On Saturday, Sept. 14, 37 high schools converged in St. Louis for the 8th annual Forest Park XC Festival Varsity Boys Green race. When the meet ended, the Bruins stood tall, finishing second place. Led by senior Evan Schulte’s seventh place finish, the RBHS amassed 157 points to get the second place title behind the champions, O’Fallon, Ill., which scored 125.

Following Schulte were seniors Connor Crabtree and Zach Cook who finished in 15th and 30th place, respectively.  Junior Lucas Harrington came in 39th, and sophomore Quinn Miller rounded out the scoring five with a 70th place finish in a race that featured 289 runners.

“Overall, we ran pretty well,” Miller said.  “You can’t be too mad when you get second and only get beat by O’Fallon out of Illinois, who is ranked seventh in the nation.  Although beating every Missouri team at the meet was a great accomplishment, I think we can still improve a great deal.”

The Bruin girls team finished third out of 36 teams in the Varsity Girls Green division.  The Bruins scored 166 points, trailing only Francis Howell (165 points) and Ste Genevieve (141 points). Individually, junior Sam Farmer was the team’s top finisher in 12th place.  Following Farmer was sophomore Marilise Stamps in 16th place and junior Kayla Funkenbusch in 34th place. Other scorers for the Bruins were sophomore Emily Harl in 41st place and senior Maddie May in 70th place; 268 runners finished the Varsity Girls Green race.

“It was a fast course with lots of good competition,” Funkenbusch said.  “It’s still early in the season so it gave us good experience for races later on in the year.  We need to focus on staying healthy and our training so we can keep performing well.”

Both the boys and girls teams will next race in the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis, MN on Sept. 28.

By Josh Ripley