Individuals
Two-time defending state champ Riley Stewart will look to cap her high school career with one more state cross country title.
She's been nearly flawless this season, with a 16:43 PR runner-up finish from the Nike Portland XC. Additionally she ran a mind-boggling 16:56 at the Pat Amato Classic several weeks ago.
The Cherry Creek senior heads to Colorado Springs as the favorite.
Behind her, we've got some battles brewing...
There's a long list that'll likely be eyeing that runner-up finish, and it's led by Pomona's Emma Stutzman, Valor's Keeghan Edwards and Brooke Wilson, and Fruita Monument's Jadyn Heil.
Stutzman has run the second-fastest time in 5A this season - a 17:24.6 clocking, where she edged out Wilson's 17:24.9, though Wilson's teammate - Edwards - beat Sutzman at the Pat Patten Invite. Additionally, Wilson beat Stutzman and Edwards at their season-opener at the Vista Nation 2-Mile, and recently claimed the 5A Region 2 title.
Stutzman's big wins this season came at the St. Vrain Invitational, the Jeffco 5A League Championships, where she torched the previous course record, and the 5A Region 2 title last week. Edwards had big wins at the Rim Rock Farm Classic in Kansas, and Pat Patten over Stutzman. Wilson recently won the 5A Region 2 title over Edwards.
So, it's safe to say, it'll all go down to who shows up on Saturday.
Heil, on the other hand, has really found her stride in recent weeks - twice breaking 17:40, and recently running 17:27 at the Warrior Lincoln Park Classic (SWL Championships). She recently finished third at the 5A Region 2 Championships behind Wilson and Edwards.
Teams
The girl's 5A team race will play host to a total of four nationally (Top-25) ranked squads - and two of them are ranked in the Top-six.
US No. 3 and defending state champs Cherry Creek head to Colorado Springs as the favorite, though they'll have US No. 6 Arapahoe, US No. 22 Mountain Vista, and US No. 23 Valor Christian to battle with.
Cherry Creek has come out on top of Arapahoe twice this season, though Arapahoe made this 1-2 battle this past week when they won the 5A Region 1 Championships by 10 points over Cherry Creek.
By the looks of it, there was some incredible pack-running going on, begging the question: was everyone running at full-speed? Either way, we're sure to have another great battle on tap...
Valor Christian is coming off a dominating regional performance, where they tallied 29 points to take down Mountain Vista, who was second with 74 points.
If regionals showed us anything, it's that all the titans will be toeing the line Saturday at 9 a.m.