Loyola

As a freshman at Loyola last fall, Michael Wegner excelled as one of the top cross country runners in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association. An All-Metro first-team selection, Wegner played a big role in helping the Dons win another MIAA championship, and he started on a path to becoming one of the top runners in the state overall. This year wound up being a different and unusual one for the Pikesville resident. The sophomore decided to not run with Loyola this season, running unattached - working and training on his own. It was a difficult decision, and one that severely limited the races he could enter.

Attackman Drew Westervelt scored a career-high eight goals to lead an impressive offensive showing as the Chesapeake Bayhawks blew out the New York Lizards, 21-8, in the first Major League Lacrosse game at Icahn Stadium on Randalls Island, N.Y. Westervelt, a seventh-year veteran out of UMBC and John Carroll, stuck corners on off-ball shots and also dodged for unassisted tallies, collecting his eight goals on 12 shots. Attackman John Grant Jr. scored four times for Chesapeake (4-2)

The Loyola lacrosse team barely made the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference playoffs, able to sneak in on the season's final day and then following up with an improbable run to Friday's championship game against undefeated and No. 1 Boys' Latin. But the No. 4 Dons saved their best and most astonishing feat for the title game. Overcoming a six-goal deficit early and then down two goals late in the fourth quarter, the Dons scored the game's last three goals - with senior attackman Devin McNamara providing the game-winner with 1:56 remaining - to come away with a stunning 10-9 upset win over the No. 1 Lakers in front of an announced 6,271 at Towson University's Johnny Unitas Stadium.

Tim Goettelmann, one of Major League Lacrosse's inaugural players, will suit up for the  Chesapeake Bayhawks on Thursday night against the New York Lizards - the team for which he has played his entire 11-year MLL career. Goettelmann, 35, had announced his retirement from the league in January 2012, but he confirmed he is back in a phone interview Wednesday morning. And his nickname, "Monster," might not fit. Goettelmann has slimmed down to 205 pounds and has been training with an MMA fighter.

A day after Loyola's bid to secure a berth in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship was interrupted by lightning Tuesday night at Johnny Unitas Stadium, the No. 2 Dons finished the job with a 13-7 victory over No. 3 Gilman on Wednesday afternoon at the same site. Leading, 13-5, with 6:57 left in the fourth quarter when play was stopped on Tuesday, all Loyola (15-3) had to do was play keep-away against the inspired Greyhounds (12-4) to advance to the conference final against archrival No. 1 Calvert Hall (15-2)

Six months after leading Loyola to the NCAA tournament, the memories of March Madness still linger in the mind of Dylon Cormier . There was the nonstop publicity in the days leading up to the Greyhounds' matchup with second-seeded Ohio State; the anticipation of waiting for the tip at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh; hearing his name announced and seeing it displayed on the jumbotron; and finally taking the floor as part of Loyola's first...

Haliena Snowden had a career-high 18 points and 14 rebounds to lead Towson (7-5, 1-0) to a 60-46 win over visiting George Mason (7-5, 0-1) in the Colonial Athletic Association opener for both teams. Shanae Baker-Brice finished with 12 points, eight assists and four rebounds. Dovile Miliauskaite added 10 points and seven rebounds. Loyola 71, Iona 59: Sophomore guard Miriam McKenzie had a game-high 20 points, seven rebounds and a career-high seven assists, helping the visiting Greyhounds (6-6, 1-1)

When is The Sun going to give the Loyola lacrosse team its due? The Greyhounds remain undefeated this season, yet The Sun concentrates on the Hopkins Blue Jays. The Blue Jays are given front-page coverage for their loss to Navy, while Loyola's win and undefeated record are relegated to 11 lines on Page 6. I guess that Loyola will be the front-page story next week whether they win or lose - but only because they are playing the Blue Jays. Mark Zivkovich

Loyola's women's lacrosse team hasn't gotten a single point from a senior this spring, but the Greyhounds don't need to. The younger generation is stepping up big time. In Saturday's 15-14 overtime win at then-No. 13 Georgetown, freshmen scored 10 goals, including Annie Thomas' game-winner. Three more came from sophomore Marlee Paton. Thomas, an All-Metro attacker at John Carroll last season, said the 11 Greyhounds freshmen have grown comfortable with their roles and their teammates.

For reasons not entirely clear to me, I've been to most of the Loyola basketball home games this season. The crowds understandably grew as the season went on, but that didn't stop me from getting a good vantage point and watching the team grow from last year's below-.500 record to this season's new heights. But for those of you who had better things to do than spend a dozen nights at Reitz Arena this winter, here's a primer of what you need to know about the Greyhounds, and what it will take for them to blow up America's collective bracket Thursday night against Ohio State.

The Patriot League announced on Wednesday that its men's and women's lacrosse tournaments will expand to six teams beginning in 2013-14 with the addition of Loyola and Boston University. The men and women's tournaments will now feature a pair of quarterfinal games played at the site of the higher-seeded team, with the sixth seed visiting the third seed and the fifth seed at the fourth seed. Those winners will then join the top two seeds in the weekend semifinal and championship rounds, played at the site of the highest overall seed in the tournament.

