Navarro, Mann Beat The Heat At Howard County Invitational


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Howard senior Courtney Mann has run on the Centennial High School cross country course dating back to her middle school days with the Howard County Striders. The girls' race started out with a solid group of six, a group which slowly dwindled until Mann and River Hill's Jasmine Tiamfook were the frontrunners with about 800 meters left. Mann was able to throw in a surge and blast away from the rest of the field, earning her first invitational win in her high school career and a new personal best around 19:25 (official results pending).



Oakland Mills senior Joey Navarro has also had plenty of experience running at Centennial's cross country course, and he turned in his best performance on the course during Saturday's heat-fest at the Howard County Invitational. The boys' race played out eerily similar to the girls': the front back of boys stayed together for most of the race until the final mile, when a three-way battle emerged between Navarro, Hunter Petrik and Rahul Reddy. Navarro outlasted them all, setting a new personal best with a time just north of 16 minutes (results still to come).

For the second week in a row, Severna Park opted to run a "B" team in the varsity race (although this one was more of a B+ team). Nevertheless, they made quite the statement on Saturday by taking down some of the best teams in the state. Their depth has been on display in past years, but this year it seems to have taken to another level. Their full varsity squad will debut next weekend at the White Clay Creek Classic.

On the girls' side, it was River Hill taking the team title in a crowded field on Saturday, led by senior Jasmine Tiamfook and her fourth-place finish. They improved on their second-place finish at the Seahawk Invite a week ago and continue to make their case as the top girls' team in Howard County.