The Forest Park Cross Country Festival reached a milestone anniversary of 20 years running in 2025. This 20th edition of the meet brought the heat both in the races and literally, with sunny skies and soaring temperatures.
For the third year in a row, the men’s Open Race record was bettered. Noah McMullen, a 21-year-old from Columbia, MO and former harrier at Lutheran St. Charles, laid down a speedy 15:24 5k, besting the record by 17 seconds.
In the Varsity Girls High School Green Division, a strong group of former FPXC champions, state champions and who’s who athletes in St. Louis area running circles powered through the first mile. Grace Murphy, a junior from Nerinx, started pulling away before the 2 mile mark and held the gap over the last mile. Her race winning time of 18:18 made the top 25 all-time list in the 25th spot. Second place was freshman Bella Burlbaw of Rockwood Summit. The Cor Jesu team flipped the script this year and after finishing as the runner up to O’Fallon the last two years, took home the team title in 2025.
In the Varsity Boys High School Green Division, sophomore Jack McGovern of Rockhurst, blazed to a first place finish and an incredible time of 15:05.4 earning him the #3 spot on the all-time boys list. Jack hung with a decent sized pack through 1 mile. The pack dwindled to two runners by 2 miles and Jack powered away from Max Weber a senior from Civic Memorial (IL) in the final mile. Max’s second place finish with a 15:09.9 puts him at the #4 all-time spot. Two other boys ran under 15:30 and earned places in the top 25 all-time record book – senior Brayden Kloeppel of O’Fallon (IL) – 15:18 – #13 and senior Hunter Stahl of Northpoint – 15:25 – #21.
It was a three-peat for meet host St. Louis University High and a resounding team win at that with all five scorers finishing in the top 15, led by junior Jackson Miller in 5th place. Kickapoo earned second place in the team standings.
The forecast dictated condensing the meet schedule, and the boys and girls freshmen 5k was run as a combined race. In the Freshman Boys 5K, Benjamin Patti of Rockhurst pulled away from all of the competitors in the last mile, securing a 20 second win in 18:21. SLUH’s Carter Wagner was the runner up. For the third year in a row, SLUH brought home the team win. Eight points separated the SLUH crew from second place team Rockhurst.
In the Freshman Girls 5K, Macailyn Townsend of Liberty (Wentzville), took the lead from the start and grew it over the course of the race – 30 seconds at 1 mile, 40 seconds at the 2 mile and nearly 50 seconds at the finish. Macailyn’s time of 22:06 broke the previous record by 11 seconds. Cor Jesu, led by Molly Murphy and a strong pack, claimed the team title over Liberty (Wentzville).
Unfortunately due to the extreme heat, the middle school races were cancelled in an effort to keep the athletes safe.