The 17th annual Forest Park Cross Country Festival produced great competition and performances in St. Louis' Forest Park. It provided a chance to compete for thousands of athletes in one of the country's best parks. It also provided lots of opportunities for photos of athletes in action in a beautiful setting. A photo gallery and sub-galleries can be found below.
Albia (Iowa) High School's Juliana Brown (left), Jefferson (Festus)'s Payton Easter (center), and Bishop DuBourg's Ashley Grieshaber battle to the finish in the Varsity Girls White Division 5k race at the 2022 Forest Park XC Festival. Brown made it across the finish line first, taking 25th in 23:20.7, while Easters was 26th in 23:20.8, and Grieshaber 27th in 23:20.9.
Notre Dame (Cape Girardeau) junior Lauren Eftink looks over to see how close the competition is as she makes a turn around a Spanish cannon from 1798, just before the halfway point in the Varsity Girls Gold Division 5k race at the 2022 Forest Park XC Festival. Eftink would run 20-minutes flat (20:00:00) to win the race by nearly 15-seconds.
Lafayette junior Natalie Barnard makes a turn with sister and Lafayette senior Elissa Barnard close behind, midway thru the Varsity Girls Green Division 5k race at the 2022 Forest Park XC Festival. Natalie would place 5th and Elissa 8th as Lafayette placed 2nd in the team standings.
Kearney sophomore Alexandra Kinstler pushes up a short hill en route to a 10th-place Varsity Green Division finish 5k in 20:00.6.