BILLINGS — Butte High’s cross country teams were far from full strength Friday as they opened the season at the Billings Invitational. (Results)

The Bulldogs who ran, however, turned some heads in a crowded field at Amend Park.

Butte High’s boys placed 19th out 33 teams with enough runners to score in the event. In all, 55 boys’ teams and 52 girls’ teams competed.

Helena High’s girls and Bozeman’s boys took home the team titles.

Bozeman’s boys took the crown with 67 team points, edging Helena High, which scored 78. Hardin took third at 101. Butte High scored 484 points for 19th place, finishing ahead of Billing Skyview and Billings West.

Taylor Neil of Bozeman ran to the team title, finishing the 5-kilometer race in 15 minutes, 22.66 seconds. Ben Bird of Hardin was second at 15:37, and Milo Kauffman of Helena took third at 15:40.

Senior Bridger Luebke finished the race in 17:19.35, placing 45th out of 258 runners. He was one of three Butte High runners to break 19 minutes the first time out.

Junior Isaac Zell crossed in 18:38, and sophomore Kai Schuler finished in 18:54. Sophomore Jason Real finished in 19:10, while senior Colton Yoakum ran in 19:14, junior Jack Taylor ran in 20:19, and sophomore Lyric Haston crossed in 22:20.

Helena’s 87 points topped the girls’ standings. Gallatin was second at 115, followed by Cody, Wyoming at 140.

Addison Kegel of Billings Central won the varsity girls’ race with a time of 17:23.06. Phoebe Maixner of Bozeman was second at 18:02, and Missoula Hellgate’s Reed Stromberg placed third at 18:22.

Junior Penelope Luebke was the lone varsity runner for the Bulldogs. She placed 62nd out of 249 runners with a time of 21:04.89.

The Bulldogs are expected to be closer to full strength next Friday when they run at the Belgrade Invitational.