Occidental coaches honor ex-Justin star

NOTES AND QUOTES for a Tuesday in the Napa Valley:

Along with the school president’s appointment to an athletic department committee, Jason Lehman was awarded the 2008 Occidental College football coaches award.

Lehman, a Justin-Siena High School graduate who is from Napa, was chosen as captain for both his junior and senior year. He has demonstrated outstanding leadership roles, mentorship, scholastic standing and volunteer work, as well as attending Bible study classes.

Lehman missed four games due to a hamstring injury last year, but was still chosen Honorable Mention on the All-Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference team.

Lehman, a wide receiver, caught 38 passes for 633 yards with six touchdowns in nine games as Occidental (9-1 overall) won the SCIAC title.

The Tigers lost to Willamette University, 48-33, in the first round of the NCAA Division III playoffs.

He caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Justin Goltz with 44 seconds to go in the loss to Willamette at McCulloch Stadium in Salem, Ore.

Lehman had nine receptions for 104 yards in the game.

For the season, Lehman led the Tigers with 16.7 yards per catch (70.3 yards per game) and had a long reception of 63 yards.

Occidental was No. 15 in the final D3football.com Top 25 media poll for 2008.

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Madison Van Zandt had 12 points, 13 rebounds and 11 blocked shots as the Pacific Storm, a sixth grade girls basketball team, won the Strictly Hoops AAU Tournament, beating the Lady Warriors of Martinez, 33-30.

Morgan Malloy finished with 10 points, six assists and six steals.

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Claire Miller, a student at Silverado Middle School, won the eighth-grade girls 800-meter run Friday at the Woody Wilson Classic.

Held annually at UC Davis, the Classic is one of Northern California’s premier invitational track and field events for high school athletes. The 800 is one of two special races at the meet that are staged for eighth-grade students. Miller’s time was 2:33.82.

Miller has been a member of Napa Track Club for the past four years and also excels in the triple jump and the javelin throw.

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Jimmy Cacho tied for 40th for the Santa Clara University men’s golf team at the U.S. Intercollegiate Invitational, which was hosted by Stanford University.

Cacho, who played his high school golf at Justin-Siena, shot a team-best 70 in the first round. He went on to shoot rounds of 76 and 67 to finish with a score of 3-over-par 213.

Santa Clara was 14th. Washington won the team title.

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With Justin-Siena graduate Erin DeGoede at coxswain, Cal State Sacramento won the varsity eight group 3 final Sunday in a time of 6:41.80 at the Lake Natoma Invitational.

It was held at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center, with the Hornets beating crews from Texas and Central Florida.

The two-day, nine-team regatta featured five nationally-ranked varsity eight crews: No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 UC Berkeley, No. 16 Wisconsin, No. 19 UCLA and No. 20 Minnesota.

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Sophomore left-hander Matt Leonard allowed three runs and four hits over seven innings to get the win as Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo beat UC Davis 8-4 Saturday night in Big West Conference action.

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Matt Yourkin (1-1) suffered his first loss of the Eastern League season for the Double-A Connecticut Defenders Sunday, 2-1 to Trenton in Norwich, Conn.

Yourkin, a reliever, gave up four hits in two innings of work. A solo home run off Yourkin, a Napa High graduate, in the seventh inning was the game-winning hit. He also struck out one batter.

He was the fifth overall pick of the San Francisco 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.

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

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