GREENTOWN -- The remnants of Friday night's thunderstorms failed to deter the Competitors in Saturday's Howard County Boys and Girls Cross Country Meet

As expected, Western ran away with the boys and girls team titles while individual champions Laura Boltz and Kyle Walsh continued their dominance over county opponents as they successfully battled wet and muddy conditions.

Western won the girls title with 24 points while Northwestern grabbed second at 41. Eastern, fielding a complete team for the first time in a multi4eam meet this season, was third at 70.

Boltz, an Eastern senior running on her home course, took Control near the 1 ½ mile mark and went on to win with a time of 15 minutes, 48 seconds, breaking her own school record.

A senior at Western, Walsh led the Panthers to their fifth straight boys county championship as he Covered 'the 5-kilometer Course in an Eastern course record time of 16:21. That broke Eastern graduate Syd Nicholson's 1996 time by five seconds,

The Panthers finished with 23 while Eastern came in second with 59. Northwestern (70) and Taylor (86) followed.

County girls

The lead group of Boltz and Western's Annina Gruber and Brittany Stellhorn took off in a quick start and Gruber grabbed a 10- to 15-meter lead on the Comet runner in the first mile.

"[Gruber] went out really strong. Coming across the front of the school, I could see I wasn't gaining on her, but she wasn't pulling away either," Boltz said. "I was a little worried at the beginning. I surged up the, hill [to the woods], but it took a long time to get her because I wasn't going that much faster."

Boltz made her move as she emerged from the woods, passing Gruber as they crossed the road. The Comet runner then began to pull away.

"I knew I had to take her and take her Strong. If I barely passed her, she'd stay with me and have a chance," Boltz said.

Gruber took second in 16:22 while Stellhorn followed in third at 16:35 and Anna Hurlock was fourth at 16:46 for the Panthers, who won the team title for the third consecutive season. Fifth went to Taylor's Danielle Glick in 16:55, Megan Clearwaters gave' Western its fourth runner among the top six before Katie McCool started Northwestern's pack of four, She was seventh with Lauren Sewell, Sarah Bauson and Katie Tryling rounding out the top 10.

Cassie Myer was the fifth Panther to finish in 11th.

"Laura is a great racer and an outstanding person," Western coach Dana Neer said. "Annina had said she wanted to go and try to win county. She had a good race."

Becky Elliott, the Panthers' No. 4 runner, is recuperating from an illness and missed the meet. That, however, hasn't been a problem for the Panthers.

"Megan came through in her fastest time of the season. Cassie, Vanessa Lorenz, Liz Hoppes and Megan all have sensed the burden we have with Becky out and picked it up themselves," Neer said. "That help us when she comes back."

County boys

Coming out of the woods and into the final' loop around the high school, Walsh owned a 15-second lead on teammate Jim Jackson. That's when he turned things up a notch.

"I didn't know where anyone else was. I was just worried about my time," Walsh said. "I wasn't sure what my time would be and I wanted to get a good, hard workout. I was using this as a tempo run to get in shape for later in the season."

Jackson came across the line second at 17:11 and finished his career never finishing lower than third in the county meet. The 2001 champion, Jackson finished third as a freshman and was runner-up last season. Taylor's Christopher Sinnett took third in 17:40. Michael Marley was fourth for the Panthers while Carleton Smith finished fifth for Northwestern. Derek Woods came in sixth for the Comets.

Andy Snow Was next for Western, finishing seventh While Luke Minor was ninth, Eric Walsh 10th and Josh Shepherd llth.

"We were hoping to have seven boys finish in the top 12 and we did that. I thought the times were respectable for the wetness," Neer said, noting the personal best times of Shepherd and Snow. Marley, Snow, Minor, Walsh, Shepherd and Shawn Parkins were a minute apart.

"That pack has been crucial for us. I think some people thought we'd have Jim, Kyle and Michael and then we'd drop off this season. The guys responded. Josh has come in and wanted to get better every meet and that's rubbed off on everyone else. Luke is the same kind of kid. His first 5K, his time was near 23 [minutes] and now he's running in the low 18s."

Johnathan Fansler added an eighth-place finish for the Comets.