Napa stars climb in U.S. track rankings

NOTES AND QUOTES for a Monday in the Napa Valley:

Tony Giovannoni and Mark Bozzini, both Napa residents, are ranked in multiple events in the 50-year-old age group by USA Track & Field for the 2009 indoor season.

Giovannoni is listed second in the pentathlon, eighth in the 60-meter hurdles and long jump, ninth in the high jump and 11th in the shot put.

Bozzini is 21st in the high jump, 27th in the shot put and 54th in the 60-meter dash.

Giovannoni won the silver medal in the men’s 50-54 age group in the pentathlon during the USA Masters Indoor Track & Field Championships, which were held last month in Washington, D.C. The pentathlon also has the shot put and 1,000-meter run.

The 3,806-point total earned Giovannoni All-America honors, as did his marks in the 60 hurdles, high jump and long jump.

Giovannoni is a coach with the Napa Track Club, an organization made up of youths who compete in the spring and summer months in local, regional, state and national meets.

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Jimmy Cacho was named Honorable Mention on the all-West Coast Conference men’s golf team for Santa Clara University.

Cacho, a Justin-Siena High School graduate who plays out of Green Valley Country Club, tied for eighth at the WCC Championships last week at Hiddenbrooke Golf Club of Vallejo. It was Cacho’s third top-10 finish of the season.

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Left-hander Matt Yourkin is 1-0 in two appearances for the Connecticut Defenders, the Double-A affiliate for the San Francisco Giants that plays in the Eastern League.

Yourkin, a Napa High graduate who also played baseball at St. Mary’s College, has allowed two hits, walked two and struck out five in 3 1/3 innings as a reliever.

He was the fifth overall pick of the Giants in the Triple-A phase of the 2008 Rule 5 Draft in December. Yourkin began his pro career with Florida, advancing to Triple-A.

Last year, he pitched for the Jupiter Hammerheads in the Florida State League and the Double-A Carolina Mudcats of the Southern League.

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Second baseman Michael Gastelum was 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs in St. Mary’s College’s 14-4 West Coast Conference win Friday over No. 24 San Diego at Louis Guisto Field in Moraga.

Gastelum is from St. Helena.

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Jake Croxdale, who will be a sophomore in the fall, was the leading rusher in a controlled scrimmage Saturday for the Cal State Sacramento football team, picking up 42 yards on 11 attempts.

It was the Hornets’ first scrimmage of the spring. It lasted for an hour.

Croxdale is a Napa High graduate who starred on the Indians’ 2007 CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I championship team.

Jared Pereira, a Vintage graduate who transferred from Santa Rosa Junior College, is among the leading candidates to take over at a starting linebacker position.

Sacramento’s next scrimmage is April 25. The Hornets were 6-6 last year.

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Micah Putnam, who plays second base, added to her career-high RBI total with a two-run double down the left-field line in the fourth inning for the Cal State Northridge softball team in a 4-2 Big West Conference win last week over UC Santa Barbara.

Putnam, who has 26 RBIs on the season, is a Justin-Siena graduate.

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Ian Evans, a junior thrower for Grand Valley State University in Michigan, took third place in the javelin throw at the Dave Rankin Invitational at Purdue University Saturday. Evans also competed in the shot put and discus throw at the meet.

Evans is just coming out of spring football, where he started at tight end for the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion Lakers. He will also see time as a guard.

Evans competed for the Napa Track Club, Silverado Middle School and played youth football for the Napa Saints and Optimist basketball when he lived in Napa.

He attended Countryside High School in Clearwater, Fla., before becoming a two-sport athlete at GVSU.

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

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