Semifinalists

Unceremoniously dumped by the Bengals in September, Ravens right tackle Willie Anderson goes back to Cincinnati on Sunday knowing he got the better of the deal. At 7-4, the Ravens are shooting for the playoffs. At 1-9-1, the Bengals are back on the treadmill to nowhere. "I look real, real big in purple," Anderson said yesterday when asked the difference between the two teams. Anderson has played a key role on a young offensive line since signing with the Ravens on Sept. 5. At the final roster cutdown, the Bengals asked Anderson to take a demotion and pay cut. When he didn't, he was released.

Don't tell anyone, but the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association really does have a heart. It's easy, and in some cases convenient, to think of the MPSSAA, the state's version of the NCAA, as the organization that can't say yes, particularly to things that might show sympathy to potentially aggrieved parties, be they athletes or coaches or both. But there are rare moments when the rules can be bent to make just one person happy. The most recent recipient of the MPSSAA's generosity is Reservoir volleyball player Tiffany Jacobson, who almost surely would not have played in Saturday's Class 3A state championship match against Huntingtown if not for the compassion of the MPSSAA and its volleyball committee.

Eleven students from six Anne Arundel County public high schools have been selected as semifinalists in the 2008 National Merit Scholarship competition, nearly double the number who achieved the distinction a year ago. Five more come from the county's five private high schools: four from Archbishop Spalding High in Severn and one from Key School in Annapolis. Anne Arundel County public schools had six National Merit Scholarship semifinalists last year. This year, Severna Park High School alone has four.

A Broadneck High School senior's radiation experiment has earned her $1,000 for college and $1,000 for her high school science department, and a place among the best science students in the country. Danna Thomas, 17, was named one of 300 national semifinalists last week in the Intel Science Talent Search, often referred to as the junior Nobel Prize because six former finalists have gone on to win that honor. She is the only semifinalist from the county this year and one of only 22 from Maryland.

4 area students semifinalists in talent search Four Baltimore-area students are among 300 teens nationwide selected this week as semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search competition, which is known as the "Junior Nobel Prize." The local winners are: Emma Call of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Afton Vechery of Glenelg High School, Danna Thomas of Broadneck Senior High School in Annapolis and Anna Cyganowski of Notre Dame Preparatory School in Towson. The students were selected from 1,700 applicants.

7 seniors named test semifinalists Seven Anne Arundel County seniors were named National Merit semifinalists last week. They were among 16,000 seniors nationwide who scored in the top 1 percent on the 2005 PSAT/National Merit qualifying test. The semifinalists are: Christopher W. Hart-Moynihan of Annapolis High School. Alyssa R. Massey of Glen Burnie High School. Matthew C. LeFavor and Keith T. Rafferty of Old Mill High School. Alexander J. Fu of Severn School. Emily A. Frost and Mark C. Strother of Severna Park High School.

WIMBLEDON, England -- Hah. For a moment, just one, after Mario Ancic had played a heated point of harder and harder-hit forehands, he hit one too good. It flew past Roger Federer, who barely dents the grass on Wimbledon's Centre Court as he runs on his toes. Ancic had broken Federer's serve. And then held his own at love, four straight points that caused Ancic to pump his fist and shout. Hah, Federer thought to himself. Does this young man from Croatia think he can beat me? So here's what Federer did. He held his own serve at love.

1. Loyola -- Last season: 14-3, ranked No. 3 -- Outlook: Defender Joe Kelly, goalie Tim Harrington, midfielder Pat Hutchinson and attackman Steele Stanwick are among the returning players who will pace the returning MIAA A Conference semifinalists. 2. Boys' Latin -- Last season: 18-2, No. 2 -- Outlook: Midfielders David Bronfein and Jack Carolan join defender Brian Farrell on a Lakers team that hopes to earn coach Bob Shriver his 11th MIAA A Conference title-game berth. 3. Gilman -- Last season: 8-6, No. 6 -- Outlook: Senior Kevin Carroll and his brother, Brian, are among the nation's best midfielders, and defender Barney Ehrmann is among the premier defenders for this MIAA A Conference playoff contender.

Three students from area high schools have been named semifinalists in a prestigious national science competition. The students - all 17-year-old seniors - are Myers Abraham Davis and Owen Forgione Hill, both at Polytechnic Institute in Baltimore, and Jeffrey Chunlong Xing at River Hill High in Clarksville. They each won a $1,000 prize in the annual Intel Science Talent Search, with a matching sum going to their schools. "It takes an extraordinary young person, somebody who's focused on a particular goal and inspired to do something.

HELSINKI, Finland - At 5 feet 10 and 165 pounds, Joel Brown is not one of the bigger men running the high hurdles on the international circuit. But he's as gritty as they come and concedes nothing to the taller hurdlers and those 10 unrelenting, 42-inch barriers he faces in his specialty event. A career-best 13.22-second performance earlier this year was proof that the 25-year-old Woodlawn High and Ohio State alumnus had, indeed, arrived as an elite athlete, and his spot in tonight's semifinals of the 110-meter hurdles at the 10th world championships of track and field serves as Exhibit B. Brown advanced to the semis with a 13.90 third-place performance in the face of a brutal, 1.8-meter-per-second wind lashing into every runner in the sixth and final opening-round race yesterday morning at Olympic Stadium.