Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/594501
StaffReports Eight Red Bluff Spartans swimmers competed at the Northern Section Division 1 Swimming Championships held Thursday at West Valley High School and all eight will be ad- vancing to the Masters Cham- pionships at Shasta College on Saturday. The Spartans will have both a boys' and girls' relay team com- peting and seven swimmers qualified in individual events. Only the top 16 swimmers in the section qualify in each event. Capturing first place in the 100-yard freestyle was Julia Brandt with a time of 57.09 sec- onds. Brandt finished third in the 50 freestyle with a time of 26.08. Ellie Fletcher swam a swift 1:17.93 in the 100 breaststroke and finished third. In the 200 in- dividual medley, Fletcher placed sixth. Jordan Munoz, a sophomore, was eighth in the 100 breast- stroke. Sophie Fletcher, a fresh- man, placed 20th in the 100 backstroke. Brandt, Munoz and the Fletcher sisters made up the fifth-place 200 medley re- lay team. For the Spartan boys, senior Mitchell Sauve raced to a fourth- place finish in the 200 IM and placed sixth in the 100 breast- stroke. Junior Nathan Fregoso dropped three seconds in the 100 backstroke to capture eighth place, going 1:07.49. Fregoso also placed 10th in the 50 free. Jacob Patterson finished sev- enth in the 100 breaststroke and 15th in the 50 freestyle. Noah Caylor swam to a 12th- place finish in the 100 freestyle and was 13th in the 100 back- stroke. The 200 free relay team of Sauve, Fregoso, Patterson and Caylor achieved a fourth-place finish. The Spartans will travel to Shasta College on Saturday for the Masters meet, which is the section championship meet and the last meet of the year. For the girls, Brandt will com- pete in the 50 and 100 free, El- lie Fletcher will be in the 200 IM and the 100 breaststroke and Munoz will swim the 100 breast- stroke. On the boys side, Sauve will compete in the 200 IM and the 100 breaststroke, Fregoso will swim the 100 backstroke, Pat- terson is in the 100 breaststroke and Caylor will compete in the 100 freestyle. SWIMMING Spartansadvanceto sectionMastersmeet RedBluffhas3girls,4boysinsectiontitle meet a er they qualified at Division 1 meet COURTESYPHOTO The Red Bluff High relay team of Noah Caylor, Jacob Patterson, Nathan Fregoso and Mitchell Sauve took fourth place in the 200-yard freestyle relay Thursday at the Northern Section Division 1Championships. All four Spartans qualified in individual events for the Masters Championships this Saturday at Shasta College. By Mike Fitzpatrick The Associated Press NEW YORK Two balls launched over the wall, one fired over an opponent's head and just like that, David Wright and the New York Mets are right back in this World Series. Wright homered and drove in four runs, Curtis Grander- son also connected and rookie Noah Syndergaard set a nasty tone at the start of a 9-3 victory against the Kansas City Royals that trimmed New York's deficit to 2-1 Friday night. Shut down at the plate in Kan- sas City, the Mets broke loose with 12 hits from nine different players as they chased Yordano Ventura early during the first Se- ries game at Citi Field. Pitching on Halloween eve, Syndergaard recovered from a scary start and went six in- nings, giving the Mets the win- ning performance they didn't get from fellow young starters Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom at Kauffman Stadium. Hometown rookie Steven Matz will try to pull New York even Saturday night in Game 4 when he faces 36-year-old Chris Young and the Royals. After the Mets fell behind in the first inning, Granderson started the bottom half with a single and Wright hit his first World Series home run, recharg- ing a packed crowd of 44,781 that included Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Dennis Miller. The captain, who entered bat- ting .182 without an RBI in his first World Series, added a two- run single on Kelvin Herrera's first pitch during a four-run sixth that broke it open. Pinch- hitter Juan Uribe, just back from a chest injury, had an RBI single inhisfirstplateappearancesince Sept. 25. Slumping slugger Yoe- nisCespedesaddedasacrificefly. Hoping to rekindle the come- back spirit of 1986, when the Mets rallied from an 0-2 World Series hole to beat Boston for their most recent champion- ship, the team played its high- light video from that year on the large scoreboard during batting practice. Hometown boy Billy Joel sang the national anthem, same as 29 years ago at Shea Stadium, and Syndergaard caught everyone's attention with his first delivery to aggressive leadoff hitter Al- cides Escobar. Well aware of Escobar's pen- chant for attacking the first pitch — the ALCS MVP opened Game 1 against New York with an inside-the-park homer — Syndergaard promised Thurs- day he had "a few tricks" up his sleeve for Escobar. That turned out to be a 97 mph fastball fired just off the in- side corner and way over Esco- bar's head, eliciting a huge cheer from fans. The skinny shortstop