Winter sports officially have entered their busy season.

Both the Panther and Lady Panther basketball teams competed in the Bighorn Basin Shootout tournaments Jan. 11-12, the Panther wrestling team traveled to Missoula, Mont., and the Panther swim team headed to Worland for a meet to get in some solid competition before getting into the most important parts of their seasons.

The Lady Panther basketball team went 3-1 in the tournament, making it to the championship and falling short to lose to the Wyoming Indian Lady Chiefs 61-57.

The first day of the tourney, the Lady Panthers took on the 2A Shoshoni Lady Blue and the 2A Thermopolis Lady Bobcats.

The Lady Panthers took control of both games early gaining a solid lead and holding both teams below 30 points. PHS defeated Shoshoni 46-23 and Thermopolis 61-27.

This was a breakout weekend for many of the players on the varsity roster, including Brea Terry who had 11 points against the Lady Bobcats, a season high for her.

“I think I just stopped worrying so much about doing the right thing and just played basketball,” Terry said. “I was able to score more and all around just play more comfortably.”

Seniors Rachel Bonander and Aubrie Stenerson, the team’s leading scorers, seemed to find their shots this weekend after struggling to score in the preseason, with Bonander scoring 22 points against Wyoming Indian and Stenerson scoring 23 against Thermopolis.

PHS made it to the championship game against the Wyoming Indian Lady Chiefs, who they had played and lost to 47-34 in the preseason.

The Lady Panthers came out strong holding a steady lead for the entire first quarter. As the second quarter got going, the Lady Chiefs hit a few 3-pointers and the score was tied for most of the second quarter. Senior guard Ashtyn Heny hit a last minute three to tie up the score yet again at the half.

The score stayed tight for most of the second half of the game, with the Lady Chiefs pulling away with a few bonus free-throws in the fourth quarter to win the game 61-57.

The Lady Panthers began conference play at the Worland Lady Warriors and home versus the Lander Lady Tigers Jan. 18-19.

“I think these wins will probably help bring more momentum going into conference games,” Terry said. “It brought our team confidence back since we started out the season pretty Rocky, and now we can start scoring more points and play with those good teams.”

PHS beat Worland 40-30 but fell to Lander 45-41.

The Panther basketball team went 1-2 over the weekend falling to the Wyoming Indian Chiefs and the Worland Warriors.

In the first game of the tournament against the 2A Wyoming Indian Chiefs, The Panthers struggled to score and also struggled to defend the aggressive nature of the Chief’s play.

In this game, senior guard Kaelan Groves received his second intentional of the season for alleged undercutting of an opponent. Groves chose not to comment about the incident.

This game did not come out in the Panthers’ favor, losing to the Chiefs 72-52.

“I don’t think we came prepared really,” senior post player Dalton Woodward said. “We just started out really slow.”

The Panthers’ second game of the tourney was against the 1A Burlington Huskies who are ranked No. 5 in 1A.

The Panthers defeated the Huskies 71-43 with much of their bench getting solid playing time. one of Burlington’s top scorers, Dontae Garza, was injured earlier in the tournament and was not able to play in this game.

In their third and final game of the tournament, PHS faced off against the Worland Warriors, who are currently ranked No. 5 in 3A.

The Panthers held the score within 4-6 points for most of the game, losing the lead and then winning it back several times. In the end, the Panthers lost to the Warriors 66-59.

Junior Jesse Brown was given his first intentional foul of the season for “flopping” when taking a charge against the Warriors.

The Panthers had another shot at the No. 5 Worland Warriors 59-57 in  their first conference game of the season Jan. 18 and won but fell to Lander 64-58 the following day at home,

“I think since they already beat us once we kind of got a fire going under us now to win,” Woodward said.

The Panther wrestling team traveled to Missoula, Mont., to get in some competition against Montana teams.

“Missoula always brings pretty good competition, that’s why we go up there,” senior Cameron Schmidt said. “Montana just has some bigger schools so they just have a higher level of competition.”

Despite the increase in competition, three Panther wrestlers placed top 5 in their weight classes.

Senior Reese Karst placed first in the 138-pound weight class, sophomore Seth Horton placed fourth at160 and junior Bo Dearcorn placed fourth in 182. Junior Brody Karhu took sixth in the 152 weight class.

The Panther wrestling team placed seventh in the tournament with 33 teams competing.

They went on to defeat Laurel in a dual 57-18 on Jan. 17.

The Panther swim team competed in the Worland Invitational, with the team placing third overall behind Lander and Rawlins.

Several PHS swimmers placed well in their individual events as well as in their relays.

The 200 medley relay A team of junior Richard Spann, freshman Francis Rogers, junior Jay Cox and junior Bryce Hogen placed fourth. And the 200 medley relay B team of sophomore Tarren Blackmore, senior Pedro Teixeira, freshman Riley Schiller and freshman Ben Hawley placed seventh.

Junior Jay Cox placed second in the 50 freestyle and sixth in the 100 butterfly.

Rogers and sophomore Matthew Hobbs also placed in the 100 butterfly in 10th and 11th respectively.

Hogen placed second in the 1-meter diving and ninth in the 500 freestyle.

Senior Trent Wilson placed fourth in both the 500 freestyle and the 200 freestyle.

Hogen and freshman Josh Wright also placed in the 500 free with ninth and seventh respectively.

The 400 freestyle relay team of Wilson, Hobbs, Blackmore and senior Joe Rogers placed fifth overall.

“I think everyone has come a long ways,” Cox said. “As each day progresses, our technique improves, our conditioning gets better, and having more races under our belt, we gain more experience.”

Cox also won the team’s sportsmanship award.

The Panthers competed in a meet in Lander on Jan. 19.

“I think the key right now to getting more people to state is technique,” said Cox. “Our endurance is very good, but in swimming endurance means nothing if you don’t know what you’re doing in the water.”

Click here for more swimming results.