Maryvale

The senior cleared 5 feet, 10 inches in the high jump for the second time in two weeks at Friday's Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland meet at the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex. She also finished second in the triple jump and long jump. A two-time All-Metro selection, Shuman is in only her third year as a high jumper, but 5-10 would have won the state public schools title in each of the four classifications last winter. Shuman, who is 6 feet tall, went to camps at Princeton and Shippensburg last summer and she plans to continue jumping in college.

A private school with a nearly century-old castle at the center of its campus plans to expand in the future while keeping an eye on its past. Maryvale Preparatory School's humanities building, its latest proposed addition, has won approval from the Baltimore County Planning Board and will now move through the development review process. Maryvale opened nearly 65 years ago in the castle, a stately stone residence in Brooklandville patterned after a British medieval manor. The home, built in 1916 with 65 rooms and a great hall, is designated and preserved as a Baltimore County landmark.

Thomas G. Ward, an insurance company executive and former president of the Towson Business Association, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease Thursday at Holly Hill Manor in Towson. He was 72. Mr. Ward grew up in Stoneleigh and graduated from Towson High School in 1955. After being stationed in Germany with the Army, he met Joan I. Artka at a neighborhood bowling alley and fell in love at first sight, said a daughter, Stacey Lynn Munsell of Lutherville. The couple married in 1962, she said, with a reception at Peerce's Plantation.

Last year, Avery Gabbard and her Broadneck teammates could call themselves state champions. They couldn't, however, claim to be Anne Arundel County champions. Now they can. After dropping the first game to rival Severna Park, the No. 4 Bruins (13-1) roared back to score a 22-25, 25-17, 25-20, 25-21 title win over the sixth-ranked Falcons at Southern of Anne Arundel. "I know we won states last year, but it just felt like something was missing," Gabbard said. "I'm a senior this year, so winning now kind of makes up a little for last year."

A forward-midfielder for Maryvale's soccer team, Sophia Thomas plays a key role in a pivotal season for the Lions, who moved up to the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference after winning the B Conference tournament last season. Thomas, an IAAM All-Star in soccer and lacrosse, has committed orally to play at lacrosse at Georgetown next year after also considering Maryland and Virginia Tech. She plays club lacrosse for TLC. Interested in math and science, she is considering a career in forensic science and has a 3.65 grade point average.

The St. Vincent Pallotti girls soccer team proved a resilient bunch this season, relying on substance over flash with nothing coming easily. It was never more apparent than the No. 9 Panthers' successful run through the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference playoffs, highlighted by their 1-0 win over No. 3 McDonogh in yesterday's championship game at Glenelg Country School. Senior midfielder Randall Marshall scored her second straight game-winning goal, senior goalkeeper Amanda Carta earned her third straight 1-0 shutout win in the postseason, and a sturdy defensive front kept McDonogh's dangerous offense in check to bring home the first league crown for Pallotti (11-5-2)

The St. Paul's-Maryvale volleyball match featured some interesting subplots. St. Paul's coach Kelli Wilkinson is good friends with Maryvale coach Jim Jung. Players from both teams know each other well and have often played together in club competition. In addition, the schools are about a minute apart on Falls Road, and both teams carried undefeated record into yesterday's match at St. Paul's. But No. 1 St. Paul's used the power of Bailey Griswold and Bailey Webster at the net to pull off a not-so-easy 25-23, 25-19, 25-16 sweep of No. 13 Maryvale.

Sister Mary Lanahan, who helped a financially foundering girls' preparatory school get onto solid ground by renting out its Great Hall for weddings and receptions, died of congestive heart failure Wednesday at Peninsula Medical Center in Salisbury. She was 73. Born and raised in Darby, Pa., she joined the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur when she was 18. Her ministry was her work with children, first as a teacher and later as a volunteer in various community groups on the Eastern Shore, earning her the nickname "Mary-by-the-Sea."

Erinn Kathleen McCarthy, a ninth-grader at Maryvale Preparatory School who enjoyed writing and the theater, died Monday of osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer, at her Lutherville home. She was 14. Miss McCarthy, who enjoyed playing basketball, riding her bike and swimming, was 11 and in sixth grade at the independent school in Brooklandville, when she began experiencing pain in her knee. An initial X-ray showed nothing, but when the pain persisted, her physician ordered an MRI which showed a cancerous growth on her femur.

Gertrude Collier, a former city schools English teacher and director of a state reading program, died of cancer Dec. 31 at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Owings Mills resident was 61. Born Gertrude Vavrina in Baltimore and raised in Pikesville, she was a 1963 Maryvale Preparatory School graduate and earned a bachelor of arts degree from the old St. Joseph's College in Emmitsburg. She later earned a master's degree in education from the Johns Hopkins University. She taught in the Baltimore public school system for 23 years, much of that time at seven middle and high schools.