Boston, MA…Senior Brian Donatelli (Whitehouse Station, NJ/Hunterdon Central) and junior Martine McGrath (West Long Branch, NJ/Shore Regional) each met NCAA provisional standards in their respective events on the opening day of the ECAC Championships hosted by Harvard University on Friday.

McGrath was second overall in the 5,000 meters with a personal-best time of 17:16.60, while Donatelli was third in the shot put with a heave of 15.92 meters.

Junior Kirsten Gerbehy (Califon, NJ/Voorhees) also had a strong first day at the championship meet as she placed sixth in the pentathlon with 2,606 points.

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Fredericksburg, VA… The College of New Jersey women’s basketball team opened the 2008 NCAA Division III Championships in impressive fashion as the Lions got past Bridgewater (VA) State 65-52 in the first round on Friday.

The Lions (22-6) advance to face fourth-ranked University of Mary Washington (27-2) on Saturday at 5 p.m. Mary Washington will have the home-court-advantage as the Eagles are hosting the first two rounds of the tournament. Mary Washington advanced beating Baruch College, 73-58.

The win was the first in the NCAA Tournament for the Lions since a 60-52 victory over Hunter College in 2004.

TCNJ led from the start scoring the game’s first seven points and led by as many as 12 on several occasions. The Lions did a lot of their damage from behind the 3-point arc as junior Alyssa Michella (Washington Twp., NJ/Immaculate Heart Academy) connected three times from long range as TCNJ carried a 31-23 advantage into the half.

In the second half, the Lions built the lead to 43-27, but the Eagles closed the margin to 48-41 with 8:32 remaining. That was as close as Bridgewater would get as TCNJ responded with a quick 5-0 run to regain control en route to the victory.

Senior Sara Best (High Bridge, NJ/Voorhees) poured in a career high 19 points for the Lions, shooting 8-for-11 from the floor. She also added eight rebounds. Junior center Hillary Klimowicz (Scotch Plains, NJ/Scotch Plains-Fanwood) contributed with 16 points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots, while Michella was the third Lion to each double figures with 11. Freshman Kelsey Kutch (Hillsborough, NJ/Hillsborough) added to the win with eight points and 10 rebounds.

Bridgewater capped its season at 15-14.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Conference champions meet this weekend as 2007 BIG EAST Champion Rutgers heads to College Station, Texas for a three-game series with 2007 Big 12 Champion and No. 21 Texas A&M. The Scarlet Knights and Aggies open the series with a pair of night games with first pitch set for 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, followed by a 1:00 p.m. game on Sunday at Olsen Field. Game times are listed in eastern standard time.

Rutgers (2-4) continues the challenging early portion of its schedule with its third nationally-ranked opponent in as many weekends. The Scarlet Knights lost a 9-5, daylight-shortened game to Temple on Wednesday in their home opener. After splitting a doubleheader with then No. 25 Old Dominion on the road, RU took one of three at then No. 22 Georgia Tech last weekend.

Junior preseason All-BIG EAST selection Tom Edwards (West Caldwell, N.J.) leads Rutgers offensively. The Scarlet Knights\’ No. 3 hitter owns a .435 average (10-for-23) with seven RBI in six games this season. He was a perfect 4-for-4 last time out against Temple.

The Rutgers weekend rotation consists of senior righty Steve Holt (Toms River, N.J.) on Friday, sophomore righty Casey Gaynor (Toms River, N.J.) on Saturday and junior righty Matt Giannini (Millington, N.J.) on Sunday. In his first game in nearly two years after undergoing Tommy John surgery last season, Holt pitched seven strong innings last Friday in a no-decision at Georgia Tech. He registered three strikeouts and allowed just one earned run. Gaynor pitched into the eighth inning against the Yellow Jackets and posted a career-high nine strikeouts in a one-run loss last Saturday. Giannini struck out five in 5.2 innings last Sunday at Georgia Tech. He didn\’t surrender a run until the sixth inning and retired seven-straight at one point against the Yellow Jackets.

Texas A&M is 9-2 on the season and enters the series on an eight-game winning streak. Last weekend, Texas A&M captured the Aggie Baseball Classic with victories over Ohio State, Arkansas and Louisiana Tech. The Aggies defeated Nicholls State twice during the week. Senior third baseman Dane Carter is hitting .465 with four doubles, four triples and three home runs. Texas A&M\’s only losses came in the season\’s opening weekend as the Aggies dropped a pair to Northern Colorado.

