill.

Cacho, a junior, is from Green Valley and went to Justin-Siena. Santa Clara finished 15th.

Illinois, Indiana, Tulsa, Kent State, Purdue, Michigan, Missouri, Marquette, Coastal Carolina, Colorado, New Mexico, San Jose State, Liberty and host-Northwestern were also in the field.

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Lindsay Brown of Napa had 34 assists on Sonoma State’s 40 kills as the Seawolves swept Humboldt State 3-0 in California Collegiate Athletic Association volleyball action on Wednesday night in Rohnert Park.

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Napa’s Julie McCarty placed third in her age division in the Tinley Dirty Bike Adventures, a sprint triathlon, at Lopez Lake outside of San Luis Obispo last weekend. She had a time of 1 hour, 29 minutes for the triathlon that combines swimming, cycling and running.

This was only McCarty’s fourth sprint triathlon. In each of her races this season she has stood on the podium.

McCarty’s son, Ryan, took first in his division at 1:19. This was his first race.

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Gregory Lane Hunter of St. Helena completed his third consecutive Sacramento Cowtown Marathon, which was held on Sunday, in a time of 3 hours, 40 minutes and 13 seconds.

Hunter placed 50th out of 289 finishers and was second in his age division.

He has completed 82 marathons overall and his time qualified him to compete in the 2009 and 2010 Boston Marathons.

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