While the bulk of the Powell High School track and field team was off winning the Riverside Invitational in Basin, a handful of Panthers trekked up into Montana to test their wares on the big stage of the Billings Invitational.

And against a large and loaded field of teams from the Billings area, along with the likes of Sheridan and Cody from Wyoming, Powell athletes made their mark.

“This was some extremely good competition,” said head coach Scott Smith. “The number of competitors in each event ranged from 30 to 65, with most events having around 50 competitors from the 19 teams that were there.”

For the boys, Paige Gann finished a strong third in the 300-meter hurdles, timing in at 44.10 seconds, with Nate Magill taking 11th in 45.04.

The pair would also compete in the 110-meter hurdles with Magill placing 11th and Gann 16th.

Cody Akin and Tegan Cordes finished eighth and 12th, respectively, in the 800-meter run, posting times of 2:09.44 and 2:13.01.

Akin would also break the five-minute barrier, finishing 11th in the 1600 in 4:51.98, while A.J. Lewis hit 36 feet, 9 inches to take 12th in the triple jump and 18 feet, 1-inch in the long jump to place 18th out of 41 finishers.

The Lady Panthers would see some even stronger finishes as Anissa Warner won the high jump by clearing 5 feet, 4 inches and the triple jump with a mark of 35 feet, 4 inches.

Lexee Craig finished fourth in the long jump at 15 feet, 7.75 inches, just 2 inches off of the winning jump.

Danna Hanks would place fifth in the 100-meter hurdles with her time of 16.27 seconds and Craig placed ninth in 17.04.

Hanks and younger sister Maddy would go fourth and 15th in the 300-hurdles, timing in at 47.92 and 53.50, respectively.

Sophomore Julia Kay O’Neill was impressive in the middle distances, finishing fifth in the 800, crossing the line at 2:27.71, and would get 12th in the 400 in 1:05.42.

Maddy Hanks then cleared 8 feet in the pole vault to tie for seventh, and in a crowded field of 45 finishers, Teo Faulkner took 15th with a time of 5:50.31 in the 1600.

“It was a great weekend for our kids,” Smith said. “Not as much from performance marks, but for how well they went out and competed against such good competition.”