went down to the dirt on his rear end and stayed there, legs splayed, catching his breath for several seconds. Kansas City players spent the next few innings shouting at Syndergaard from the dugout. Escobar whiffed on a 99 mph heater, yet the Royals hardly looked intimidated as they scored three runs in the first two innings. Ben Zobrist doubled and scored on a groundout by Eric Hosmer that gave him 16 RBIs in 14 postseason games this year. Alex Rios had an RBI sin- gle in the second, and another run scored on Travis d'Arnaud's passed ball. WORLD SERIES Wright, Granderson homer, Mets romp Syndergaard sets early tone for New York with wild fastball, pitches 6 strong innings DAVID J. PHILLIP — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The New York Mets' David Wright hits a two-run home run during the first inning of Game 3of the World Series against the Kansas City Royals on Friday in New York. METS9,ROYALS3 Series: Kansas City leads 2-1. Up next: Kansas City Royals at New York Mets, 5:07p.m. Satur- day, TV on FOX. THESCORE Staff Reports LOS MOLINOS The Los Molinos Bulldogs beat the Mercy Warriors on Thursday night for a season sweep in four close sets, 25-14, 27-25, 23-25 and 25-22, in a home conference match. Standouts for Los Molinos in- cluded sophomore Rachel Rogers with 15 kills, seven aces and six digs; Liset Castillo with 16 kills, two aces, 13 digs and an assist; Henna Acevedo with five kills, an ace, a block, five digs and two as- sists; Vanesa Cota with five kills, five digs and 32 assists; Michell Woolbert with four kills and three aces and Sugey Cota with five digs. For the Warriors, the top per- formers included Madeline Flynn with 10 kills, an ace, three blocks and seven digs; Page Spangler with nine kills, two aces and two digs; C.J. Johnson with five kills, two aces, 10 digs and an assist; Laura Keane with four kills; Gil- lie Coelho with a kill, three aces and eight digs and Tasha Pimen- tel with a kill, an ace, seven digs and 27 assists. With the win, the Bulldogs move to 24-15 overall and 5-1 in league play. They were scheduled to play the 21-4 Providence Lions in Orland on Friday night. The Warriors go to 14-10 over- all and 4-3 in league play and are scheduled to face the 10-7 Max- well Panthers at 5:30 p.m. Tues- day in Maxwell. LASSEN 3, CORNING 1 The Cardi- nals lost on the road Thursday night to the Lassen Grizzlies in four sets, 25-22, 24-26, 25-19 and 25-14. "We battled Lassen through many lead changes in games one to three," said coach Mike Albee. "When we played with confidence and aggressive, smart attacks, we excelled. I'm proud of our team." VOLLEYBALL Bulldogs win in 4 sets over Warriors Red Bluff, Corning take losses in road matches By Jenna Fryer The Associated Press MARTINSVILLE, VA. Slipping through to the third round of NASCAR's playoffs might just have made Jeff Gordon one of the favorites to win the champi- onship. Gordon has had a mediocre season and goes into Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway winless on the year. But there's no better track for him to spark a run toward a fifth championship. Gordon has eight career victo- ries at Martinsville, which makes him a strong contender Sunday. A trip to victory lane would earn Gordon an automatic berth to the Chase for the Sprint Cup fi- nale, and should he make it to the championship race, all bets are off and Gordon could ride off into re- tirement with a new title. "We're carrying just a lot of confidence and momentum and pride right now knowing that we've had to grind it out just to get ourselves in the Chase," Gor- don said Friday. "That grind and that fight that we have in us is what we've been putting out there these last six weeks that have got- ten us to this round. NASCAR SPRINT CUP Gordon thinks Martinsville could likely be key to Cup title A small number of U.S. special operations forces will be sent to northern Syria to work with local troops in the fight against Islamic State militants, the White House announced Friday. OBAMA'S ORDER Feds:UScommandos are heading into Syria FULL STORY ON PAGE B3 Effects of the 2015-16El Niño are already being felt in both the northern and southern hemispheres with record- breaking hurricane winds hitting Mexico and torrential rains causing flooding. WEATHER Strong El Niño rain threatens prune crop FULL STORY ON PAGE B4 San Francisco 49ers running back Carlos Hyde has been ruled out of Sunday's game at the St. Louis Rams because of an injured le foot. Hyde, the NFL's ninth-leading rusher, did not practice this week. NFL 49ers Carlos Hyde ruled out for Rams game Hall of Fame inductees for the Red Bluff High School athletic program will be honored at the Hall of Fame Dinner at 5 p.m. Nov. 21at the Red Bluff Community Center, tickets at Cornerstone Community Bank. RED BLUFF HIGH Hall of Fame inductees to be honored at dinner VOLLEYBALL PAGE 2 NASCAR PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, October 31, 2015 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1