Looking to close September on a high note, Samantha Ridenhour’s Belle High School  and Bland Middle School cross country teams competed during the St. James Invitational held last Tuesday at Maramec Spring Park in St. James.

Helping Belle place fourth as a team, freshman Jackson Prater placed second in a new BHS cross country school record time of 16:41.0 just behind St. James’ Ashton Moreland who won the varsity boys race in 16:40.6.

Scoring 121 team points, Belle placed fourth behind St. James (46), New Haven (100) and Steelville (106).

Finishing behind Prater for the Tigers were Coltin Hazelwood (16th, 18:41.3), Michael Felton (24th, 19:36.6), David Skaggs (43rd, 20:33.9), Ryker Huebner (45th, 20:44.6), Braxton Ahart (46th, 20:44.6), Alden Zabel (49th, 20:56.5), Tharon Kent (54th, 21:15.6) and Miles Frey (57th, 21:32.2).

In the varsity girls race, Ellanor Kent placed seventh in a time of 22:40.1 securing the lone medal for Belle’s Lady Tigers who placed fifth as a team with 131 points.

Belle’s varsity girls finished in the team standings behind Pacific (55), St. Francis Borgia (69), Plato (88) and Sullivan (107).

Also running for the Lady Tigers in St. James were Skylar Stevens (16th, 23:21.0), Marianne Francis (42nd, 25:39.6), Allania Moore (65th, 29:09.4), Kenadie Bailey (66th, 29:17.2), Sedora Carroll (72nd, 30:16.5) and Saylor Kent (75th, 31:17.1).

Gracelyn Jarvis led Bland’s Lady Bears to a sixth-place finish as a team with 121 points while securing the 13th-place medal in a time of 10:57.

Teams finishing ahead of the Lady Bears included Union (70), Bourbon (75), Pacific (78), Owensville (80) and Steelville (87).

Lady Bears finishing after Jarvis included Roxy DeDual (19th, 11:21.6), Chesley Frey (33rd, 12:28.7), Cora Langston (43rd, 13:00.6) and Harper Ridenhour (59th, 14:36.1).

Treyton Huebner (48th, 11:12.0) and Wyatt Skaggs (75th, 13:53.9) also ran for the Bears in the middle school boys race.

Over the weekend in the Calvary Lutheran Invitational at the Holts Summit Civic Center, both Belle’s Tigers and Lady Tigers placed third in their respective team standings.

Prater led the Tigers with a fifth-place time of 17:43.6 while Felton finished 15th in 19:27.4.

Belle placed third as a team behind Vienna (44) and Van-Far (51).

Rounding out the contingency of Tigers at racing at Calvary Lutheran were Hazelwood (22nd, 19:58.3), Malachi Fredendall (23rd, 20:16.5), Ryker Huebner (26th, 20:19.2), Ahart (29th, 20:47.9), Tharon Kent (33rd, 21:03.7), Zabel (35th, 21:14.9), Frey (38th, 21:24.5) and David Skaggs (43rd, 22:10.0).

Ellanor Kent (2nd, 22:45.2) and Stevens (3rd, 22:55.3) led the Lady Tigers at Calvary Lutheran with top-three times.

In the varsity girls team standings, Belle finished behind Van-Far (37) and Paris (38) with 53 points.

Lady Tigers finishing behind Belle’s top-three duo were Bailey (32nd, 28:44.8), Moore (36th, 30:00.3) and Saylor Kent (38th, 30:44.8).

Bland’s Lady Bears placed second with 42 points behind Vienna (17) in the middle school girls team standings led by DeDual’s sixth-place time of 12:39.7.

Lady Bears following DeDual were Jarvis (7th, 12:46.7), Chesley Frey (9th, 13:08.8), Langston (15th, 14:18.9) and Ridenhour (16th, 15:09.5).

Bland’s Bears also placed third in the middle school boys team standings with 67 points led by Liam Lewis’ 16th-place time of 12:11.0.

Bears following Lewis included Treyton Huebner (19th, 12:18.1), Wyatt Skaggs (32nd, 14:57.9), Deacon Stockton (35th, 16:46.4) and Tyler (40th, 17:53.7).