Eleanor Roosevelt

For the past couple of seasons, the Old Mill boys basketball team has been used to the highs and lows that come in the 32 minutes of each game. The No. 7 Patriots make the most of their runs and calmly weather their opponents' streaks. In the end, they usually find a way to win. Thursday night's Class 4A state semifinal game against Urbana was no exception for the Patriots, whose reward is a trip to the program's first state championship game. After seeing a 20-point third-quarter advantage drop to two points early in the fourth, the Patriots regrouped with poise and resilience to earn a 73-64 win at Comcast Center.

The intimate presidential inner circle of Franklin D. Roosevelt was diminished last month with the death in McLean, Va., of Mollie Dorf Somerville, an author, historian and lecturer who had been an aide to Eleanor Roosevelt. Somerville, who was 102, was the aunt of retired City Circuit Judge Paul A. Dorf, 83, now a partner in the Baltimore law firm of Adelberg, Rudow Dorf & Hendler LLC. "She was always my favorite aunt," Dorf recalled the other day. "Six months before her death, we went to see her, and she held a tea cup without her hand shaking.

The three-pointers were no problem for Arundel in the second half of last night's state girls basketball championship against Eleanor Roosevelt. The layups were another matter. The No. 3 Wildcats missed two layups in the final 40 seconds. Roosevelt got the rebounds and Ahja Hall put one back for the game-winner as the Raiders escaped a thriller, 52-50, to claim their fourth straight state Class 4A crown at UMBC's RAC Arena. The Wildcats, who won the most recent of their three state titles in 2004, missed out on the state tournament last season, but they felt about the same losing last night's final as they had about losing to Old Mill in last year's regional playoffs.

VIKTOR SCHRECKENGOST, 101 Artist, industrial designer Viktor Schreckengost, an artist and prolific industrial designer whose ubiquitous works included familiar toys, White House porcelain, innovative trucks and lawn mowers, died Saturday while visiting family in Tallahassee, Fla. Mr. Schreckengost, a 2006 winner of the National Medal of Arts, was best-known for his 1930s Jazz Bowl series, commissioned by Eleanor Roosevelt for the White House. The electric blue and black porcelain bowls, inspired by the sights and sounds of New York City, became icons of the art deco era. Mr. Schreckengost incorporated fine design into mass-produced goods in an effort to make aesthetically pleasing, functional items available to everyone.

COLLEGE PARK -- Broadneck's motto this season has been "You gotta swing to win." In the end, the Bruins just kept swinging. Third-ranked Broadneck (20-1) crawled out of a 2-1 hole to defeat Dulaney, 24-26, 25-18, 22-25, 25-10, 15-10, in the Class 4A state semifinals at the University of Maryland's Ritchie Coliseum last night. "I looked in their eyes and I could see the intensity," Broadneck coach Ramanzo Beans said. "They really proved to me what they were made of tonight." The Bruins will face Montgomery County's Wootton in the 4A state championship at Ritchie Coliseum tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. "I always tell them we need to terminate," Beans said, referring to the kills by his team's front line.

Lady Bird Johnson, the widow of Lyndon B. Johnson, whose tumultuous presidency often overshadowed her considerable achievements as an activist first lady and environmentalist, died yesterday at her home in Austin, Texas. She was 94. Mrs. Johnson, who suffered a major stroke in 2002 and had been in failing health for several years, died surrounded by family and friends, including daughters Lynda Johnson Robb and Luci Baines Johnson, said family spokeswoman Elizabeth Christian. As the wife of the 36th president, Mrs. Johnson was often portrayed by contemporaries and some historians as a meek woman who silently endured her husband's volcanic outbursts and infidelities.

Jared Gaither, a starting offensive lineman on Maryland's football team the past two seasons, has been declared academically ineligible this season. A spokesman at Maryland confirmed Gaither's ineligibility yesterday, after an ESPN.com report. Gaither, a rising junior from White Plains and Eleanor Roosevelt High, could return to the Terps in 2008 if he regains his eligibility. Gaither, 6 feet 9 and 350 pounds, considered leaving for the NFL draft earlier this year after starting at both tackle positions in his two seasons at Maryland.

PHILADELPHIA -- It took 35 years for the Penn Relays high school mile record - by Gordon Oliver of Bethesda-Chevy Chase - to be erased and it took another Marylander to do it. Broadneck senior Matthew Centrowitz took the Penn mile best down to 4 minutes, 8.38 seconds with a stirring 60-second final lap that separated him from a tough, talented field. Oilver had run 4:08.7 in 1972. "There was a lot of pushing, bumping up front," said the University of Oregon-bound Centrowitz, a two-time All-Metro Runner of the Year in cross country and last spring's All-Metro Performer of the Year in track and field.

Minutes after winning the Class 4A state crown in the 3,200 meters yesterday, Broadneck junior Matthew Centrowitz began contemplating his workout for today. "I'll probably just take a nice, easy run - something like five or six miles," he said. "If I'm feeling good, I'll up it to an hour." So it goes for the winner of the 3,000 at the Penn Relays last month. Yesterday, Centrowitz continued to burnish his resume by capturing the 3,200 in 9 minutes, 13.68 seconds - the fastest time recorded at this year's state championships at Morgan State.

At least twice a week, Dwight Parker will hunker down in front of the television set at his family's home, pop in a familiar videotape and relive his own personal nightmare. Parker will watch a confident, purposeful runner dressed in Woodlawn's black track and field uniform lead a pack in the 3,200 meters at the Class 4A-3A state championships this past winter. Excitement builds as the leader maintains a considerable gap over the competition and, even as a runner wearing a blue Eleanor Roosevelt uniform charges forth, Parker will allow himself the slightest hint of a smile as the runner in black takes the final lap with at least a 30-meter advantage.