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Sports

Wrestlers Grapple at Northgate High

Northern California high schools competed at the 2011 Bill Martell Invitational held at Northgate High. Foothill High dominated the competition, taking first place in the team category.

The Northgate High gym was bursting with excitement as parents and coaches encouraged wrestlers from 26 Northern California high schools who took to the mats to compete in the fourth annual Bill Martell Invitational.  

No school was more dominant than Foothill High of Pleasanton Saturday, seamlessly racking up points on their way to winning the 2011 Bill Martell Invitational. Their 248.5 points were more than double of what runner-up, California School for the Deaf, finished with, 122.5.

Terra Linda, Freedom and Pittsburg high schools round up the top five places with 115, 114 and 106 points respectively.

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Northgate High finished 20th with 34 points. Payton Wolcott had a second-place finish in the 195-pound weight class after losing to Miramonte High's Micah Spalding in the championship match. 

Out of the 12 weight classes Foothill High had four wrestlers make the final stage. Zac Wilner, Conner Aura and Austin Soto won first place in the 120, 126 and 138-pound weight classess respectively.

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Foothill wrestling coach Bannie LaFever expected nothing less than the stellar performance by his team.

"We expect to finish first. We expect to show up, participate and do our jobs and everybody score points," said LaFever. 

"Not to take anything away from the other teams, we expect to come here and win. And it's all the hard work we put in and I think is a great feeling for the boys, is their hard work. All we [the coaches] do is drive the bus."

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