Runner

A 23-year-old male runner collapsed Saturday morning at the Baltimore Running Festival and later died, the second death during the marathon's nine-year history, event organizers and officials said. Lee Corrigan, president of Corrigan Sports Enterprises, the event organizer, said the runner fell at the 25th-mile marker, near the route's last medical aid station. Workers immediately came to the assistance of the man, who was taken to Union Memorial Hospital. His name was not released. Debra Schindler, a hospital spokeswoman, said the runner collapsed about 11:20 a.m. and was pronounced dead at the hospital at 1:11 p.m. after doctors unsuccessfully tried to revive him. Schindler said the runner never regained consciousness.

A 47-year-old Howard County man died yesterday morning after collapsing at the Naval Academy in Annapolis while running a 10-mile race.Joseph Sokol, who lived in the Dorsey Hall community of Columbia, collapsed about 8: 30 a.m. after running about 7.5 miles of the Annapolis Ten Mile Run, according to race director Ronald Bowman."

Tristram Thomas McDonogh In three seasons, Thomas has etched his name as one of the best cross country runners produced by the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association. The junior's victory at the MIAA championships in 16 minutes, 40 seconds made him the conference's first repeat champion since the league was formed in 1995. Eagles coach Andy Gill said he doubts the program has ever had a back-to-back titlist. Thomas, who did not lose to an MIAA opponent this fall, was just as successful against his public school peers.

Andre Beatty tried out for Carver's cross country team solely to improve his endurance for football next season.Little did the 135-pound freshman know that he'd be the Bears' best runner this year -- even a few steps better than three-year veteran Carnell Dargon, Carver's senior co-captain and No. 3 runner behind Beatty and junior Dunte Bennett.Lately, however, Beatty, 15, has had second thoughts about his future, especially after pacing the Bears to an unprecedented fifth Maryland Scholastic Association B Conference title and a 10-0 record.

Like most serious runners, Jim Adams of Baltimore is part shrink, part philosopher, part athlete. When he learned yesterday of President Bush's recent injuries, he all but winced in sympathy. "Happens to all of us," says the owner of Falls Road Running Store. "You rarely know what the problem is. I don't know his diagnosis, but I can tell you this: I've got what he has." Adams, an 18-time marathoner who normally logs 40 to 70 miles a week, may be a more rarefied athlete than Bush, but even the best must reckon with the buildup of aches and pains that comes with age. "It tends to be the accumulation of a thousand minor injuries," the 48-year-old Adams said.

Jim Clarius went to a middle school track meet and cleaned up. He raced most of the other kids in his Marston neighborhood and beat all of them.After that, no one had to tell him he was born to run.Clarius packed the bats, balls, gloves and footballs away and became one of the most feared high school cross country runners in Carroll County.He was good enough to draw attention from Frostburg State and Mount St. Mary's after his junior year at South Carroll.The slenderly built athlete then transferred to Francis Scott Key for his senior year and won the state 1A meet over the Western Maryland College course.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - John Maine pitched a seven-inning no-hitter in the second game of a doubleheader with the Winston-Salem Warthogs last night to lead the Frederick Keys to a 3-0 victory in the Single-A Carolina League. Maine (1-0), making his second start since joining the Keys from lower-level Single-A Delmarva, struck out six. The Warthogs' only runner reached on an error by first baseman Mike Huggins, whose team-leading ninth home run gave Frederick a 1-0 lead. Maine, the Orioles' sixth-round pick in the 2002 amateur draft, earned the call-up from Delmarva by going 7-3 with a 1.53 ERA in 12 starts, striking out 108 and walking 18 in 76 1/3 innings.

He wasn't set when the starter's pistol sounded and he ran into a tree, but that didn't deter David Chalmers from winning the boys varsity race at yesterday's 49th annual Spiked Shoe Invitational at Johns Hopkins University.The Gilman senior shrugged off his misfortunes and ran the hilly 3.1-mile course through Wyman Park in 16 minutes, 50 seconds."I tried to cut the course a little close and I grazed my shoulder on a tree," said Chalmers, his shoulder still bleeding. "The start was a little screwy, but I managed to get out OK. Our team was huddled up, and all of a sudden, we hear, 'Runners take your mark.

In 2000, McDonogh standout runner Tristram Thomas was making a switch from soccer to running, and the Archbishop Spalding cross country team was moving up to the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association's A Conference. Yesterday, they both shined in the MIAA championship at Oregon Ridge Park. For Thomas, a senior, it was nothing new. Finishing the 3.1 miles in 16 minutes, 15 seconds, he captured his third straight individual title with a dominating performance that quickly left the rest of the field behind and also took off 25 seconds from his winning effort in last year's championship.

Oakland Mills won its 12th regional boys cross country championship yesterday in a tiebreaker with Glenelg.Geoff Glaeser, Oakland Mills' sixth finisher, leaned at the finish // line, edging two runners, including Glenelg's fifth finisher, and through displacement knotted the Class 1A Central championship at 33-33.Only the top five runners actually score points for their teams. With Glaeser ahead of him, Glenelg's fifth-place finisher, Jonathan Goldsmith, scored 16 points instead of 15.And the first tiebreaker criterion is head-to-head competition between the sixth finishers.