The Lady Panther and Panther basketball team got a chance to have a second look at the Cody Fillies and Cody Broncs. The Panthers were able to come out with a win on the Cody court on Jan. 29. 

A tough matchup for the Lady Panthers, they could not get anything going throughout the night. The Lady Panthers ending game score was 60-19. With the Cody Fillies coming out with a 41 point victory, the Lady Panthers kept fighting. On a different note, the boys came out with making more free throws to make a difference in their game. In the end, the Panthers were to claim the victory 57-49.  

“For Cody, we improved our defense since the last time we played them and we had more intense practices,” sophomore Brock Johnson said. “It felt really good beating them, especially since we lost to them at home. The whole team really enjoyed it.”

The Cody Fillies girls basketball team is ranked #1 in the 4A Northwest Conference and proved to the 3A Lady Panthers why. 

“I think that we should have focused more on Cody than we did,” junior Maddie Campbell said. “I think the mindset given to us during that game was we were already going to lose, so not focusing on that game ultimately made us look like we were in that position. Cody is a tough, strong, and good team, but I think it should have been more of a game than it was.”

Getting back into conference games for the Panthers both teams were able to put up a fight with the Lovell Bulldogs and receive and win on the Bulldogs floor. 

“Our mindset was simple and we just knew we had to play hard defense and limit our turnovers on offense,” Johnson said. 

The Lady Panthers and the Panthers will hit the road to take on the Kemmerer Rangers and the Pinedale Wranglers in Kemmerer and Pinedale on Jan. 4-5 

Switching to the other gym the Panther wrestlers are hard at work. Wrestlers traveled to Riverton for the Ron-Thon tournament to get a chance to wrestle anywhere from 2A to 4A teams. The Panthers as a whole did well at this tournament. 

At 170 pounds, junior Stetson Davis finished 3-2. Davis lost in the second round to Colson Coon of Sheridan before losing in the fourth round of the consolation bracket. 

“I wrestled more matches than everybody else, and should have ended up placing but did not have a very good seed in the tournament,” Davis said. “Wrestling with 4A guys gives me more competition and more drive to get better, even 2A schools are good but it really just shows you who’s the best in the state. My main goal is just to win.”

The wrestlers took on the Lander Valley Tigers Feb. 4, coming up short with a score of 40- 38. 

“In Lander, all the Junior Varsity kids but one pinned their kid in their match. They then went to Greybull and got third in the Varsity tournament,” Davis said. 

The PHS indoor tracksters traveled to Gillette with the Lovell team on Jan. 22.

“I’ve been pretty good, and I’m sitting third in the state in the triple jump,” senior Dylan Escalante said. “We aren’t doing good as a team, but personally, I’ve been wanting to improve on my jumps and make my legs stronger as a whole so I can be number one.” 

The events that Escalante participates in are the 400, triple jump, and occasionally high jump. The girls’ team also participated in the Gillette meet.

“I take indoor as more of a practice season for the outdoor season just because we don’t practice as much and the competition is against 4A teams,” senior Reagan Thompson said. “We didn’t have a whole lot of practice before so I didn’t do as well as I was hoping but this outdoor season is looking good for our team.” 

Without there being a Powell indoor track team the Panther athletes still take the opportunity to get better with the Lovell team. 

“I wish we had our own team,” Thompson said. “Being with Lovell has been a great opportunity to work with different coaches and meet new people and competing with 4a schools is a really good competition that I think better prepares us for our outdoor meets especially for athletes looking to win best of the best at state.”