Madsons Sweep to Wrestling Titles, Lead Hornets to Fifth

wrestling coach projected his team would finish in the top five at the North Coast Section Girls Wrestling Championships on Saturday, and he was right.

Thanks, of course, to the .

Senior and freshman dominated the competition as top seeds, sweeping to first-place finishes that propelled the Hornets to fifth in the team standings at Newark Memorial High.

Novato, which finished ninth at NCS last season, accumulated 126.5 points, trailing only Albany (213), Newark Memorial (195), San Leandro (147.5) and Pittsburg (130) in the team standings.

Courtney Madson (29-0)  hardly worked up a sweat in the 114-pound competition;  she pinned Albany's Shaunice Murphy in 20 seconds, Arroyo's Katelyn Fernandez in 1:17 and El Molino's Alena Caswell in 1:02 en route to the NCS crown.

Carissa Madson (26-0) got more mat time, but likewise gave the 103-pound competition little hope. She needed 4:19 to pin Irvington's Mariah Damaso and 3:30 to pin Dublin's Linda Tran. She didn't get a pin in the finals, but nonetheless dominated Castro Valley's Shashanna Markus 8-1.

The Madsons both qualify for the State Invitational, which is slated for Feb. 25-26 in Lemoore, as does teammate , who finished fourth in the 122-pound division.

Novato edged out Castro Valley (126) for fifth place in the team standings on the strength of six wins from wrestlers other than the Madsons.

Scott recorded two of those wins, a 15-0 technical fall over Montgomery's Yanna Coelho and a 39-second pin of San Leandro's Tina Hoang that clinched the State Invitational spot. He losses came to eventual champion Reyna Payan of Pinewood, a 7-0 decision, in the semifinals and to Siwen Dickstein of Mission San Jose, 10-3 in the consolation finals.

, a 126-pounder, pinned her first opponent, Malanie Cordero of James Logan, in 5:18 before losing a tough 11-8 decision to Castro Valley's Alyah Thomas in the quarterfinals. She rebounded to pin Liberty's Karley Maniatis in 2:02 and shut out Montgomery's Chelsea Bricker 3-0 in the consolation bracket, but then was pinned and eliminated by Albany's Christina Arechiga one step from qualifying for the State Invitational.

pinned her first 154-pound foe, Katie Ford of San Leandro, in 4:22, but then was pinned by eventual champion Katie Burdick of Newark Memorial in 4:44 in the semifinals and by El Molino's Kaity Berry in 2:36 in the consolation semifinals with a trip to the State Invitational on the line.

Allison Scott and Linehan eventually both lost fifth-place matches against opponents they had previously pinned. Scott was beaten by James Logan's Cordero in 2:11 and Linehan by San Leandro's Ford in 2:45. Both finished sixth.