The Aggies will go with freshman righty Barret Loux (0-0, 5.14 ERA) on Friday, freshman lefty Brooks Raley (1-0, 3.68 ERA) on Saturday and sophomore righty Scott Migl (1-0, 2.31 ERA) on Sunday. Reliever Travis Starling has not allowed a run in six appearances, spanning six innings and has three saves on the season.

This weekend marks the first meeting between Rutgers and Texas A&M on the diamond. Rutgers will be playing in the state of Texas for the first time since 1999 when the Scarlet Knights traveled to Lubbock, Texas for an NCAA Regional, hosted by Texas Tech. RU dropped a pair of games in the regional, falling to the host Red Raiders, 5-2, and Rice, 6-1.

On March 6, 2008. Age 80. Of Gloucester City. Loving wife of 52 years to the late John \”Jack\” Kelley. Beloved mother of Thomas M. (Marsha) Kelley of Gloucester City and Christopher J. Kelley of Naples, FL. Loving and caring grandmother of Christopher M., Katje (Dualmaine), Heather (Koray), and Jonathan. Loving great-grandmother of Brianna, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Elijah. Dear sister of Joan Miller of Las Vegas, NV and the late Marie Heitzman.

Bernice is also survived by many nieces, nephews and her dear friends and fellow members of the Gloucester Catholic Sorority. Bernice was a faithful and devoted parishioner of St. Mary\’s R.C. Church. She was a graduate of Gloucester Catholic class of 1946 and was also a member of the Gloucester City Seniors Association. Relatives and friends are kindly invited to attend her viewing on Monday evening from 7 to 9 PM and again on Tuesday morning from 8:15 to 9:15 AM at the HEALEY FUNERAL HOME: 9 White Horse Pike, Haddon Heights.

Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Tuesday morning at 10 AM at Saint Mary\’s R.C. Church: 426 Monmouth Street, Gloucester City. Interment New Saint Mary\’s Cemetery, Bellmawr. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations in Bernice\’s memory to: Aid to Aging c/o St. Mary\’s R.C. Church, 426 Monmouth St., Gloucester City, NJ 08030 or to Sister Lucy Beal: 210 Penn Ave. Haddon Township, NJ 08108.

Please write Theresa \”Bernice\” Kelley. Expressions of sympathy can be e-mailed to the family through our funeral home website www.mccannhealey.com under online obituaries of Theresa \”Bernice\” Kelley. Funeral Arrangements and Inquiries may be made through: McCANN-HEALEY FUNERAL HOME: 851 Monmouth Street, Gloucester City. Phone: 856-456-1142

  

On March 6, 2008. Age 85. Of Gloucester City. Loving wife of 55 years to the late Francis J. Toal, Jr. Loving mother of Ned (Ginny) Toal of Absecon and Pat (Dan) McAleer of Gloucester City. Devoted grandmother of Art (Tricia), Ed, Drew, Jeff, and Adam (Lauren). Dear sister of Viola, Anna and Jeanette and predeceased by her three brothers; Elmer, Alvin and John. Roberta was a faithful and devoted parishioner of St. Mary\’s R.C. Church. She was a graduate of Gloucester City High School where she was awarded perfect attendance for never missing a school day in 12 years.

Relatives and friends are kindly invited to attend her viewing on Tuesday morning from 9 to 11 am at the McCANN-HEALEY FUNERAL HOME: 851 Monmouth St. (at Brown St.) Gloucester City, NJ 08030. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated 11:30 am at Saint Mary\’s R.C. Church: 426 Monmouth Street, Gloucester City. Interment New Saint Mary\’s Cemetery, Bellmawr.

The family requests memorial donations in Roberta\’s memory to: Saint Vincent DePaul Society c/o St. Mary\’s R.C. Church: at the above address. Please write Roberta S. Toal in the memo of the check. Expressions of sympathy can be e-mailed to the family through our funeral home website www.mccannhealey.com under online obituaries of Roberta S. Toal.

Funeral Arrangements and Inquiries may be made through: McCANN-HEALEY FUNERAL HOME: 851 Monmouth Street, Gloucester City. Phone: 856-456-1142.

God Bless Our Troops, and our Sons

Friday February 29th, 2008

My son Lucas, my wife Keiko and I departed by train to a place called Yufuin Onsen. We visited Shouyano Yakata Hot Spa a famous very old hot spring located in Oita, on Kyushu Island a few hours from our home.

We have planed this trip especially for our son Lucas who was home for 22 days home leave from Iraq. We wanted to give him an enjoyable rest and some recreation thus one well deserved after what he\’s been through. We took a taxi from our home to Orio Station about 20 minutes from our home.

