Sophomore Gracie Troester won her first varsity cross country race, leading the Class 4 and 5 field at the Riann Lubinski Invitational in Nixa Tuesday. Troester finished in 20:36 — 48 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, Rebecca Waterman of Parkview. Republic teammate Kristin Probst finished third. Misora Nambara was also a top-ten finisher, taking eighth.
In the boys race, Brady Purcell turned in his highest finish yet, taking fourth place with a time of 17:40. Tristen Bough of Branson won the Class 4/5 event with a time of 16:37.
In the team standings, Republic’s girls finished second out of seven teams, and the boys finished third out of ten teams.
Republic’s Brooklyn Douglas and Kennidy Verheyen finished 20th and 21st, respectively. Joey Mullins was 19th in the boys race, followed by William Payne (23rd), Dak Henning (27th), Kaisei Willcutt (29th), Hayden Mitchell (52nd), and Cannon Underwood (58th).