Chris Smith

Clay touches nearly everything in the Smith household.Even the five cats, part of an extensive critter collection, drink from slightly flawed ceramic bowls -- rejected by Chris Smith, 40, resident potter.Two floors of the barn are full of tools to produce works in clay. Most days, Chris and Jackie Smith, ceramic artists, can be found working in their barn-turned-studio.Mr. Smith lends a personality to his pieces with the faces he sculpts into vases that begin on the potter's wheel. He creates visages by pushing features out from the interior of the vases.

In wrestling, the term "fish" isn't complimentary."I guess it's someone who just kind of flops around [on the mat]," said Mount St. Joseph coach Paul Triplett.In short: It's a wrestler who isn't very good.And West Friendship resident Kevin Neville, Triplett's top wrestler, has been catching a lot of 152-pounders as the Maryland State Wrestling Association's top-ranked competitor in that weight class.Against No. 7 Boys' Latin two weeks ago, Neville (23-2, 13 pins) notched another pin against the Lakers' Chris Smith, who was third in last year's Maryland Scholastic Association tournament.

A fish, in wrestling terms, isn't not a complimentary term."I guess it's someone who just kind of flops around [on the mat]," said Mount St. Joseph coach Paul Triplett.In short: It's a wrestler who isn't very good.And West Friendship resident Kevin Neville, Triplett's top wrestler, has been catching a lot of 152-pounders as the Maryland State Wrestling Association's top-ranked competitor in that weight class.Against No. 7 Boys' Latin on Friday, Neville (22-2, 13 pins) notched another pin. He hasn't lost to a state wrestler in two seasons.

Yesterday -- for the first time in the 20-year history of the Maryland Catholic Invitational tournament -- Mount St. Joseph wasn't the team champion.The 17-time, Maryland Scholastic Association champion Gaels (181 points, second) got individual titles from Shane McCarthy (145, 4-0), Kevin Neville (152, 4-0), Danny DeVivo (160, 4-0) and heavyweight Dave Sunderland (4-0) in the 16-team affair.But the winner, Prince George's County's Riverdale Baptist Crusaders (211 points), placed 10 of its 12 wrestlers in the top three of their weight classes, with another taking fourth and four champions.

The eighth-grade rappers who make up the wildly popular group Kris Kross will be taking a bit of Baltimore with them on their 29-city concert tour.Chris Kelly, half of the duo that has young fans wearing their pants baggy and backward, has enrolled in the Calvert School's home-instruction program. In town for the tour's debut last night, the 14-year-old also visited the North Baltimore school yesterday afternoon."It's all right. It's cool," Chris said in that taciturn adolescent style when asked about his new school.

Xavier coach Pete Gillen finds a way to bring out the best in his teams when it counts the most -- at the end of the season.That's why the Musketeers have made six straight NCAA tournament appearances. And that's why they're moving into the second round after an 89-84 victory over No. 11 Nebraska last night in Minneapolis.Was this an upset? The Musketeers were seeded 14th and Cornhuskers third in the Midwest, and it's only the seventh time since the current format started in 1985 that a No. 3 seed lost in the first round.

NEW YORK -- It didn't take long after Georgetown coach John Thompson was seated before he was asked the question that has been echoing in his ears:Do the Hoyas need to win the Big East tournament to advance to the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament? "I haven't really given a lot of thought to it," Thompson said. "All I know is, if we win the tournament we're in."Sixth-seeded Georgetown (16-11, 8-8) plays third-seeded Connecticut (18-9, 9-7) tonight in the last quarterfinal game at Madison Square Garden.

Head coach: Bruce Sider (11th year).1989-1990 record: 2-7.Top wrestlers: Seniors, Richard Valenzia (152), Ernie Barrett (189); juniors, Greg Blurton (112), Mark Nevin (119), Chris Smith (130), John Wehn (160), Richard Gordon (145), Geoffery King (135); sophomores, Keith Chantree (125), Tony Norfolk (140), Eli Colburn (189) Paul Musil (Hvy); freshman, David Jennings (171).Coach's outlook: "I really don't expect for us to win many matches this year. I just want to see the kids progress. We're just too inexperienced to win right now. We're gonna take our lickings for now, and it's going to be awfully tough on them, but if we can show some team unity and bounce back from each match, we'll be OK. Hopefully, they will learn enough things this year to make them want to come out for the team next season.

No. 2 Howard put its home-field advantage to good use in beating No. 10 Calvert Hall in soccer last night, 2-1.The Lions (2-0), playing on a field much narrower than the 70-yard ones Calvert Hall (0-1) is used to, kept the action in the middle of the field where its strongest players were."It definitely was to our advantage to keep the action in the middle," Lions coach Rudy Storch said. "We're not as strong a team as last year, but despite missing a lot of opportunities, we didn't play badly tonight."

Oakland Mills' top-ranked soccer team kicked off its season yesterday with a 3-0 victory over Loyola, an unranked MSA A Conference team.The Scorpions, who are scheduled to play four games in next seven days, including one with upstart Calvert Hall tomorrow, were hoping to have the game in the bag by halftime to rest their starters, but the Dons had other plans.Loyola (1-1) held its Howard County opponent scoreless through the first the 33 minutes, 20 seconds of the game before Oakland Mills striker Michael Fitzgibbon buried a shot in upper right corner of the net past the outstretched hands of Loyola keeper Doug Renner.