In a larger field than most years, the Powell High School cross country teams took on some of the best Montana and northern Wyoming has to offer, as the Panthers took part in the Billings Invite on Friday afternoon.

“This year’s Billings Invite was the biggest it has been in years. Billings is set to host the Montana State Cross Country Championship races at the end of the season and because of that most of Montana’s teams came to check out the course at Amend Park,” coach Ashley Hildebrand said.

She said 64 schools came out to compete across all the races.

The top finish for the Panthers came on the girls’ side, as they were led by Karee Cooley who finished 13th with a time of 19 minutes, 11.8 seconds.

Second behind her was Anyston Keller, who took 41st with a time of 20:26.8.

Aubree Kraft was the third Panther runner, as she finished 44th with a time of 20:29.4.

Kaytlee George tied her personal best time of 20:52 to take 56th.

Eleasah Horsley rounded out the scoring for the Panther girls, as she was 88th with a time of 21:59.3.

Kara Sanders took 93rd with a time of 22:06.2 while her older sister Paige was 148th with a time of 23:35.

Hildebrand said each of the varsity girls improved their times on the course in a crowded field of 249 runners; the Panthers took seventh overall as a team with 202 points.

Powell was the top overall 3A team, well ahead of Buffalo in ninth which had 276 points, Cody was the top Wyoming team in third with 140 points.

“We were really proud of the girls and how they raced. They hung in there with the big schools from Montana and were the highest placing 3A school from Wyoming,” Hildebrand said. “We race in Buffalo next week, so it will be good to see how we stack up against each other in a smaller race without as many people to break up points.”

On the boys’ side the Panthers were led by Nathan Varian, who took 98th with a time of 18:26.6.

Close behind him was Michael Stensing, who took 105th with a time of 18:35.1.

Ben Smith was the third runner in with a time of 19:30.8 to take 146th, Karson Howe was the fourth runner with a time of 19:55 to take 160th and Wyatt Hill rounded out the scoring with a time of 22:43.6 to take 235th.

Matthew Watson was the final Panther across the line as he took 237th with a time of 22:46.9.

Hildebrand noted that every Panther boy ran better than last year, and most of them ran a personal best time. Since they only had six runners available for the first meet they all ran in the varsity race.

“We were very happy with how all of the boys ran,” Hildebrand said.

As a team the Panthers were 26th overall out of 55 teams with a team score of 660.

In the junior varsity girls’ race the Panthers were led by Landyn Horsley with a time of 24:22 to take 64th, Charlie Taylor was 100th with a time of 25:23.8, Beth Black was 103rd with a time of 25:30.4, Natalee Laing was 107th with a time of 25:36.3, Abigail Curdy was 135th with a time of 26:25.6 and Jordyn Nelson was 190th with a time of 28:27.7.

The Panthers were 13th as a team.

Powell drops down into Wyoming and heads over the mountains for a race on Friday, as they head to Buffalo with the first race beginning at 10:30 a.m.