The Bulldogs opened the season Thursday at the Jeff West Invitational with boys teams competing in both varsity and junior varsity meets. The girls, meanwhile, ran in the junior varsity race only.

In the boys varsity meet, Nick Edgell was McLouth’s top runner. He placed 24th with a time of 20 minutes, 39.3 seconds. John Trieu placed 38th with a 21:46.2 time and Dustin Rainey placed 46th in 22:31.5.

Also placing were Tanner Bristol in 57th (24:03.7) and Cody Berry in 64th (27:00.5).

The Bulldogs finished ninth out of 10 teams in the boys varsity race. Jeff West won its home meet, while Northern Heights’ Tim Meahl won the race with a time of 18:20.5.

In the boys junior varsity race, Charlie Turner placed 10th with a 23:19.1 time. Other McLouth runners were Steven Nowlan (25th, 27:05.3), Chris Heath (26th, 27:22.4), and Jarrod Bechard (27th, 30:14.3).

Because the McLouth girls have a young team, coach George Karn held his runners out of the varsity race, but plans to have them compete in varsity meets later in the season.

Kassidy Kramer was McLouth’s top runner. She finished second with a 16:10.5 time behind Onaga’s Kara Gudenkauf, who finished in 15:02.

Gelia Gardner was close behind Kramer with a16:13.3 time, good for third place. Amanda Berry was McLouth’s fourth runner. She placed 13th with an 18:15.4 time.

McLouth competed without Liz Turner and Ryan Sexton. Both are nursing sore shins.

“We still have injuries we’re trying to overcome,” Karn said.

The Bulldogs will head Saturday to the site of the state meet Friday when they compete at the Wamego Invitational. The meet will start at 9 a.m.