Well we left Orio station at about 08:00 a.m. on the Sonic express bound for Fukuoka arriving at 08:45 where we changed trains, boarding the Yufuin Express leaving at 09:05a.m.It was a very pleasant journey. The Yufuin Express was so comfortable with first class leather reclining seats just like business class on air planes.

It was really a great trip all the way to Yufuin Station, arriving at 11:40 a.m. The area is extremely beautiful with green mountains and hills all around. We took a taxi to the Shouyano Yakata hot spa. The ride took about 10 minutes.

The spa is situated on the side of Mt.Yufu. It is very old and has been handed down through the same family for over 350 years, the landscape is very beautiful and quiet with many beautiful colorful song birds, and it\’s so very scenic and picturesque.

When we entered the lobby to register we saw many old pictures of many famous people and art work also along the hallway to the dining room. In the dining room were many beautiful old wood carvings of people and animals.

We were taken down along a wide long hallway to a very traditional dining room where we sat on cushions with our legs under a katsu table with a heating lamp under and a quilt to keep us warm, it was like reverting back to over a hundred years or so, we were really relaxing and soaking in all of the traditional decor and atmosphere surrounding us.

The menu was also very traditional with raw Flounder = sashimi, a miso soup with fish and vegetables, tempura = deep fried in bread crumbs, a bowl of rice and of course we shared a beer together after the waitress brought steak and more vegetables, we had hot tea and some ice cream and fruit. All was delicious and very healthy. We finished our meal and were shown to our room.

As we entered I looked out the window and saw a beautiful pool of greenish colored steaming hot water, the bath was about 5 feet just outside the sliding window. I saw that there were huge rocks and boulders surrounding the hot spa one can sit on the part of the rocks that are under the water and relax.

\”Wow it was really great like in a movie.\”

Remember this is winter mind you and there was still a little snow on the ground in places.

We didn\’t go to the same bath there was a divider screen between the female\’s side and the male\’s side of the hot spa.

Well we entered the bath the outside was freezing especially without anything on between the room and spa. The temperature was about 35 degrees but the water was warm and extremely relaxing it was great on these old bones of mine too. We didn\’t feel any cold at all once in the spa.

We stayed there at the spa for about 4 hours than checked out and we left and took a taxi to Lake Kinrinko for some sightseeing.

While there we visited Mark Chagall\’s Museum. We had the opportunity to view some of his famous works of art. There was a coffee shop so we had coffee and some cheese cake.

We spent about an hour and a half there, we left for the Yufuin Station area where we went into many souvenir shops to pick up some gifts for Luke\’s friends in Iraq and of course a local bottle of Japanese sake for us to take home.

We walked to the station since it was getting close to the trains boarding time at 17:45p.m. We returned home via Fukuoka and arrived back at Orio station at about 20:30 took a taxi home and we enjoyed a very relaxing day trip together. We were glad to get back home because we were so very tired. This is only one of the many great opportunities we can experience while living here in Kitakyushu City, Japan.

Yesterday evening Sunday March 2nd our son Lucas went back to Iraq. Once again we\’ll miss him we\’ll pray and worry for his safety as we did for his brother Max while he was in Iraq last year with the U.S.Marines.

His complete tour of duty will be up in late August or early September, at that time he will return to the U.S. Army Schofield Barracks in Honolulu, Hawaii.

God Bless Our Troops, and our Sons.

Warm Regards from Kitakyushu City, Japan

Hank, Keiko, Lucas, Max & Rachel,

The Miller Family

HARTFORD, Conn. – The Rutgers women\’s basketball team will look to defend its conference tournament title as the 2008 BIG EAST Championships kick off on March 8 at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn. The Scarlet Knights, who won the 2007 championship, will be seeded second and play the winner of the Louisville/St. John\’s game Sunday, March 9. The game can be seen nationally on ESPNU starting at 6 p.m.

No. 4/5 Rutgers (24-5, 14-2) defeated No. 10 seed St. John\’s on January 5, 58-50, and topped No. 7 seed Louisville, 70-57, on Jan. 20. Both games were played in Piscataway. The Cardinals and the Red Storm will play in the first round on March 8 at 6 p.m.

Louisville (21-8, 10-6) is led by junior Angel McCoughtry, who leads the BIG EAST and is fourth in the nation with 23.8 points per game. The Cardinals are 1-2 all-time against Rutgers and in the only meeting this season, senior guard Matee Ajavon (Newark, N.J.) hit for a season-high 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting.

