Honors Student

A former Rowan University honors student and basketball team captain has sued the university and police officials, claiming that a 1999 "reckless and malicious" undercover drug investigation damaged his reputation. John E. Randall Jr., 23, of Sicklerville, said in a Superior Court lawsuit that his April 1999 arrest for possession and distribution of drugs was based on a "false complaint. " Randall was on the basketball court on March 11, 1999, at the time Rowan University police officials claimed he sold marijuana to an undercover police investigator, said his lawyer, Evan Levow.

The detailed description of a toddler kneeling near his deceased mother's head and stroking her hair sent a jolt through a Camden County courtroom Wednesday afternoon. After a brief pause, Assistant Prosecutor Sally Smith went on to describe how, when police found him, the boy, three months shy of his third birthday, had been at his mother's side, a butcher knife nearby. John Whye's father, Troy, 39, is on trial in the murder of his girlfriend, Krystal Skinner, 23, who was killed March 26, 2008, in the couple's Lindenwold apartment in front of their son. During her opening statement, Smith described young John next to his mother, causing Skinner's relatives to burst into tears and rush out of the courtroom.

With a trademark flip over his shoulder, preseason All-America Jacque Vaughn came back. The 6-1 senior guard, in uniform for the first time since tearing ligaments in his right wrist in a pickup game Sept. 10, was in traffic in the lane when he flipped the ball without looking to Raef LaFrentz, who made a baseline layup. LaFrentz was fouled and made the free throw, and the No. 1 Jayhawks (11-0) continued on their way to crushing Division II Washburn, 90-65, last night at Lawrence, Kan. Vaughn, an honors student who passed up the NBA draft to finish his senior year, finished with eight points and five assists.

Dan Ellis, who broke virtually every single-season school passing record as a junior last fall at Downingtown High, has accepted a full scholarship offer to play quarterback at the University of Virginia. Ellis had no varsity experience at quarterback before his junior season but still posted impressive numbers. Last year, he completed 110 of 203 passes for 1,921 yards and 17 touchdowns. He was intercepted just eight times. The 6-foot-3, 215-pounder was also a ferocious hitter as a linebacker.

The University of Virginia continued to mine the football talent in Chester County yesterday as West Chester East quarterback Matt Schaub orally accepted a full scholarship to the Atlantic Coast Conference school. Former Downingtown star Dan Ellis is a sophomore quarterback in Charlottesville, Va., and Arlen Harris, Ellis' teammate on the 1996 Class AAAA state championship team, is a freshman running back for the Cavaliers. After throwing for 966 yards as a sophomore, Schaub connected on 99 of 183 passes last season, good for 1,324 yards and eight touchdowns.

Haverford School students who cut classes and are spotted by Jay Dixon do not have to fear being suspended. Jay doesn't rat - though his father, W. Boulton "Bo" Dixon, is Haverford's headmaster (fancy word for principal). "I do hear same good-natured jokes about the situation, but it's basically no big deal," Jay said. "When I came here last school year, the only people who had to adjust were my friends. I was used to it. " Yesterday, Dixon, a 6-1 senior wing guard, shot 5-for-6 and 7-for-10 for 17 points and added 6 rebounds as the Fords floored visiting Malvern Prep, 65-51, in the Inter-Ac League.

He was 18, a muscular high school honors student who dreamed of becoming a plumber. She is 23, the married mother of a 3-year-old daughter. She had forsaken her family for fast times with the local teen boys, a relative said. And there was somebody else - a 16-year-old boy who thought he might merit the older woman's affections. Younger and much smaller than the weightlifting honors student, he apparently lost an argument over the woman Friday night. So he went home and got his father's .357 Magnum, police said.

For two consecutive years, La Salle assistant basketball coach Joe Mihalich has been a finalist for a head-coaching job. And didn't get it. Last year, Mihalich was strongly considered for the Manhattan job after Steve Lappas left for Villanova. The job went to Fran Fraschilla. This year, Mihalich was one of two finalists at Loyola (Md.). Xavier assistant coach Skip Prosser will be announced as Loyola's new head coach at a news conference today. HAWKS GET COMMITMENT When St. Joseph's freshman J.J. Watters left school at Christmas, it opened up another basketball scholarship.

In what Superior Court Judge John Mariano called "one of the most difficult" sentences he ever had to impose, a former Camden school track coach yesterday received two concurrent seven-year terms in state prison for sexually assaulting a female student. John Hovington, 40, of Clementon, was convicted by a jury Oct. 25 of two counts of aggravated sexual assault against a former Woodrow Wilson High School student. The student had testified that she had a sexual relationship with her coach from the time she was 15 until her graduation at age 18, in 1988.

Your average Sunday runner is pleased as punch if he runs a mile in less than 5 minutes. Fortunately, for Devon Prep, Gabe Wilson is not your average Sunday runner. The cross-country runner can run three consecutive 5-minute miles, and he can do it on hilly terrain. Gabe Wilson is one fast runner. In fact, the swift Wilson ran Devon Prep's 2.98-mile course, which is very hilly, in 14 minutes, 52 seconds on Oct. 14 to set a course record. Wilson's speedy time enabled the Tide to defeat Holy Ghost Prep, which has won the Bicentennial League - the league in which both teams compete - for the last two years.