When the Tri-Eight Conference Girls Cross Country Championship is run on Wednesday at Bond Park, there is little doubt who the top two individual finishers will be.

The only question is who will win the conference title, and who will be runner-up.

That has usually been the case when Athens Drive High senior Callan Fike and Apex High junior Andie Cozzarelli meet over hill and dale, or around a 400-meter oval. The pair are arguably the top two distance runners in the state.

Last fall, Fike bested Cozzarelli to win the NCHSAA 4-A Cross Country title. Last spring, Fike bested Cozzarelli to win the state 4-A 1,600-meter title, but Cozzarelli came back to decisively win the 3,200 crown — though Fike did not run in that event. Both runners won separate races on Wednesday, Oct. 11, in dual meets where the boys and girls ran together.

Apex High’s boys easily defeated Lee County High with a perfect 15-point score, but what was most surprising was that Cozzarelli finished eighth overall, behind seven Cougars on the boys team — and ahead of all of Lee County’s boys. Cozzarelli finished with a time of 19:04 to lead the Cougars.

Fike, who has been sidelined with a stress fracture, was just as impressive in her race against Green Hope High, finishing in 24th place overall with a time of 19:53. In all, Fike beat all 64 girls and three-fourths of the 99 boys in her race.

Considering her recent injury, Fike said she was pleased with her performance.

“I wish I could have ran a faster time, but that’s OK,” Fike said. “I’m happy I am just back running and healthy again. It’s good to win.”

Running against boys is an added incentive for Fike.

“When I run dual meets, I don’t have a ton of competition,” she said. “When I run against guys I have someone to chase. That motivates me more to run faster.”

Cozzarelli, who is known for her blazing, relentless finishing kick, said she also likes to race against the boys.

“I always want to beat them,” she said. “I think I’m more motivated to beat them. It’s always nice to beat boys. I’m glad that I ran well. I’m glad that I won.”

While Cozzarelli and Fike should vie for top individual honors in the Tri-Eight meet, Green Hope is looking to win its fifth consecutive conference team title under coach Mike Miragliuolo.

Miragliuolo, who held back his top runners in the dual meet against Athens, said his team is ready to run fast in the Tri-Eight meet.

“We feel like we’re ready,” he said. “We don’t know how the conference will turn out, anywhere between first and third.”

Green Hope senior Emily Edens ran well enough in the dual meet to earn a berth on the varsity squad for the conference meet.

“This is my first year running (conference), so I’m really excited,” Edens said. “I think we’re going to do really good. I think we have a good chance of winning, actually.

“We’ve won four years in a row so hopefully we can win a fifth year in a row. It would be cool to say we’ve won five times in a row.”