With the seemingly never-ending winter sports season nearing an end, the Panther and Lady Panther teams look to finish strong. Basketball and wrestling both have less than a month left in their respective campaigns. 

The Panther wrestlers competed in their regional tournament this weekend with one goal in mind. State.

“I was mainly trying to take one step at a time and take each match as the most important,” sophomore Adam Flores said. “My goal was to just get to state.”

The trip to Lander was a total success in that almost all the wrestlers that traveled qualified for the state tournament. Powell’s 2022 state qualifiers include seniors Carson Lamb and Mikey Timmons, juniors Weston Thomas, Vincent Timmons, Jack Van Norman, Lannon Brazelton and Stetson Davis, sophomores Adam Flores, Jimmy Dees, Jonathan Harm and Wyatt Heffington and freshman Wyatt Nicholson, Patrick Heny, MaKale Foley and Doug Bettger. 

“Going into state I feel confident I just need to go out and do the best I can,” Flores said. “The rest will just take care of itself.”

Not often do the teams from Mountain View and Lyman make the trip up to Powell, but this week was a rare exception. The Lyman boys came into town ranked number one in their quadrant.

“Going into the game we knew that they were going to be very tall and good shooters,” senior Toran Graham said. “We saw on film that they had a half-court press but we have practiced against pressure like that all year so we felt prepared.”

The pressure from the boys in blue seemed to rattle the Panthers early in the game, which led to the close score heading into the second half.

“We struggled to move the ball at times, and we can’t have lapses like that at the end of the season,” graphics teacher and head basketball coach Mike Heny said. “We’ll keep drilling it till we clean it up.” 

As the third and four quarters rolled on, it was the fouls and missed free throws that hurt the Panthers the most. 

“In that second half we didn’t get the same calls as the first half,” sophomore Trey Stenerson said. “That’s just how tit goes sometimes and we need to adjust better to it.”

The final score of the contest was 71-68 in favor of the Lyman Eagles. 

Friday night was also a big challenge for the Lady Panthers. The Lady Eagle basketball team was the state runner up last year  with a high powered offense. The Lady Panthers would have to put in extra preparation for the game.

“Every week we wear the jersey numbers of the best players on the other team,” freshman Alexa Richardson said. “This helps the varsity players remember who is good at different aspects of their game.”

As the game progressed, the three pointers by the Lady Eagles overpowered the Lady Panthers. The experience and overall style of play just was too much for the girls. 

Back-to-back games are nothing new for the Panther basketball teams this year; the quick turnaround had our teams lined up against the Mountain View Bison the next day. The Lady Panthers took the court first. But with the same results as the night before, it was evident the young Powell team couldn’t keep up with the older, more experienced Lady Bison.

Following the girls’ game, the Panthers looked to improve upon their loss to the Lyman Eagles.The game began with a rough start for the Panthers, and they found themselves making the same mistakes as the night before. Once again, subpar ball movement and missed opportunities were what grounded the Panthers. However, as the game progressed the Powell boys were able to pull away, making the final score 45-39.

“Our focus for the remainder of the year is simple,” Stenerson said. “Play our best games and make it to state.”