Here is meet director Kyle Chandler's analysis of the day's event:

Course Description: First Mile on Wild Grass (weeds) with variable footing. 2nd and 3rd miles on soft crushed gravel trail. Gentle slopes up, down, and back up the first mile, flat 2nd mile, and gradual up last 800 meters to finish (positive altitude gain course). It is not a fast course, but it is not a slow course, it is a fair cross country course. Elevation a little over 5,000 feet. Distance was slightly longer than 5,000 meters. Temperatures in low 60s, sunny with a very slight breeze. About 210 in the Boys Varsity and 170 in the Girls Varsity completed the course.

Boys Analysis: I was "calling" the race for spectators from a 4th story balcony with binoculars, in some ways this was an advantage while in others it was a challenge. SW#1/US#7 Fort Collins boys ran well as a pack as evidenced by their solid team finish. Mohamed Ige (Denver South), Tommy Walton (Mountain View), Noah Shannon and Tyler Abbey (Fort Collins) broke away from the rest of the lead pack 200 meters before the 2 mile mark. The 4 surged together until the 2 1/4 mark when Ige put on an impressive and decisive surge on the other three to gain a significant gap for the next 400 meters. With 800 meters to go Ige had a large cushion, while the other 3 could not initially cover the move, they did battle the last 800 to narrow the lead gap. To put into perspective the efforts (because the times won't necessarily reflect this) of the top boys runners, nearly all of the top 10 individuals have gone under 16:00 for other courses highlighted by Ige's low 15:00s effort two weeks ago in the runner-up position at the Great American. In looking at the analysis of scoring 5 format, Fort Collins dominated showing why they deserve #1 SW and National Ranking. SW#10 Moutain View was 2nd place in the 4 person scoring, but Liberty overtakes Mountain View for 2nd in the 5 person analysis, although MVs normal #5 who finishes a few places behind their #3 (20th) and #4 (22nd) finished 7th for the team today in 113th and #6 and #7 could not step up enough to hold off Liberty's quality depth. I did not talk with the coaches from Denver South, Denver North, or Smoky Hill so do not know how they felt their kids ran. From my persective their front ran well, but their middle and back pack runners may have had an off day. Talk to them for their analysis.

Girls Analysis: SW#2/US#16 Rocky Mountain showed why they are not only one of the better teams in the Southwest Region, but also in the US. Placing 4 in the top 10 and all 7 in the top 30 they showed both quality depth, and stellar front running ability as showcased by Dani Parry's come from behind win over Keara Sammons of Smoky Hill the last 400 meters. Both SW#8 Fort Collins and Smoky Hill competed well despite not being at full strength for today's race and are both high quality teams worthy of Regional and National considerations. Mountain View girls held out their #1 runner, Ashlyn Rhule, as she continues to recover from a hip injury, which would have placed them in 4th had she run a "typical" race. That being said, new up and coming programs Battle Mountain and Thompson Valley ran very well and showed why they are among some of the better girls XC programs in Colorado. Cheyenne Central raced yesterday in Cheyenne in previewing their state course and ran very well having raced a little over 12 hours before - impressive!!

Steve Lurie's account of the day:

Noah Shannon (16:20.9), Tyler Abbey (16:21.7), and Paul Brown (16:42.5) led SW#1 Fort Collins with a 3-4-10 finish to a team score of 54. Little heralded Liberty took out ranked teams SW#10 Mountain View, SW#8 Denver South, and SW#9 Denver North for second place, 121-132-149-177. Smoky Hill was a close 6th with 183. Using Centerra's 4-runner scoring, reverse Mountain View and Liberty, the others remaining the same, and the scores being 29-55-80-83-106-116.

Dani Parry was the girls individual winner (18:33.7) and led teammates Ellie Rastall, McKenzie Maher, and Kristi Thomas into the top 10 in 3rd, 7th, and 10th places, respectively, to give SW#2 Rocky Mountain the girls win with a score of 42. SW#8 Fort Collins was second with 94, followed by Smoky Hill with 118. In 4-runner scoring, it was Rocky Mountain with 21, Fort Collins with 62, and Smoky Hill with 75.

The race was held surrounding Lake Equalizer. Apparently it takes more than a different scoring system to bring down Fort Collins or Rocky Mountain.

Mo Ige was in great form winning the boy's race. His winning time of 16:03.7 is almost 14 seconds faster than the course mark of 16:17.5 set last year by Matt Beamer of Kelly Walsh HS of Casper, WY. Tommy Walton's (16:20.0) of Mountain View as well as Noah Shannon of Fort Collins (16:20.9) and teammate Tyler Abbey (16:21.7) efforts would have all broken Beamer's course record from last year in my opinion.

Parry and Rastall were part of a four-pack of leaders in the East Loveland, CO., race along with the highly regarded Keara Sammons of Smoky Hill of Aurora, CO, and Liberty Bell winner Katie Follett of host Mountain View. Sammons, third in the Race of Champions at the Great American meet, made a move to get away from the group at about the 2 1/4-mile mark. With about 600 meters remaining, Parry made her move and ended up leaving Sammons and the others in her wake, winning in 18:33.7 She beat Sammons by five seconds. Rastall ended third, just 7.3 seconds behind Sammons and 19.6 seconds ahead of fourth place Follett. The girl's course record is 18:28.8 set by Sarah Balfour of Natrona County, also of Casper, WY, set in 2004. Given the slightly more challenging 2005 course version, Parry and Sammons would have been close, quite possibly under the previous mark.