You will get to see the top-ranked team in New Mexico and the top-ranked team in Colorado on the same course. You just won't get to see them in the same race.
It's arguably the biggest weekend of high school cross country in Colorado prior to state.
It's the weekend all eyes turn to Littleton for the Liberty Bell Invitational at Heritage High School. Great teams. Fast times. Tradition. Liberty Bell has it all.
Unfortunately, we narrowly missed one of the best head-to-head team match-ups in several years. Albuquerque Academy has been dusting up on the competition and now takes its show on the road to Littleton. Monarch has been dusting up ("dust" would be the operative word thus far this season--will somebody please make it rain, with or without the lightning?) on the competition here in Colorado. It's a match made in heaven, but it won't happen this year. AA haunts Division I. MoHi haunts Division II. And never the twain shall meet.
We're going to have to be satisfied with a virtual match-up. Sigh.
The girls team collision in Division II could be the best head-to-head show in the meet. Monarch, the pre-race favorite, will get to deal with the likes of Highlands Ranch, Pine Creek, Loveland, Cheyenne Mountain, and Mullen.
Divsion III should have an interesting 4A girls match-up with Greeley Central (coming off an idle weekend), Evergreen, Moffat County, and Vista Ridge tangling. Wildcats, Cougars, Bulldogs, and Wolves--try not to get mixed up in the middle of this one.
All this, and much more, will be settled on Friday.
Elsewhere around the state, Air Academy, Fort Morgan, Arvada West, and Mountain Range are hosting the "alternate" Friday meets along the I-25 corridor. Of these, Air Academy has the most attendance and the most history. The course is about as different from Liberty Bell as courses get, but the meet still draws a fine selection of teams.
Grand Junction and Gunnison are hosting the western slope meets this weekend. And then two Academy District 20 schools--Discovery Canyon and Liberty--vie for the southern Colorado business on Saturday. It must be a good weekend to host meets in District 20 as three schools are doing it!
And, if you consider Thursday the beginning of the weekend, Adams City gets to kick it all off with their invitational on Thursday.
So, there's a meet for everybody this weekend. If you're too old to be in high school, there's no shortage of events to participate in as a spectator. No other sport has a spectator participation factor on a level with cross country. You can get a 10-mile workout in just going point-to-point during four races.*
* - Be careful of trying this one at the St. Vrain Invitational, however. More than one coach noted that the 25-minute start intervals made for a much more serious workout chasing between points on the course.