St. John\’s (16-13, 7-9) ended the season strongly with three consecutive victories. The Red Storm are led by Monique McLean, who averages 14.3 points per game (14^th in the BIG EAST) and Kia Wright, who is fourth in the conference with 4.24 assists per game. Rutgers has won 30 of the 33 all-time meetings with the Red Storm, including 16 straight.

Rutgers is 18-11 all-time in the BIG EAST Tournament, including a 14-3 mark in neutral-site contests. This year marks the second consecutive season and fifth time overall that RU has been the No. 2 seed. GAME NOTES

Media Release

Tempe, AZ—-The College of New Jersey baseball team tallied a 7-2 victory over Concordia University (IL) on Friday afternoon as interim head coach Dean Glus (photo) made his debut. TCNJ, which is ranked 13th opened the new campaign by handing the previously unbeaten Concordia University Cougars a 7-2 loss to improve to 1-0, while CU drops to 6-1.

TCNJ got on the scoreboard early as junior short stop Jeff Toth (Parlin, NJ/Sayreville) connected on the first of his two home runs in the contest in the top of the first. He would add his second home run on a solo shot in the top of the fifth as the Lions built a 3-1 lead. Toth, an All-American for the Lions in 2007, now has 10 career homeruns after batting .368 last year with eight in his TCNJ rookie campaign.

TCNJ broke open the game with four runs in the top half of the seventh inning as TCNJ would knock the Cougars’ starter, senior Carl Petersen (DesPlaines, IL/Maine West) from the game after 6.1 innings of work. Petersen drops to 1-1 after allowing seven earned runs off eight hits with two strikeouts and two walks.

Replaced by both Joe Leyhane (Chicago, IL/Notre Dame) and Anthony Collaro (Melrose, Parl, IL/Walter Lutheran), Concordia was not able to recover. Collaro worked 2.2 innings and fanned four batters with just one hit allowed.

Offensively for the Lions, junior third baseman Vince Mazzaccaro (Gloucester City, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) would connect for three hits on the day with a pair of RBI’s.

TCNJ’s left handed senior pitcher Bob Buskett (Trenton, NJ/Notre Dame) worked five innings for the win as he yielded no earned runs with no hits, two strikeouts and five walks. Buskett is now 16-2 on his career and closing in on his 100th career strikeout as he has 93 to his credit thus far.

Rookie Joe Marchitelli (Jackson, NJ/Jackson Memorial) worked two innings of relief, yielding one earned run with four strikeouts off four hits. Junior Eric Gertie (Cinnaminson, NJ/Cinnaminson) pitched an inning as the Lions’ closer and fanned one with a hit on the day.

TCNJ returns to action on Saturday facing Wheaton College (MA) at 2 p.m. (MST), 4 p.m. (EST).

(NOTE: Sorry to TCNJ\’s baseball fans, but we experienced some technical difficulties on Friday as Ann King\’s laptop died in the second inning! Hence the live stats went down as did the ability to post a box score or season stats. We are hopeful that a new machine and software will find its way to Arizona by the beginning of the week. Sorry for any inconveniences this may have caused and thank you for your patience!)

On March 6, 2008. Age 69. Of Brooklawn. Formerly of Gloucester City. Loving Companion of 20 years to Lillian K. New of Mantua. Beloved father of Charles H. Thilo of Brooklawn. Dear Brother of Walter (Ruth) Thilo of Florida and Peg (Bob) Glaze of Mays Landing. Loving grandfather of one.

Charles was born and raised in Gloucester City. He was a Carpenter for Union 1489 in Burlington City. Charlie loved to visit his many friends at O\’Donnell\’s Restaurant in Gloucester City.

Relatives and friends are kindly invited to attend his viewing on Monday Morning from 10 am to 12 noon at the McCANN-HEALEY FUNERAL HOME: 851 Monmouth Street, (at Brown Street) Gloucester City. Catholic Religious Service 12 noon in the funeral home officiated by Father Walter Norris of Saint Matthew\’s R.C. Church. Interment Eglington Cemetery, Clarksboro, NJ. There will be no evening viewing.

Family requests memorial donations in Charles\’ memory to any cause of your choice. Please write Charles A. Thilo in the memo of the check. Expressions of sympathy can be e-mailed to the family through our funeral home website www.mccannhealey.com under online obituaries of Charles A. Thilo. Funeral Arrangements and Inquiries may be made through: McCANN-HEALEY FUNERAL HOME: 851 Monmouth Street, Gloucester City, NJ 08030. Phone: 856-456-1142ouserHio