Graduates

RUMKE: Zachary Rumke, 18, graduated from US Air Force Basic Military Training on Feb. 8, at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas. He is stationed in Spokane, Wash., where he is pursuing a career in the NAVY as a SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) Instructor. Rumke is the son of Elaine and Jeffrey Rumke and the brother of Nicholas. Rumke graduated from Harford Technical High School in 2012.

As a mother, Howard Community College student Sonia Halboni believes she always has her children's best interests at heart, yet she can remember once when her peers didn't concur. When her daughter, Daliah, graduated from Marriotts Ridge High School two years ago and couldn't assemble enough financial aid to enroll at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Sonia suggested she enroll at HCC - where mom was already both a student and an office assistant in the school's science division office.

Expectations are high for this year's commencement speakers at Maryland universities - an august crew that includes the Obamas and their team of writers as well as funnyman Bill Cosby and Hollywood director Jason Winer. But to stand out - or simply be remembered - isn't a guarantee, no matter how high the profile of the speaker. "The commencement speaker has to perform. He or she has the responsibility to inspire both students and graduates to make something of their lives" without falling back on cliches, said Steven D. Cohen, managing director of the oral communication program at the University of Maryland.

Nicole Stall boarded the first plane to Maryland she could catch when she heard of Benjamin Boniface's death last June. She was there to grieve the death of a boy she had known since his birth. But also to work. In the days after the 20-year-old's death in an early-morning car accident on the farm, she went to the barns where she had fallen in love with horses as a teenager. “I was completely out of it,” said William K. Boniface, known to most as Billy. “She just went out to the stallion barn, kept it running.

After Saturday's contest at No. 11 Maryland, Colgate will retire to the offseason, and senior attackman Peter Baum will graduate and begin the next stage of his life. One of his pursuits would be to help continue the growth of lacrosse in his native state of Oregon. The Portland native refined his talent at Lincoln High School and with the West Coast Starz. The first player west of the Mississippi River to win the Tewaaraton Award, Baum is one of several Division I players from Oregon, including Drexel senior midfielder Aaron Prosser and Syracuse redshirt sophomore midfielder Henry Schoonmaker.

Leave it to Stevenson coach Paul Cantabene to find a scoring threat in a former defensive player. After spending the first three years of his career as a short-stick defensive midfielder, Peter Green has blossomed as a weapon for the No. 4 Mustangs (15-2), leading all midfielders with 27 goals and 38 points. The Hereford native and graduate has scored three more goals than the combined number of shots he took in his first three seasons, but to hear Cantabene - who has built some of Division III's most prolific offenses in recent years  - talk, this is what he and staff anticipated from Green.

Mark D. Sokolik, a corporate lawyer remembered as a fitness and music enthusiast, died last week after complications from a fall. He was 30. A former Hunt Valley resident who attended Loyola Blakefield in Towson, Mr. Sokolik went on to graduate from the University of Baltimore and become a top student at Georgetown University's Law Center. Since 2010, he had worked as a corporate attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in New York, one of the nation's top law firms. "Mark was a real gentle person," said Frank Sokolik, his father, whom Mark talked with constantly on the phone.

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Roy C. Clendaniel Jr. has graduated from the U.S. Navy's Nuclear Power School at Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in Goose Creek, S.C. Nuclear Power School is a rigorous six-month course that trains officer and enlisted students in the science and engineering fundamental to the design, operation and maintenance of naval nuclear propulsion plants. Graduates next undergo additional instruction at a prototype training unit before serving as a surface warfare officer aboard a nuclear-powered surface ship or as an electronics technician aboard a nuclear-powered submarine.

No. 4 Stevenson has won two consecutive games without Dimitri Pecunes, but the freshman goalkeeper could return for Saturday's road contest at Middle Atlantic Conference rival Widener. Coach Paul Cantabene said the sprained AC joint in Pecunes' shoulder that he sustained in the first quarter of the Mustangs' eventual 14-13 overtime loss to No. 13 Roanoke on April 9 is improving. He is expected to test his shoulder in practice Thursday afternoon, and Cantabene said he is “optimistic” that Pecunes could play against the Pride.

The Tewaaraton Foundation, which will award the Tewaaraton Award to the nation's top lacrosse player after the conclusion of the NCAA tournament on Memorial Day, announced the addition of two players to the award's watch list, and one of the players is a Millersville native and Severna Park graduate. Senior goalkeeper Jeff Lowman of No. 11 St. John's is tied for 10th in Division I in saves per game (12.7) and ranks 12th in save percentage (.575) and 31st in goals-against average (10.05)