FORT COLLINS — With the pressure of defending his state title on the line, and knowing that he had lost a couple of close battles this season - including a loss the first week of the season along the same course at Fossil Ridge High School - Dakota Ridge senior Evan Appel said he was almost ready to give up when he reached the second mile of the Class 5A state cross country championships.

Two of his competitors had made a big move, and Appel said his form got out of sync, he felt himself losing ground and he thought the race was lost. But with a half-mile remaining in his final high school cross country meet, Appel decided to throw in one last surge.

It resulted in him blowing past the leaders with a tremendous kick that couldn’t be answered, sprinting through the final stretch to win the Class 5A state cross country title for the second straight year with a victorious time of 15:20.24.

Cherry Creek junior Walter Schafer finished second in 15:30.09 and led the Bruins to a team victory with 137 points. Overland’s Roblet Muhudin finished third (15:45.54) and Regis Jesuit brothers Bobby and Danny Nicolls finished fourth and fifth respectively to lead their squad to a second-place team finish with 157 points.

“I was already making excuses which is a terrible thing to do,” Appel said. “I thought I had lost the race, I was already thinking about state track. Thankfully I was able to come back and bring it in to the finish and get my fourth state title, which is unbelievable. I love it.

“The main thing that pushed me was defending that state title. I knew that going down a spot would not be fun.”

Appel, who was third as a sophomore, said that he was most nervous about Bobby Nicolls, who had beat Appel on the same course the first week of the season. Appel said like the first race, Nicolls made his big move at the 2-mile mark with Schafer on his heels.

And when Appel made his move Saturday and passed both Nicolls and Schafer, he never looked back.

“My strategy was just to lay back, and don’t work any harder than you have to, but in all four of my state championships, I have had to use my kick to win,” said Appel, who beat Nicolls ad Schafer in last week’s regional meet. “I probably had some more confidence because of that race last week. But I was still nervous about Bobby coming in to today, and Walter has had such a great season. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”

Schafer passed Nicolls with 800 yards to go to better his 8th-place finish from last season.

“I just wanted to stay up with the leaders for as long as I could, and close it as fast as I could,” Schafer said. “I knew if I could stay with them, I would have a shot. I thought I was probably going to get third, so my goal was to upset one of them, and I did, so I’m happy with that. ”