FORT COLLINS — There is something quite un-nerving about the unknown when it comes to the state cross country championships.

For Buena Vista’s Joseph DeMoor and Lyons’ defending champion Andrew Roberts, the two seniors were well aware of each other’s accomplishments but had yet to race each other this season so neither runner was confident enough to know what to expect from the other.

So when DeMoor took the lead in Saturday’s Class 3A state cross country championship race at Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins, Roberts wasn’t sure what to think. And DeMoor said when he found himself alone at the 2-mile mark, he wasn’t sure what to think either.

But when DeMoor crossed the finish line in a winning time of 15:28.50, and turned around to see Roberts finishing more than 15 seconds behind, all DeMoor knew was that he was a state champion.

“It feels amazing,” DeMoor said. “I wasn’t sure what to expect out there. On the second-to-last corner, I saw I had a pretty good lead on Andrew. So that felt pretty good.”

Brush sophomore Amos Bowen finished third in 15:59.90 and The Classical Academy senior Sam Feldetto finished fourth in 16:12.20 to lead his squad to a team victory with 53 points, ahead of Lyons (69) and Colorado Academy (105.)

“I thought that people would go with me longer,” said DeMoor, who was sixth in Class 3A last year. “My plan 800 meters in was to just start pounding and striving for home.”

DeMoor took the lead and Bowen tried to go with him, similar to how the two raced at the Liberty Bell Invitational in September, with DeMoor winning the event. But DeMoor broke away from Bowen halfway through the race, leaving Bowen vulnerable for Roberts to catch with a mile to go. But Roberts couldn’t close the gap on DeMoor.

“I was just hoping if I hung back a little bit and got my rhythm, I would be able to move up on him,” Robert said. “I wasn’t really sure what to expect, because I never really raced against him because he’s out on the Western Slope. I was always trying to guess what kind of race this was going to be, ran some scenarios through my mind, but he came out and ran a great race.

“He’s a tough kid, he ran a great race, and I can’t take that away from him.”

But Roberts admits that it was frustrating not to repeat as state champion.

“It’s a little bit disappointing to be the defending state champion and come back and get beat the next year,” Roberts said. “At the same time you know that you’re going to have kids chasing you, and other kids are working just as hard as you are. And so you have to give other kids credit when they come out and they can run like that.”