Sophomore

This may rank as one of those "Duh" moments, but Loyola coach Charley Toomey confirmed Wednesday morning that sophomore Jack Runkel would start when Eastern College Athletic Conference rival Air Force visits Ridley Athletic Complex Saturday. But Toomey wouldn't go so far as to name Runkel, who made a career-high 12 saves in the No. 8 Greyhounds' 13-8 victory over No. 14 Duke last Saturday, the starter over junior Michael Bonitatibus for the remainder of the season. “We're talking to the guys about weekly competition, and I think the way we played certainly warrants giving Jack the start this weekend,” Toomey said.

COLLEGE PARK - The most telling sign of progress in Mike Jones' game wasn't the Maryland sophomore scoring eight straight points in the second half of Saturday's win over Duke, when the Blue Devils seemed on the verge of putting the Terrapins away. It wasn't Jones' beautiful wrap-around pass to John Gilchrist, who scored and was fouled, with the three-point play cutting the Duke lead to one late in regulation. It came on the defensive end. Terps coach Gary Williams used Jones, when Chris McCray was out, to chase J.J. Redick, perhaps the top offensive player in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

WASHINGTON -- The question of whether Caron Butler will return to Connecticut for another season seemed as legitimate a topic as it's ever been -- he turned 22 this week, after all -- but the sophomore forward wasn't taking the bait when asked yesterday. "I'm just trying to focus on the tournament," said Butler, whose team will play North Carolina State today in a second-round NCAA tournament East Regional game at MCI Center. To say he's coy might be an understatement given the way his 2001-02 season has unfolded.

COLLEGE PARK -- Crystal Langhorne looked up at the giant scoreboard above the court at Comcast Center and was shocked to see her face plastered on the video screen. The reason why was even more stunning. In the midst of the No. 4 Maryland women's basketball team's 89-63 thrashing of Clemson, the sophomore center had scored 1,000 career points in fewer games than anyone else in the program's history. "[Sophomore forward] Jade [Perry] was like, `Congratulations!' and I was like, `What are you talking about?

Friends recalled Cameron Leigh O'Neill-Mullin, a St. Paul's School for Girls sophomore, as a talented athlete on the soccer field and basketball court who was compassionate and humble in her dealings with competitors and teammates. Cameron, 16, died April 5 in a boating accident in Goondiwindi, Queensland, Australia. A Lutherville resident, she had spent several weeks in Australia on an exchange program between St. Paul's School for Girls and St. Hilda's School. "She was blessed with a reservoir of talents and was wiser than her years," said attorney Jana C. Burch, a family friend who lives in Ruxton.

After finishing his freshman season at Maryland, Nick Faust figured that he had a good chance to become one of the men's basketball team's leading scorers as a sophomore. With the departure last spring of Terrell Stoglin, the Atlantic Coast Conference's top scorer a year ago, it seemed only logical for Faust to make that step. If his freshman year was a big transition for a player who had not played point guard since middle school and had been accustomed to always being a primary scoring option, Faust's sophomore year has been even more of an adjustment.

Last season, Sykesville's baseball team of 13- to 14-year-olds was only 13-23 in its inaugural campaign in the Baltimore Metro League Sophomore Division. But now, in only its second year, the county club could win it all.Monday night, it nailed down the Sophomore Division's second-half title by topping the Yankee-Rebels, 6-3, at Johnnycake Middle School in Baltimore.The locals now ride the crest of a 16-game winning streak and again will play the Baltimore City-based Yankee-Rebels, who won the first-half crown, in a best-of-three showdown this weekend at a location yet to be determined, for the overall divisional championship.

If you want dazzling accuracy from the perimeter, go see Maryland sophomore guard Shay Doron. If you're searching for brute strength in the low post, find freshman center Crystal Langhorne. But when Terps coach Brenda Frese needs aggressive, tight, where-you-go-I-go defense, she turns to sophomore guard Kalika France. "My job defensively is to make it the most difficult night for [the opponent]," France said. "As a defensive player, I know I'm not going to stop everybody, but my goal is to make the shot as difficult as possible.

COLLEGE PARK - Sophomore forward Chris Wilcox is well-known for his ability to dunk. He is considered the best pure athlete on the men's basketball team at the University of Maryland. Yesterday, in the team's annual Red-Black scrimmage that concluded the first week of practice, Wilcox, 6 feet 9, showed several hundred observers at Cole Field House that he also has been working on his outside shot. The Red team won both halves of the scrimmage, partly because Wilcox dominated inside for much of the exercise, and also because he contributed two three-point baskets in the second half.

Isaiah Philmore isn't in Kansas anymore, but he's still making big plays and lasting impressions on the basketball court. An early-season example occurred at Edmondson. John Carroll was clinging to a one-point lead in the final minute of the first half when Philmore got a layup after a turnover. The sophomore then grabbed the rebound of an Edmondson miss and went the distance for another layup with six seconds left. When the second half started, he scored the first six points to give the Patriots an 11-point lead, which was the margin of victory in a 74-63 win. "We played really hard, and I liked the intensity they came out with," Edmondson coach Roger O'Dea said about his players' efforts.