{gallery}08_24_10/golf{/gallery}Powell's Alyssa Hildebrand follows her tee shot through the air during the Panthers' opening golf tournament of the season. Hildebrand was the lone female golfer to compete in the meet for PHS. Tribune photo by Randal HorobikPrestwich second after two-hole playoffThe Powell High School golf team opened the 2010 fall sports calendar with a third-place finish at home. The Panthers finished with two of the meet's top four golfers to place behind Gillette and Cody. “I was pleased with our showing for the first tournament, but we definitely have some room to grow,” said Panther golf coach Troy Hildebrand. “The season got off to a great start with two perfect days of weather and our course in superb shape for the nine schools that were able to come.”

Leading the Panthers' attack was sophomore Bowen Prestwich. Prestwich carded rounds of 82 and 77 during the two-day tournament to finish tied for the lead after 36 holes of regulation play. Prestwich went on to place second after losing his second playoff hole.

“I'm very proud of Bowen's performance. It is great to see him reap the rewards of the time he spent playing this summer,” said Hildebrand. “To be in that position in the first tournament of his sophomore season is a great sign for our team.”

Panther golfers Zane Bushnell and Brian Morse both matched Prestwich with rounds of 82 on the first day of the tournament. Neither was able to keep pace with the sophomore on Friday, however, as Bushnell carded another round of 82 while Morse's score ballooned to a 96 on the second day.

“Zane had two solid rounds to finish in fourth place,” said Hildebrand. “This was a very good start to hs senior season and I expect him to build on this perfomance. It was actually nice to see Zane somewhat disappointed in what I would call a good performance.”

Morse, Hildebrand noted, was done in by a difficult back nine on Friday to close out his tournament.

“One of our areas to improve is being able to battle through tough rounds and still post a solid score for the team,” Hildebrand said.

Rounding out Powell's varsity lineup for the opening tournament were Cameron Nielson's 98-97 performance and Jared Wantulok's 111-99 scorecard.

Dillon Nix carded rounds of 118 and 121 as the Panthers' lone JV golfer on the course.

“We are really going to need consistent scoring out of our third and fourth spots to be able to contend for a trophy at State,” Hildebrand said. “Cameron played well for us in his first varsity experience and for Jared to break 100 in his first tournament was a great sign of our future.”

As a team, the Panthers carded a two-day total of 696. Gillette breezed to the team title with a score of 652. Cody was second at 674. Other teams included Buffalo (749), Gillette JV (750), Star Valley (751), Lovell (772) and Thermopolis (784).

Powell's lone female golfer for the weekend was Alyssa Hildebrand, who finished with rounds of 110 and 119. The two-day performance placed her 11th for the event.

“Although she would have liked to have scored better, Alyssa did feel like she finished Friday playing pretty well over her final holes,” said Hildebrand.

“One of the things that we will continue to work on is managing bad holes to try and minimize the damage to our score.”

Gillette (562), Cody (663) and Thermopolis (678) were the only schools capable of fielding full girls' golf teams.