Blue

Now that Johns Hopkins has opened the door for conferences to woo the illustrious program, the most pressing question centers on if there is one league that best suits the Blue Jays - and vice versa. If coach Dave Pietramala and athletic director Tom Calder are steadfast in retaining traditional rivalries, the Atlantic Coast Conference would appear to be the best fit. Joining that league would allow Johns Hopkins to maintain traditional series with North Carolina, Syracuse and Virginia, and the team would simply have to carve out space for Duke and Notre Dame.

The nation's debt to men and women who serve in uniform can never be fully repaid. But Jane Kramer believes every little bit helps. She said that's why the Howard County Garden Club undertook the project to install a Blue Star Memorial marker, honoring present and former armed forces members, in the heart of Ellicott City. At the Howard County Welcome Center at 8267 Main St. in Ellicott City, a formal dedication was held Friday at 10 a.m., with live music, military ceremonies, presentations and comments from local elected officials.

The Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse program plans to surrender its status as an independent and join a conference, the university announced Friday. The Blue Jays have competed independently for 130 years, winning nine NCAA championships and qualifying for 41 consecutive NCAA tournaments before getting left out of the postseason earlier this month. In a letter to the Johns Hopkins community and posted on the school's website, president Ronald J. Daniels said he accepted the recommendation of a seven-member special committee that proposed that the program pursue a conference affiliation.

In her column "An Annapolis tradition, grounded" (May 13) Susan Reimer laments the fact that the Blue Angels flyover at the graduation ceremonies for cadets was canceled, and she thinks Congress should be ashamed for cutting funds for such a trivial "carnival act. " Meanwhile, the Obama administration has apparently sicced the IRS on tea party groups for political reasons, the very groups who are fighting to keep such frivolous expenditures off...

In her column ("An Annapolis tradition, grounded," May 13), Susan Reimer writes that Congress should be ashamed that because of sequestration the Blue Angels will skip the U.S. Naval Academy graduation this year. Really? How about President Barack Obama, shouldn't he be ashamed? After all, sequestration was his idea, and Congress wanted to give him the power to decide where the cuts would take place, which Mr. Obama refused to do. Lets see, if the president agreed to that it would have required him to take responsibility for one of his polices, which he never does.

My town, Annapolis, is a special kind of college town. The students at the Naval Academy are distinctive not for their backpacks, ear buds and school T-shirts, but for their crisp summer whites and their somber dress blues. The midshipmen take off their hats - their covers - when they enter a building, and they say "sir" and "ma'am" when you greet them. At this college, you don't pay anything unless you quit or get kicked out. About 1,400 arrive every July, but only about 800 will graduate four years later.

Visiting Loyola trails, 15-10, in its series with Duke, which has won six of the last seven meetings. The teams have faced each other just once in the NCAA tournament with the Blue Devils cruising to a 12-7 victory in the first round of the 2008 postseason. The Greyhounds (11-4) have won seven of their past nine contests, but are trying to rebound from an 18-11 thumping by Ohio State in an Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament semifinal on May 2. With 126 career goals, senior attackman Mike Sawyer is seven goals away from tying Pat Lamon for the most in that department in school history.

Blue Hill Tavern in Canton will host a gluten-free evening on Wednesday. The five-course menu includes crab cakes, seared scallops and a choice of mushroom or beef Wellington. Dessert is a chocolate and peanut butter "candy bar," made with chocolate ganache, peanut creme, caramel and strawberry fluff. Courses will be paired with gluten-free cocktails, beer and wine. The Gluten-Free Evening is 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at Blue Hill Tavern , 938 S. Conkling St. Tickets are $75. For information 443-388-9363 or go to bluehilltavern.com . #sigshell { padding: 10px; float: left; width: 320px; height: 52px; margin: 20px 0px; display: block; }

Johns Hopkins was left out of the NCAA tournament Sunday night for the first time since 1971. The exclusion snapped a streak of 41 consecutive appearances in the tournament, which ended what had been the longest active streak in a Division I team sport. The streak was a point of pride for the program, but could also be a burden as senior classes feared about being the one unable to extend the run. Coach Dave Pietramala said the streak did not weigh on him. But for the players? That might have been a different story.

No. 13 Johns Hopkins wrapped up the regular season with a 9-4 victory over Army Friday night and improved to 9-5. But the program's hopes for a 42nd consecutive NCAA tournament  appearance absorbed another sustained hit that same night. No. 2 Cornell was upended, 14-13, in overtime by No. 12 Princeton in one semifinal of the Ivy League tournament at Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y. The Tigers (9-5) will meet No. 14 Yale (10-4) in Sunday's title game after the Bulldogs defeated No. 18 Penn.