Top Teams

When Tony Kennedy founded the I-95 Kickoff Classic, he wanted to bring more attention to Maryland high school football, and he has done that even before the first kickoff. Kennedy has pulled together many of the state's top football programs — including Gilman, Good Counsel and DeMatha — for a Labor Day weekend showcase already rated the No.3 classic in the country by MaxPreps. The classic's five games Friday night and Saturday at Towson University's Johnny Unitas Stadium feature four showdowns between teams from the state's top private school conferences: the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference and the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference.

Maybe this is one of those gift horse situations that you shouldn't analyze too closely, but it's hard not to notice that the Orioles are in one of the most productive offensive slumps ever. Their 1-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Sunday is just their latest high-wire act in the grueling 2 1/2-week stretch against the top teams in the American League West that ended with yet another important series victory against another tough playoff contender. The lovely totals, as broadcaster Joe Angel likes to call them, clearly don't tell the whole story, but no one is going to turn a nose up at 10 wins in 16 games at a time when the Orioles needed to solidify their hold on first place in the AL East.

Who's in the goal? Who's handling faceoffs? Those are the pertinent personnel questions as the college lacrosse season begins in earnest this weekend. A number of perennial powers had to replace their goalies, and the more one's team controls possession, the easier its transition. Syracuse and Towson enjoy putting big numbers on the scoreboard, but the other serious contenders for the NCAA championship that will be awarded at Rutgers on May 27 prefer a slower pace. With the number of automatic qualifiers to the NCAA tournament up to six, a third of the 12-team field will supplant teams with higher computer ratings.

The defending Class 4A-3A champion Westminster boys lacrosse team is familiar with weather delays disrupting its plans in the playoffs. Before capturing last year's state title against South River, the Owls had to come back a second day before they could celebrate. It happened again Monday night in their Class 4A North region District 1 title game at Howard, as play was suspended after thunder and lightning started at halftime. In a battle of 15-0 teams, the visiting No. 8 Owls had a 5-3 halftime lead against the No. 9 Lions before play was suspended.

Three of the country's Top 20 boys basketball teams will compete in the fifth annual First National Bank Charm City Classic at the Towson Center on Jan. 25 and 27.Southern-B., the area's No. 1 team and the No. 5 team in this week's USA Today's Super 25 poll, will meet the country's No. 1 team -- St. Anthony's of Jersey City, N.J. -- on the 25th at 8:30 p.m. in a Northwest bracket first-round game. The other first-round contest includes St. John's-Prospect Hall of Frederick, ranked No. 15 nationally, against St. Raymond's (N.Y.

LOS ANGELES -- In a two-point loss on Friday night, the Washington Bullets earned the respect of the Seattle SuperSonics. A month ago, there was the respect of the Chicago Bulls in a one-point loss. It was the same thing back in November, as the Bullets earned the respect of the Houston Rockets in a four-point loss.Notice a pattern?Through the first three months of the season, the Bullets have yet to demonstrate the ability to record a quality win. Against the eight teams that are currently ranked either first or second in their divisions, the Bullets have an 0-11 record, including Friday's 97-95 loss to the Sonics.

Saturday's Bull Run Invitational cross country meet at Hereford will feature all but two of The Sun's top 10 boys and girls teams among the 115 competing schools ranging from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington. Among the local boys teams are No. 1 Loyola, No. 2 Francis Scott Key, No. 3 Archbishop Spalding, No. 4 Wilde Lake, No. 5 River Hill, No. 6 Dulaney, No. 7 Broadneck, No. 8 Mount St. Joseph and No. 10 South River. The girls competitions will feature No. 1 Severna Park, No. 2 Dulaney, No. 3 River Hill, No. 5 C. Milton Wright, No. 6 Broadneck, No. 7 Seton Keough, No. 8 Towson, No. 9 Hereford and No. 10 South River . Growing wild If you were to ask Michael Woods' mother, Alyssa, his superstitious ritual has gotten more than "just a little hairy," she said.

When the field for the NCAA Division I women's lacrosse tournament is announced Sunday at 9 p.m. on CSTV, there shouldn't be many surprises. Most of the top teams have been fairly consistent, leaving few on the bubble. No. 1 Northwestern (16-0) appears a lock for the top seed, having proved itself despite a schedule not as strong as many other top teams'. "They've earned it," said Johns Hopkins coach Janine Tucker. "I do think strength of schedule will play some part [in the selections]

Marcus Hatten can do just about anything he wants to on the basketball court.He can be clutch, as he was scoring 20 points in a 71-70 victory over Lake Clifton last season, securing the win after grabbing his eighth defensive rebound of the night with two seconds left and dribbling out of harm's way.Or he can be acrobatic, as he was in converting a crowd-pleasing dunk off an alley-oop pass in last season's Class 4A state semifinal loss to Oxon Hill."

