St. Francis tennis team has work cut out

St. Francis, winners of eight consecutive Sac-Joaquin Section Division I girls tennis titles, will get some added competition in this year's tournament.

Granite Bay, winner of eight D-II titles, including the past five, has been elevated to D-I this season.

St. Francis, which opens at home Monday against Golden Valley of Merced, also will face competition from Delta River League rival Oak Ridge. The Trojans won this year's league championship, with St. Francis finishing second.

Oak Ridge, Granite Bay and perennial area power Davis received first-round byes and will play their first postseason matches Tuesday.

In D-II, Bella Vista, McClatchy, Rio Americano, Natomas, Yuba City and Christian Brothers have first-round byes and will play Tuesday.

Here are Monday's opening-round pairings:

• D-I: Napa at Elk Grove; Pleasant Grove at Vacaville; Golden Valley-Merced at St. Francis; Lincoln-Stockton at Downey-Modesto; Modesto at West-Tracy; Del Oro at Tracy; Tokay at Rocklin.

• D-II: Oakdale at Whitney; Ceres at Sierra-Manteca; Inderkum at Mira Loma; Rosemont at American Canyon; Oakmont at Kennedy.

The D-I and D-II individual singles and doubles tournaments will be held Nov. 1-2 at Johnson Ranch Racquet Club in Roseville.

Sheldon's boys loaded with basketball talent

Four Sheldon boys basketball players are on a list of 14 area players included in the NorCalPreps.com's 2013 boys basketball Top 40.

The area's top-rated players include: No. 5 D'Erryl Williams, Sheldon; No. 6 Darin Johnson, Sheldon; No. 7 Dakarai Allen, Sheldon; No. 14 Malik Thames, Pleasant Grove; No. 17 Cole Nordquist, Pleasant Grove; No. 19 Gabe Bealer, Antelope; No. 22 Isaiah Ellis, Antelope; No. 25 Will Buell, Colfax; No. 30 Aaron Cameron, Sacramento; No. 32 Ryan Manning, Sheldon; No. 36 Eric Stuteville, Casa Roble; No. 37 James Hadnot, Sacramento; No. 38 Joe Barnes, Sacramento; No. 40 Matt Hayes, Pleasant Grove.

Williams and Allen have verbally committed to San Diego State; Johnson to Washington.

NorCalPreps ranks national recruits Aaron Gordon of Archbishop Mitty of San Jose and Jabari Bird of Salesian of Richmond No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.

Vista del Lago runners highly ranked in state

Vista del Lago's Madeleine Ankhelyi is ranked No. 1 and teammate Clare Carroll No. 4 in the D-III state individual girls cross country rankings, as compiled by Rich Gonzalez of PrepCalTrack.

Vista del Lago is No. 2 to Palos Verdes in the state D-III team rankings. Placer is No. 8 in the boys D-III team rankings.

In other individual and team rankings highlights:

• Granite Bay's Trent Brendel is No. 4 in D-II boys and Maggie Bell No. 12 in D-II girls. Del Campo is No. 8 in D-II boys.

• Davis freshman Fiona O'Keeffe is No. 8 in D-I girls. St. Francis is No. 4 and Davis No. 5 in D-I girls.

– Bill Paterson

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