National Tournament

A tournament involving prep schools from Massachusetts to Texas, born as a result of the cancellation of a national high school tennis championship event, plays the sea of hard courts at McDonogh School for three days beginning tomorrow with the host squad one of the favorites.Led by captain Nick Colvin, who was unbeaten in his four years competing in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association, the Eagles were 12-0 while winning the MIAA A Conference title for the fifth straight year.

Mount St. Joseph wrestler Andrew Gold defeated four state champions and a state runner-up en route to a third-place finish at 112 pounds in the National High School Seniors Wrestling Championships at the Cleveland Convention Center. Old Mill's Doug West was fifth at 130 pounds, joining Gold in earning high school All-America status for finishing among the top eight in their respective weight classes in the three-day event that ended yesterday. "Coming into the tournament, I was under the impression that a lot of the guys here were either first or second in their states, so I tried to raise the level of intensity I went out with," said Gold, a University of Pennsylvania-bound, two-time Maryland private schools champ.

The left winger carried the puck up ice, swerved into the corner of the rink, and just as a defender slid helplessly toward him, slipped a pass in front of the goal. A teammate, Joe Tarbox, gathered it in, fired a shot past the goaltender and raised his stick in celebration. It was Monday morning at The Gardens Ice House, the usual friendly ice hockey scrimmage was under way, and the Red team had taken a 1-0 lead over the Gold. "After this many years, you do have a sense of where your teammate is going to be," says Carl Sherman, the winger who made the pass.

GERMANTOWN - You hear it time and time again from Maryland Bays under-14 boys coach Steve Nichols, how the team's success all starts with its unflappable defense. Yesterday, up against its sternest test to date, it was at its unflappable best. That's how it had to be, from beginning to end. The Bays successfully protected an early second-half goal by outside midfielder Brandon Fischer, holding off the Nomads of La Jolla, Calif., for a 1-0 win in a first-round match in the Snickers U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships at the Maryland SoccerPlex.

It's a game that transports players into the caldrons of sorcery, unleashing trolls, minotaurs, nameless abysses, vampire trainers, fanged rats with dripping saliva and hulking monsters with ram horns. But in a card game that often honors creatures that can quickly slash flesh or rip out hearts, Antonino De Rosa, 23, of Port St. Lucie, Fla., advanced to the "Magic: The Gathering" national championship in Baltimore yesterday using a trio of serene, human-feline hybrids pleasantly named "sun droplets."

WILDWOOD, N.J. - On the boardwalk a few feet behind Ricky Brode loom amusements built for 10-year-old boys: funnel cake stands, the curving spine of a roller coaster, a haunted mansion overrun by the undead. But Ricky is transfixed by the polished stone resting against his right thumb knuckle. Patience, he tells himself: A great mibster can take 30 seconds or more to set up a shot. Finally he flicks the marble across the concrete slab, and as it skitters it spins on its axis, like a tiny world.

Team TOP of the BAY, a girls lacrosse team from Harford County, took third place in the US Lacrosse U15 National Championships held in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., at the Wide World of Sports Complex last week. Grace Richards (John Carroll '15) led the team in scoring with 17 goals in seven games, while Miranda Ibello (Maryvale '14) was a close second with 16 goals and Emma Wall (John Carroll '14) finished the tournament with 15 goals and also led the team in assists with seven. The defense was anchored by Haley Kyger (John Carroll '14)

IN THE APRIL 15, 1984, issue of the New York Times, a free-lance writer named Michael Dixon wrote an account of a painful experience he had as an African-American playing golf.The article ran under the headline "On Being Black and Loving Golf," and it describes a 1979 incident at Winged Foot Country Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., which introduced Dixon to golf's racial animus. A few months before the incident, Dixon had played the course on the United States Golf Association's Media Day for the 1980 U.S. Senior Open, and he'd had an enjoyable time.

Maryland, which struggled to find the answer at point guard this season, will enter 2013-14 with a new starter at the position after the announcement that incumbent Pe'Shon Howard is transferring to another school for his senior year. Howard, a Californian who grew up immersed in celebrity culture as the grandson of a Los Angeles hair stylist, is likely to transfer to a school in California or close to it. His grandfather, Bill Howard, moved to Maryland to be with Pe'Shon Howard during his college years.

Baltimore's Department of Recreation and Parks has openings for players in its metro wheelchair softball league. The league, sponsored by the department's therapeutic division, offers instruction and competitive play. Players will have a chance to play in the Mid-Atlantic Wheelchair Softball Championships on July 22 and 23, with the possibility of advancing to the national tournament, the department said. Games are played at 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays at Farring-Baybrook Recreation Center, 4501 Farring Court.