O'Byrne enters elite Naval Academy program

NOTES AND QUOTES for a Monday in the Napa Valley:

By MARTY JAMES

Maria O’Byrne, a junior at Napa High School and a three-sport athlete for the Indians, has been selected to attend the Naval Academy Summer Seminar program in Annapolis, Md. There were over 16,800 applicants this year and O’Byrne was one of a select group of 2,250 that were chosen.

Summer Seminar is a fast-paced, six-day experience for those who have completed their junior year in high school and are considering applying for admission to the U.S. Naval Academy after graduation.

Summer Seminar will teach prospective applicants about life at the Naval Academy. Each student will attend a six-day session and experience a part of Academy life. They will live in Bancroft Hall (the dormitory in which all Academy midshipmen live), eat in the dining hall, participate in academic and leadership workshops, and experience a variety of other activities on the campus. They will have an opportunity to see first-hand what the Academy has to offer through its academic, athletic, extracurricular activities and leadership training programs.

The Summer Seminar will also have an academic focus. Each student will attend eight 90-minute workshops, covering subjects from information technology, Naval architecture and mechanical engineering, to oceanography, mathematics, history and meteorology.

They will also participate in seamanship and navigation classes and will take a cruise aboard a Yard Patrol craft to apply what they will learn in class. Naval Academy students (Midshipmen) run summer seminar with oversight by active duty Navy and Marine Corps officers.

O’Byrne averaged 9.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game this past year for the NHS basketball team. She has also played golf and volleyball and has been on the track and field team.

She is active in many clubs, including treasurer, vice president and president of the Key Club. O’Byrne is taking various honors and AP courses and carries a 4.4 GPA.

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The Napa Valley Girls Fastpitch Association did a very nice job hosting the Napa and Vintage softball teams for Friday night’s Monticello Empire League finale at Kiwanis Park. The weather was perfect, a large crowd was on hand, and the teams matched each other with quality pitching and one big defensive play after another for nine innings.

Napa’s two-run ninth inning, giving it a 2-1 win, clinched the MEL’s No. 2 spot and sends the Indians (18-9 overall, 7-3 MEL) into the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs for the third year in a row. Napa will open the single-elimination first round Saturday, May 16 against Tokay-Lodi, the No. 1 team out of the Tri-City Athletic League, at noon on Field 3 at the Sacramento Softball Complex.

There are 16 teams in the field, with eight advancing to a double-elimination format after the first round.

Mackenzie Miller got the win for Napa, allowing seven hits and one run (unearned) while walking four and striking out four in nine innings. Miller worked out of bases-loaded situations in the first and second innings.

JJ Wagoner (catcher), Alex Robben (first base), Mollie Pena (right field) and Miller keyed Napa’s defense.

Vintage (13-12 overall, 3-7 MEL) was led defensively by Heather Manning (shortstop), Bry Hewitt (third base), Sarah McKnight (first base), Ashlee Sills (center field) and Dani Laughridge (second base).

Luie Knudson pitched the first four innings for Vintage, giving up one hit and walking two. Becca Oesterich worked two innings, allowing one hit and walking two. Alex Ridling took the loss after throwing 22⁄3 innings and giving up five hits, walking two and striking out two.

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University of Colorado freshman Emily Talley finished in a tie for 55th, closing with her third straight 3-over-par 75, as the Buffaloes wrapped up their first-ever trip to the postseason at the NCAA Western Regional Championship Saturday in Tempe, Ariz.

Talley, a Napa resident, led the Buffaloes from start to finish on the 6,230-yard, par-72 Karsten Golf Course. Colorado was 19th as a team.

“This tournament really was a lot of fun, even though we didn’t finish as high as we would have liked,” Talley said on Colorado’s athletic Web site. “There were a lot of big name schools and big name players, and when you watch them you realize that you’re really not that much different and we have the potential to shoot what they shoot.

“It’s going to take a little more practice and time to develop and form our mental game, but after watching these teams play I can’t wait to do something like that next year.”

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The Cal State Sacramento women’s rowing team, with Erin DeGoede in the coxswain seat, took third place in the petite final of the women’s varsity heavyweight eight competition Saturday during the Dad Vail Regatta on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia.

DeGoede is from Napa and went to Justin-Siena.

Founded in 1934, the Dad Vail Regatta is the largest collegiate regatta in the country.

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Left-hander Matt Yourkin got his first save of the Double-A Eastern League season Sunday as the Connecticut Defenders shut out New Hampshire, 3-0, in Manchester, N.H.

Yourkin, a Napa High graduate, came into the game in the ninth inning with two runners on base and got the final two outs.

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

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