Powered by a series of strong performances, the Powell High School girls’ track team ran, vaulted and threw their way to a state title on Saturday.

The Panther girls racked up 105 points across the three-day event in Casper, handily defeating runner-up Buffalo, which finished with 71 points. It was the Powell team’s first title since 1992, after several runner-up finishes over the past decade.

Meanwhile, the boys’ team took seventh place, as Lander took the Class 3A crown. The Panthers boys posted a number of strong individual performances, led by senior Riley Bennett, who took second in the pole vault.

As for the girls, they had multiple All State showings.

PHS freshman Waycee Harvey outran the field in the 100 meter dash for a state title. This was Harvey’s first win in the 100 all season. After junior Jenna Hillman — who won the prelims for the event — false started in the finals, Harvey came up with a clutch performance to give her squad the first-place finish.

“Waycee [Harvey]’s win is just an example of this year’s girls team,” coach Scott Smith said. “One person goes down and another one would pick up the slack. The win was a huge feather in Waycee’s cap in beating a very talented field by running a great race.”

And after the disappointing result in the 100 finals, Hillman redeemed herself. She won the 200 meter dash, defeating Douglas’ Kamdynn Townsend, the defending champion in the event. Hillman also placed second in the 400. 

“Jenna really showed the high character we all knew she had, coming back and beating the returning champion and favorite, easily I might add,” Smith said. 

Harvey and Hillman also joined forces with sophomores Anna Bartholomew and Megan Jacobsen to take the 4x400 meter relay.

“They just did a great job of capping the event by showing how much talent they had and how much work they put in to win the final race of the meet,” Smith said. “Even though the title was clinched, they didn’t let up and ran a fantastic race.”

In the field events, meanwhile, the Panther girls picked up three silver medals: senior Emma Karhu in the pole vault, junior Reagan Thompson in the shot put and senior Cassidy Miner in the discus. 

Other performances that stood out to Smith included Sydney and Elsie Spomer, who recorded personal bests to finish fourth and sixth in the triple jump, and Kami Jensen, who finished sixth in the 100 hurdles and then logged a personal best in the pole vault. Kenzie Ratcliff cleared a height of 4 feet, 10 inches in the high jump to take fifth.

On the boys’ side, Smith was still pleased with the overall team effort, despite not finishing on the podium as a group. 

“I was very happy with the boys’ performance as a team,” Smith said. “The boys had some injuries to fight through and did a great job of overcoming some of those types of adversities.”

Bennett was Powell’s only medalist on the boys’ team, with his second-place in the pole vault and bronze medal in the 200. 

A senior, Bennett has significantly impacted the program in his three years of competing.

“Riley has come a long way since his sophomore year,” Smith said. “Running two strong legs on our relays, having a two foot improvement in the pole vault is huge and picking up the 200 at regionals and running that race so well in the state finals says a lot about how hard he has worked, both in season and in the off season.”

Toran Graham was the only other Panther boy to make the top five at state, throwing a distance of 51 feet, 3 inches for a fourth-place finish in the shot put. Daniel Merritt’s showing in the 1600 was also notable. After a disappointing outcome in the 800 — he had been on pace for a personal record before tripping and taking 17th — he rebounded in the 1600 to claim sixth place.

Girls’ results:

Team scores:

1. Powell 105, 2. Buffalo 71, 3. Douglas 66, 4. Mountain View 63.50, 5. Wheatland 63, 6. Torrington 58.50, 7. Lyman 55, 8. Rawlins 53, 9. Lander Valley 49, 10. Burns 27, 11. Lovell 25, 12. Kemmerer 24, 13. Pinedale 19, 14. Newcastle 9, 15. Thermopolis 8, 16. Worland 4

100: 1. Waycee Harvey 13.26, 8. Jenna Hillman 13.46, 9. Emma Karhu 13.94

200: 1. Jenna Hillman 26.90, 5. Waycee Harvey 28.23

400: 2. Jenna Hillman 58.77

800: 7. Megan Jacobsen 2:27.36, 8. Anna Bartholomew 2:28.31

1600: 16. Brynn Hillman 6:02.87

3200: 14. Brynn Hillman 13:27.58

100 hurdles: 7. Kami Jensen 17.45, 10. Abigail Urbach 17.63

300 hurdles: 8. Emma Karhu 49.18

4x100: 8. Kylie Kahl, Kenzie Ratcliff, Emma Karhu, Mikayla Graham54.73

4x400: 1. Anna Bartholomew, Waycee Harvey, Megan Jacobsen, Jenna Hillman 4:08.51

Sprint medley relay: 4. Kylie Kahl, Anna Bartholomew, Kami Jensen, Megan Jacobsen 4:27.70

4x800: 5. Anna Bartholomew, Hailee Hyde, Brynn Hillman, Megan Jacobsen 10:38.88

High jump: 5. Kenzie Ratcliff 4-10, 10. Addy Thorington 4-6

Long jump: 8. Waycee Harvey 15-8.25

Triple jump: 4. Sydney Spomer 34-3.25, 6. Elsie Spomer 33-1

Pole vault: 2. Emma Karhu 10-0, 5. Kami Jensen 9-0, 7. Lauryn Bennett 8-6

Discus: 2. Cassidy Miner 114-3, 6. Grace Coombs 106-3, 7. Megan McDaniel 101-10

Shot put: 2. Reagan Thompson 27-2.75, 12. Katie O’Brien 31-4, 13. Cassidy Miner 31-3.75

Boys’ results:

Team scores:

1. Lander Valley 113, 2. Mountain View 108, 3. Lovell 84, 4. Lyman 55.50, 5. Rawlins 55, 6. Douglas 50.83, 7. Powell 47, 8. Burns 38.33, 9. Buffalo 36, 10. Wheatland 33, 11. Worland 30.50, 12. Newcastle 15.50, 13. Pinedale 15, 14. Kemmerer 11, 15. Thermopolis 6, 16. Torrington 2.33

100: 6. Reed Smith 11.95, 11. Kadden Abraham 12.15

200: 3. Riley Bennett 23.81, 11. Reed Smith 24.23

400: 6. Cole Frank 52.98

800: 17. Daniel Merritt 2:15.00

1600: 6. Daniel Merritt 4:44.57

3200: 11. Daniel Merritt 10:58.69

110 hurdles: 6. Hyrum Jeide 17.15, 11. Simon Shoopman 17.49

300 hurdles: 12. Hyrum Jeide 44.50, 14. Kadden Abraham 44.79, 17. Simon Shoopman 45.37

4x100: 4. Kadden Abraham, Zach Ratcliff, Riley Bennett, Reed Smith 45.13

4x400: 6. Hyrum Jeide, Dylan Escalante, Sam Whitlock, Cole Frank 3:49.77

Sprint medley relay: 8. Kadden Abraham, Riley Bennett, Cole Frank, Ethan Bartholomew 3:49.77

4x800: 5. Ethan Bartholomew, Jace Hyde, Joey Hernandez, Daniel Merritt 8:43.16

Long jump: 9. Zach Ratcliff 19-3.75

Pole vault: 2. Riley Bennett 13-6

Discus: 10. Zeke Frankenberry 130-8, 12. Sheldon Shoopman 124-4

Shot put: 4. Toran Graham 51-3, 7. Sheldon Shoopman 48-3.25, 8. Lane Shramek 46-5.5, 11. Geordan Weimer 44-5