Player of the YearJamal Brown, Dunbar, senior, center: After four seasons without being ranked No. 1 in the area, uncharacteristic for Dunbar, the longtime East Baltimore basketball power, Brown help carry it to a wire-to-wire at the top spot this season. The 6-foot-6 junior center averaged 20.1 points, 14.0 rebounds and 5.3 blocks for the Poets, who won their fifth state title in six seasons last weekend at College Park, defeating Central of Prince George's County for the Class 2A championship.

The Loyola Maryland women are already in the NCAA tournament, earning an automatic berth with their Patriot League championship Sunday, but the Greyhounds could make a big impression on the selection committee with a win over the No. 2 Orange in Saturday's regular-season finale. The No. 11 Greyhounds have been successful against Syracuse in recent years, beating the Orange en route to Big East tournament championships in 2011 and 2012. Syracuse is the highest-ranked team on Loyola's schedule this season, so a win would put an exclamation point on what is now a 12-game winning streak and perhaps boost Loyola higher in the 26-team Division I bracket to be announced Sunday night at 9 p.m. "We have a real opportunity here," Loyola coach Jen Adams said, "an opportunity to get out and play opposition that plays a bit of a different style.

Attacker Gabby Cha wasn't one of the bigger names in Towson's 2013 recruiting class, which among others included a high school All-American and a key player from one of the nation's top-ranked programs. These days, however, the former Mount de Sales standout continues to make quite a name for herself in the Colonial Athletic Association. For the third time this season, Cha on Monday was named CAA Rookie of the Week, after racking up five goals and two assists in a pair of games.

The boys lacrosse season has started for the private schools, and the public schools will begin play on Friday. That means it's time to start rolling out the projections for this season's top teams. In the coming days, Varsity Letters will count down the top-five teams. The area's preseason No. 1-ranked team will be posted Wednesday. The entire Top 15 poll, along with the top players to watch, will be available online Wednesday night and the entire preview package will be in Thursday's print edition.

A few weeks before the 2013 football season started at Navy, Ken Niumatalolo sat in his office and talked about how it was the most talented bunch of Midshipmen he had been around as both the team's head coach and as an assistant under both Paul Johnson and Charlie Weatherbie. Going into his seventh season as head coach, Niumatalolo knows that this year's team - led by junior quarterback Keenan Reynolds - could be even better than the one that finished 9-4 last fall by sweeping its fellow service academies and topping off the season with a contentious bowl victory over Middle Tennessee State.

With back-to-back victories over Syracuse and Duke  - the teams that played in the NCAA title game last year - Maryland was the easy pick to be anointed the No. 1 team in almost every poll this week. But that ranking means little to coach John Tillman, who spent a considerable amount of time during his weekly conference call Tuesday morning downplaying the significance of the accolade for the Terps (4-0 overall, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference). “I think most coaches would tell you that we don't want to be ranked No. 1,” he said.

COLLEGE PARK -- The Maryland men's lacrosse team needed some big performances from its veteran leaders, and senior midfielder Mike Chanenchuk, senior goalkeeper Niko Amato and junior Goran Murray were happy to oblige. Chanenchuk tied a career high with five goals and also had an assist, Murray held Duke's leading scorer Jordan Wolf in check, and Amato made a game-high 17 saves to propel the No. 3 Terps to a 10-6 victory over the reigning national champion and top-ranked Blue Devils at Byrd Stadium on Saturday.

Expectations were high for Robi Zimmerman entering the season - and she met all of them. The senior pitcher finished 8-2 with a 1.60 ERA, leading the Gators to the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference championship. Zimmerman pitched 70 innings, allowing 43 hits while striking out 49. She also had a no-hitter and gave up only one run in the two conference playoff games, including the championship game against Archbishop Spalding. At the plate, she batted .491, with 11 doubles, one triple, three home runs and 27 RBIs.

After a stunning three-point loss to Northeastern Wednesday night, the Towson men's basketball team had just two days to lick its wounds and craft a game plan against Colonial Athletic Association leader Delaware. That was fine with Marcus Damas. "That's the great thing about basketball," the senior forward said. "You can play again in a couple days, and I'm happy that we get Delaware on Saturday. " Wednesday's 57-54 setback to the Huskies, which ended with sophomore guard David Walker's three-pointer from 30 feet away as time expired, certainly took some of the luster off Saturday's road game against the Blue Hens at the Bob Carpenter Center at noon.

Mount St. Mary's made a magical run through the Northeast Conference men's basketball tournament last March, advancing to the championship game as a No. 5 seed before falling to LIU Brooklyn. The Mountaineers have fired a few salvos of a similar variety thus far, tagging St. Francis Brooklyn and Wagner with their first league losses of the season and winning three of their past five games. “I think we're playing pretty well,” coach Jamion Christian said Tuesday morning. “I think we're still looking for a level of consistency.