Gracie Troester won her second cross country race of the season Saturday, blowing away the field at the Cedar Ridge Invitational in Branson. Troester finished in 19:16.6, but eight seconds off the personal best she set a week earlier. The next-closest competitor was Alexandria Li of Central, who finished 49 seconds behind Troester.
In the boys race, Brady Purcell finished third, running the course in 16:58.2. That was 16 seconds behind the two leaders, Tristen Bough of Branson and and Zach Mitchell of Marshfield, who finished just three-hundredths of a second apart.
Kristin Probst (5th) and Misora Nambara (16th) were also top-20 finishers. Brooklyn Douglas finished 28th and Kennidy Verheyen was 30th. The Lady Tigers tied with Ozark for third place in the team race, behind Kickapoo and Nixa.
Cooper Davis finished in 13th place in the boys race. Joey Mullins was 25th and William Payne 28th. Kasei Wilcutt, Dak Henning, Hayden Mitchell, and Cannon Underwood also competed for Republic. The boys team finished third overall, behind Nixa and Kickapoo.