Loch Raven

Baltimore County's magnet school program continues to grow.Loch Raven Middle School in the Towson area will become the county's second magnet middle school in September 1995. It will have three magnet programs, designed to offer students choice and attract those with similar interests from nearby middle schools. The school also will have a new name -- Loch Raven Technological Academy for Environmental Sciences, Performing Arts and Visual Arts.The first magnet middle school, Sudbrook, opens in September.

Patapsco kept its state playoff hopes alive by blanking Loch Raven, 15-0, in a Baltimore County league game last night at Dundalk Community College.Travis Johnston led the Patriots (7-1) with 24 carries for 132 yards, including a 9-yard third-quarter touchdown run. Joe Bena rushed for 136 yards on 26 carries. Calvin Wilson caught his sixth touchdown pass of the season, a 45-yarder from Pat Melucci.The loss likely eliminated Loch Raven (6-2) from state playoff contention.No. 4 Bel Air 48, Perryville 6. Quarterback Adam Rafalski threw for three touchdowns and ran for two, including a 54-yard punt return, as the Bobcats (8-0)

Residents get a chance to tell the County Council how they feel about Executive Roger B. Hayden's $1.1 billion budget tonight at 7 o'clock at Loch Raven High School, 1212 Cowpens Ave., Towson.The annual public hearing precedes the seven-member council's formal deliberation on the budget.The budget takes effect July 1.The council may cut, but not add, money to the budget.But it could, for example, raise the piggyback income tax rate from its current 55 percent of the state tax and use the money to lower the property tax rate.

Some were surprised when an unranked Loch Raven girls basketball team upset then-No. 10 Mercy in its season-opener.Count Loch Raven senior guard/forward Shelley Klaes among them. But when the initial shock of the 50-41 victory wore off, Klaes and her teammates realized something about themselves."I really didn't think we were all that good," Klaes said. "But when we won that game, it was like, 'whoa, we really do have a good team.' "Said Loch Raven coach Diane George: "Mercy has a really good program, and that game opened our eyes as to the potential of our team."

After losing to John Carroll on Friday, Loch Raven went into last night's Baltimore County Championship game looking for a dose of confidence.With a 6-0 win over Owings Mills at Catonsville, the No. 8 Raiders got just what first-year coach Anthony Menegatti had hoped for heading into the state playoffs."

First-year Towson coach Jill Altshuler had heard about the intense rivalry that exists between the Generals and Loch Raven but, growing up in Catonsville, she never got a chance to witness it first-hand.Yesterday afternoon, Altshuler finally got a chance to see it -- and she liked what she saw. The visiting, ninth-ranked Generals jumped out front of the No. 13 Raiders early and never looked back en route to a 14-7 victory."When I was at Catonsville, we had a rivalry with Lansdowne, but it was nothing like this," said Altshuler.

Last Friday, Baltimore County 1A/2A coaches voted against sending Towson to the girls' county championship game in favor of Loch Raven, even though both teams had compiled identical regular-season records.Last night, Towson got its say.The Generals held the host Raiders to 3-for-33 shooting in the first half, and their leading scorer, Christy Dial, to 14 points for the game, as they built an early lead and cruised to a 57-36 Class 2A, Region II win.Towson (20-1) advances to tomorrow's regional final against top-seeded Mount Hebron, a 63-37 winner in the other semifinal.

Loch Raven's Christina Bhanos had 13 kills as the No. 9 Raiders stunned No. 3 Perry Hall, 15-4, 15-11, 15-5, for the Baltimore County volleyball championship last night at Loch Raven.In a match that was expected to be much tighter, the Raiders (13-1) needed only about an hour to defeat the Gators (14-1)."We just looked super," said Raiders coach Carol MacPherson, whose squads also won county titles in 1984 and 1988."I know [Perry Hall] was nervous, because all the pressure was on them. They were ranked higher, they come from the bigger school and they've never won the county championship."

To the folks who don't want to extend the bow deer-hunting season at Baltimore's reservoirs to include Loch Raven, here's a suggestion: Take a hike. Walk the woods around Loch Raven, the closest-in of the city's three reservoirs, and then take a comparison stroll at Liberty or Prettyboy. At the urging of a friend, I did just that last Monday. The woods are lovely, dark and deep at the latter two, where bow hunters have been thinning the herd for more than three decades. Not so much at Loch Raven, where Bambi and Co. have stripped the vegetative cupboard bare.

If it's a Saturday between spring and mid-autumn, William (Bluegill Bill) Dankmeyer probably can be found at Loch Raven Reservoir, trolling the coves and drop-offs for panfish and sometimes catching a surprise."