As all of the winter sports teams come back from break, they are still trying to get their feet back under them. Since the break, Powell High School Athletics has hit the ground running. With games almost every day, the Panthers have seen a wide variety of results from competitions. 

Panther and Lady Panther basketball teams have both played games that came down to the wire. The original schedule had both teams playing on the same night. But due to the Cody Broncs catching influenza, the boys had to reschedule their game while the girls stuck to the original date. 

“I thought it was weird not having the boy’s game after ours,” freshman Catelynn Floy said. “I do enjoy watching the boys. They also bring more people to the games.”

The girls came up short against the high-powered CHS girls team. In 2021 the Cody Fillies were the state runner-up in the 4A conference. The Lady Panthers recognized that they had to be at the top of their game going into the contest. 

“We knew that we would have to play our best game to keep it close,” Floy said. “It was a good game to show us what we needed to work on.” 

Coming off a month’s layoff from their last game, the boys’ team looked to get off to a good start against the Broncs. In the first quarter, the defense of the Panthers seemed to shock the boys from Cody. As the game continued both teams were neck and neck, not until the fourth quarter did the Broncs pull away. 

“We played a good first three quarters, but then we let too many open looks go up,” sophomore Cade Queen said. “We’ll be ready for the next time we play [Cody].”

With just one day since the gut-wrenching loss to the rival Broncs, the Panther basketball team looked to bounce back against the Rocky Mountain Grizzlies. Coming into this game, the Lady Grizzlies were the third-ranked team in 2A with a record of 5-2 looking to defend their state title from last season. 

After coming off a cold night of shooting, the Panthers looked to improve on their shots from the field.

“In the Cody game, we were just shaking off the rust,” senior Zack Ratcliff said. ”We just needed to not try to do too much and concentrate on our shots.”

The ball just never bounced the right way for the Panthers all game, and the boys lost another down-to-the-wire game. 

Worland and Douglas both made the trip to the Powell Aquatic Center on Friday for a triangular with the Panther swim team. The boys came out on top of the meeting with a team total of 465 points, a winning margin of 125 points.

“I thought it was pretty cool that we won,” junior Kobus Diver said. “They’re usually not that hard to beat.” 

The divers from Powell have been off to a great start this season. They have been the highlight of the boys’ swim team as a whole. At this point in the season, five of the seven divers have already qualified for the state meet. The podium was a familiar place for the Panthers on Friday with the top three places belonging to them.

“The divers have impressed me a lot this year,” Diver said. “Justin Hobbs stands out to me; he just started diving this year and has been solid overall.”

The Panther wrestlers went up to Bozeman, Montana, for an invitational tournament. The young team looked to face some stronger and more experienced competition. 

Junior Stetson Davis stood out during the weekend, making it all the way to the championship match. However, Davis was defeated by Grayson Beaudrie of Cody. Other wrestlers who showed promise were sophomore Jimmy Dees and juniors Vincent Timmons and Yessenia Teague.

“It was cool for [Yessenia Teague] to be able to wrestle in a girls division,” Head Wrestling Coach and history teacher Mr. Nick Fulton said. “She handled it well and wrestled great.”