Butler scores her 1,000th career point for Northeast

This has been a rough winter for the four local varsity basketball teams. As this week began the overall record for the girls and boys teams at Northeast and Chesapeake stood at 12-58. The Cheseapeake High girls were 5-12 and that was the most wins among any of the teams.

The Northeast girls were 4-14 while the Northeast boys were 2-14 and the Cheseapeake High boys were 1-18. 

But the Northeast girls got some good news on Tuesday, despite a 46-30 loss to Broadneck. Senior Latifah Butler hit two free throws in the fourth quarter to give her 1,001 points in her prep career. It has been at least 14 years since a Northeast girl reached 1,000 points, head coch Patti Delfs told Patch on Wednesday. Butler is averaging about 17 points per game.

She had 19 points for Northeast in a 62-38 loss to Meade on Feb. 11. Bri Zajac had 23 points and Rose Smith had 11 for Chesapeake in a 67-53 loss to Old Mill the same day.

Aaron Terry had 28 points for the Cheseapeake boys on Feb. 11 in a 101-65 loss to Old Mill. Justin Daniels had 11 rebounds and Robert Engel had 11 points for Northeast in a 70-46 loss to Meade on Feb. 11. The Chesapeake boys fell to 1-19 with an 86-44 loss on Tuesday to Southern.

Mansell is a key at York (Pa.) College

Chesapeake High graduate Katie Mansell planned to major in biology at St. Mary's College of Maryland. But four years later she is on track to graduate this spring from York (Pa.) College with a degree in recreation therapy. So what happened?

She was set to attend St. Mary's but was on a waiting list to get into the biology program there. So her mother asked if she had heard of York and they visited the school when she was in high school. "I was pretty close to going to St. Mary's but some things feel through," said Mansell, a senior defender on the women's lacrosse team. "I came to campus (at York) and absolutely fell in love with the team and they have wonderful athletic facilities. We are pretty spoiled here with the athletic facilities."

She switched her major as a freshman and got involved in Easter Seals and volunteered with the Special Olympics. "I want to settle on the Eastern Shore and I want to work with Easter Seals," she said. "I realized there was a whole field dedicated to this."

On the field she is a co-captain this season after she started 14 of 15 York games last year. She had one goal, seven groundballs and three draw controls. As a sophomore she started 14 of 15 contests in 2009 and had two goals and 13 groundballs. Mansell played in 10 games in 2008 as a freshman and had three groundballs for the Division III team.

"We are going to pretty solid," said Mansell, who also played volleyball and ran track in high school. The team was 10-6 last year and opens this season on Feb. 19 at Wesley in Delaware.

Several of her former high school teammates are now playing college sports. C.J. Durham of Chesapeake High plays lacrosse at Maryland-Baltimore County.

Former Chesapeake students Stephanie Thomson and Kaitlin Boerman were on the field hockey team at McDaniel last fall and Brittany Lines is a junior this season on the lacrosse team at the school.

County wrestling comes to Pasadena

Chesapeake High hosted the Anne Arundel County wrestling championships that began Feb. 18 and ended the next day.

"You have to say Old Mill is the favorite," said Jim Rubush, the head coach at Arundel. "I would be surprised if 20 points separated the top four. I think it is going to be a tight race. I don't think anyone will dominate the tournament. That includes Old Mill. South River will be real tough. They have a solid team but not a lot of studs. I don't know if they have a clear cut county champ. Old Mill has big guns."

Last year Arundel was third in the county back of second-place North County and winner Old Mill. Arundel returns three wrestlers who made the county finals last year. One of them is Tyler Goodwin, who is unbeaten and ranked No. 1 in the region at 130 pounds by The Washington Post.