Pond

There's more than one way to measure the effect one player can have on a team. The obvious one is to keep an eye on the bottom line, specifically the wins, the losses and the championships. In that vein, Hammond pitcher Stephanie Speierman has demonstrated her value to the Golden Bears, practically carrying her team to the Class 2A state softball title with one of the most brilliant seasons around these parts in any sport. For first-year Hammond coach Richard Pond, Speierman's gift may be in the buzz she creates for the program, the interest and attention she spurs for those who want to see her pitch, and the desire she sparks in younger players to be like her. Already, Pond said, kids are approaching him in the grocery store checkout line, and parents are asking him what summer program they should get their girls involved in so they can pitch like Speierman.

A daylong search o f a 10-foot-deep pond failed to locate an Anne Arundel County manwho disappeared Tuesday night after going swimming there with friends, a county Fire Department spokesman said. Larry Lester, about 50, of Lothian had been swimming with friends in the 2-acre pond, a former sand pit on Sands Road in Wayson's Corner, and failed to join the others when they were leaving at 9:15 p.m., said department spokesman Lt. Shawn Jones. A decision on whether to resume the search was to be made this morning, he said.

Cameron Stirling Cromwell, whose ponds and fences dot the Baltimore region, died of a heart attack Tuesday outside his home in Sparks. He was 72. Self-employed for most of his career, he specialized in post-and-rail fencing and in pond construction, mostly in Baltimore County. His family estimated that he built more than 100 ponds over more than four decades. Though semiretired for the past few years, he continued to build and repair ponds. Born in Baltimore and raised on a farm in Hereford, he graduated in 1956 from Hereford High School.

CAMBRIDGE -- They came from Virginia, New Jersey and as far away as Hawaii yesterday to prepare to bury two young boys - 8-year-old Jarris Robinson, who fell through the ice on a neighborhood pond Sunday afternoon, and his brother Aaron, 12, who died trying to save him. Relatives and friends gathered inside the red-brick house with Jenise Robinson, who had warned her sons not to climb the fence around the pond. Neighbors and schoolmates, struggling with disbelief, spoke of two vibrant, energetic kids.

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Clinging to the pond's squishy edge, the chatty group of second-graders from Manchester Elementary scooped fishnets under the water's surface. They were looking for insects, but anything in the Pine Valley pond was fair game. "This is your chance to get down and dirty," said Sherry Fisher, a naturalist at the Charlotte's Quest Nature Center in Manchester. "But you're not here to invade and destroy. You're here to explore." With that pronouncement, a flurry of cheers erupted from the crowd of nearly two dozen pupils from Shelley Ruhlman's' class.

Call it a red herring. Or a pacu-lips now. Either way, it appears the fish caught at a Dundalk park pond last Sunday was a pacu, not a piranha. Both fish swim in the same fish family and are often mistaken for each other. Earlier this week, two biologists were fooled, as were several veteran fishermen. "I can understand the misidentification," said Tom Lorenz, an invasive species researcher at the University of New Orleans. "The red is similar on the body. A lot of people buy [pacu] thinking they've purchased piranha, and when they get too large, they throw them in local waters."

The sight and sound of moving water can be such a balm to the human spirit that it is a wonder, in these troubled times, that we all do not move beside the nearest stream. It is a testament to human ingenuity that homeowners have found ways to bring that moving water to them. Manmade ponds, streams, waterfalls and fountains have become as common as birdbaths. There are container water gardens with a handful of papyrus and a couple of goldfish that are perfect for a condominium balcony.

A police chase turned into a rescue this week when a Howard County police officer saved a man who fell into an East Columbia pond after a short pursuit. Officer Erik Gillenwater pulled Joaquin Deshaun Leycock, 28, of Columbia from the bottom of the 15-foot-deep pond. Gillenwater stopped Leycock for speeding on Snowden River Parkway near Dried Earth Road about 11:45 p.m. Wednesday and, after seeing what appeared to be cocaine, asked him to get out of the car, said Pfc. Jennifer Reidy. Leycock "spoke to the officer for a couple of minutes, then turned and ran unexpectedly," Reidy said.

Leonardtown -- These days, Maryland's front line of defense against an invasion of the deadly bird flu looks, quite literally, like a wild goose chase. On foot, in trucks and by boat, a team of biologists from the Department of Natural Resources is swooping down on flocks of geese to test them for avian influenza, specifically Asian H5N1, a strain that has caused the death of more than 100 people and millions of birds overseas. Wildlife experts suspect that if the deadly form of the virus enters this country, it will most likely be through birds that mingle in the arctic during the breeding season before returning to their wintering grounds.