La Rochelle captures Pac-10 swimming academic honors

NOTES AND QUOTES for a Monday in the Napa Valley:

UC Berkeley’s Natalie La Rochelle, a cell and developmental biology major, was named to the 2009 Pacific-10 Conference Women’s Swimming and Diving All-Academic Team.

La Rochelle, a Vintage High School graduate and a four-year member of the Cal program, was named to the conference’s First Team.

La Rochelle, a senior, also swam for the Napa Valley Swim Team.

To be eligible for selection to the academic team, a student-athlete must have a minimum 3.0 overall GPA and be either a starter or significant contributor.

Cal won its first-ever NCAA championship at the Student Rec Center Natatorium in College Station, Texas in March.

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Napa’s Taylor Bickell had rounds of 80 and 77 for a 157 total and finished in a tie for third place in the girls 15-17 division of the Sacramento City Junior Easter Championship. The Junior Golf Association of Northern California premier event was played last week at Bing Maloney Golf Course in Sacramento.

Last month, Brandon Duncan of Napa tied for first place in the boys 16-17 division of the JGANC’s Sonoma County Junior Open, a major event. Duncan, who also plays golf for Vintage High, shot a 1-over-par 64 at the Oakmont Golf Club course in Santa Rosa.

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Glenn Keen (president) and Staci Marquez (vice president) of the Napa Raiders youth football organization will be the guests of “The Napa Show” during the program’s sports segment, which is hosted by Stacy Reyes, Wednesday on Napa Community Public Access TV-Channel 28.

The show starts at 6 p.m.

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Third baseman Brett Wallace began the 2009 Double-A baseball season for the Springfield (Mo.) Cardinals in a big way.

Wallace, a first-round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in last year’s major league draft, crushed two opposite-field home runs and had six RBIs in Springfield’s 16-4 Opening Day win over the Frisco RoughRiders in a Texas League game last week.

Wallace, a Justin-Siena graduate and a two-time Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year for Arizona State, had a two-out, three-run home run in the second inning. He also homered to lead off the seventh.

Wallace is ranked No. 42 in MLB.com’s Top 50 Prospects.

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Sarah O’Neill finished 11th in the women’s shot put for the UC Davis track and field team in the open division of the Aggies’ Woody Wilson Classic Saturday.

O’Neill is a Vintage graduate who played softball for the Crushers and UC Davis.

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Rookie guard DeMarcus Nelson, who starred for Vallejo High, was signed last week by the Chicago Bulls for the remainder of the 2008-09 NBA regular season.

Nelson, who was released by Golden State in December after playing in 13 games, had been with the Austin Toros and Bakersfield Jam in the D-League. The former Duke player averaged 19.9 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.6 steals in 37.5 minutes per game in the D-League.

He shot 54 percent from the field, 42 percent on 3-pointers and 72.3 percent from the free-throw line.

Nelson averaged 4.1 points per game on 44 percent shooting and 1.8 rebounds in 13.1 minutes per game for the Warriors. Nelson is the all-time California prep scoring leader.

He became the first undrafted rookie to appear in the starting lineup on Opening Night for the Warriors since the team moved to the West Coast in 1962.

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Rodriguez High-Cordelia has turned to Fred Kelly to lead its football program.

Kelly, 27, was a two-sport athlete (football-wrestling) at Liberty-Brentwood and played college football at Idaho and Cal State Sacramento as a linebacker and defensive end.

Kelly has coached football at Freedom-Antioch and Florin-Sacramento. For two years, Kelly was a graduate assistant at Sacramento State.

Kelly takes over for David Fishleigh, who went 27-9 in his three seasons at Rodriguez, leading the Mustangs to the 2007 CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division III championship and two Solano County Athletic Conference titles. Fishleigh stepped down after last year’s season.

Rodriguez starts next year’s season on Sept. 11 at Vacaville in a nonleague game.

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

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