The One Love Foundation announced Thursday that North Carolina's Zoe Skinner (Towson High) and Loyola's Jason Crane (Chesapeake-Anne Arundel) have been selected as the 2013 Yeardley Reynolds Love Unsung Hero Award winners.  Now in its third year, the award celebrates selfless acts of initiative and commitment performed by Division I lacrosse players; it is named after the former Notre Dame Prep and Virginia player.  Skinner and Crane are being rewarded...

At first-year program Richmond, sources said that Dan Chemotti has hired Loyola director of lacrosse operations Steve Layne . Layne, who was a defender for the Greyhounds during Chemotti's tenure, held the DOO position for the 2013 season. He's also the older brother of Chris Layne , a midfielder who just finished his career at Loyola. Chemotti, who was hired to lead the Spiders in October, ran the national champion Greyhounds' offense that averaged 12.05 goals per game and finished sixth in offensive efficiency in 2012.

Major League Lacrosse Loyola U. alum Sawyer named Rookie of Week after debut Former Loyola University standout Mike Sawyer scored a goal and assisted on two more in his professional debut for his hometown Charlotte Hounds on Friday at the Hamilton Nationals, earning Major League Lacrosse Rookie of the Week honors. His first assist came just over eight minutes into the second quarter as he fed Jovan Miller for the fifth goal in a 6-0 Charlotte run. He then scored his first professional goal 44 seconds into the fourth quarter, with the feed coming out of a familiar stick, that of fellow Loyola alumnus Eric Lusby (Severna Park)

The senior attackman took the lead role in the Dons' improbable run to the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship, highlighted by his two-goal, four-assist performance in Friday's 10-9 upset win over previously undefeated Boys' Latin to win the title. Capping the standout performance for McNamara was the title-clinching goal with 1:56 to play. The Dons, who earned the sixth and final playoff spot in the final day of the regular season, trailed 6-0 after the first quarter and 9-7 in the closing minutes of regulation.

The Loyola lacrosse team barely made the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference playoffs, able to sneak in on the season's final day and then following up with an improbable run to Friday's championship game against undefeated and No. 1 Boys' Latin. But the No. 4 Dons saved their best and most astonishing feat for the title game. Overcoming a six-goal deficit early and then down two goals late in the fourth quarter, the Dons scored the game's last three goals - with senior attackman Devin McNamara providing the game-winner with 1:56 remaining - to come away with a stunning 10-9 upset win over the No. 1 Lakers in front of an announced 6,271 at Towson University's Johnny Unitas Stadium.

Loyola men's basketball Guard Drummond chooses to transfer Loyola sophomore guard Justin Drummond has told the Greyhounds' coaching staff that will transfer, the school announced. Drummond, from Bowie, averaged 10.7 points and 3.9 rebounds in 33 games (four starts) for Loyola in 2011-12 and was named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Sixth Player of the Year. The 6-foot-4, 187-pound All-MAAC third-team selection has not decided where he will transfer. "We would like to thank Justin for his contributions to the program," said coach Jimmy Patsos , whose Greyhounds won the MAAC tournament and played in their first NCAA tournament since 1994.

Loyola attackman Eric Lusby is on pace for a career year, and he may just have a season-ending knee injury to thank for his surge. The fifth-year senior tore the anterior cruciate ligament and the medial collateral ligament in his right knee in an NCAA Tournament first-round loss to Cornell in 2010 and a slower-than-expected healing process forced him to abandon last season. This spring, he has paired with junior attackman Mike Sawyer to spark the No. 8 Greyhounds to their first 7-0 start since 2002, and the Severna Park native and graduate is enjoying every minute of it. “I think it was a tremendous help, taking a step back, taking a year off and not playing,” Lusby said of redshirting 2011.

MIAA A Conference lacrosse championship No. 1 Boys' Latin (19-0) vs. No. 4 Loyola (12-8) When: Friday, 8 p.m. Where: Johnny Unitas Stadium, Towson University Coaches: Bob Shriver, Boys' Latin; Jack Crawford, Loyola PLAYERS TO WATCH Boys' Latin: Colin Heacock, Sr., A; Shack Stanwick, Jr., A; Mac Pons, Sr., D; Christian Knight, Sr., G Loyola: Devin McNamara, Sr., A; Alex Roesner, Soph., A;...

ESPN analyst Paul Carcaterra participated in a Q&A Monday. The former Syracuse All-American midfielder, who can be followed on Twitter via @paulcarcaterra, also offered parting commentary on the three programs from Maryland that were in the NCAA tournament - sixth-seeded Maryland, Loyola and Towson. After Maryland's 16-8 loss to Cornell Sunday, senior long-stick midfielder Jesse Bernhardt and senior midfielder John Haus said the setback would not define a senior class that had advanced to back-to-back NCAA title games without winning the championship.