Poudre SD Pre-State Cross Country Invitational 2008

It's rare to see such a great early season match-up take place, but that's what happened Thursday evening in Colorado. The top two ranked Midwest boys, Bobby Nicolls (pictured far right by Ken Regan) and Evan Appel, squared off for the first of what could be a few battles this season, while many other top Colorado teams and individuals took to the 5k spread at the Poudre SD Pre-State Cross Country Invitational in Fort Collins.

Moffat County's Alicia Nelson and Thompson Valley's Liz Tremblay battled for the lead through much of the 4A girls race. In the end, Nelson took the victory by a narrow margin of about two seconds (photo courtesy Ken Regan).