After losing two of their top three scorers from last year, including an All-State competitor, the Powell Panther boys’ golf team is hoping for a consistent jump in scoring with several new competitors stepping into the lineup.

The top returner this season is junior Cody Fisher, who finished as an All-Conference competitor last season and 13th at state with coach Troy Hildebrand expecting a significant jump from the junior leader.

“Cody’s definitely the leader of that group in terms of experience and success in his career so far. This summer he has played a lot of golf and played some really good golf,” Hildebrand said. “He’ll be the leader of that boys’ side.”

Powell returns two additional players from last year’s team in senior Jace Harris and junior Park Harvison who competed at state and placed 45th and 47th, respectively.

In addition to those returners, Hildebrand anticipates a jump from junior Kason Sherman who he said has been active out on the course this summer and shown strong improvement in the early days of practice.

“That gives us some guys to draw on there. Kason played a ton this summer with Cody (Fisher), and got a lot of experience there,” Hildebrand said. “There’s been some real growth with that group, and we’ll see how the bottom end shakes out in terms of traveling spots and picking that best five to go to Cody (for state) at the end of the year.”

Filling in those spots the Panthers hope to see greater consistency from the team from top to bottom in terms of scoring, Hildebrand said, with athletes fighting with better scores to earn one of the traveling spots.

“We were really spread out last year with our scores from No. 1 to No. 5. This year I think that we might have a little bit tighter range of scores that are fighting for those spots, and that’s maybe going to put us in a little bit better position as a team,” Hildebrand said. “Cody with his growth is going to probably step into the role that Trey (Scott) had last year, and then we’ll see where things fall behind that.”

Hildebrand said he expects defending champion Wheatland to be contenders once again after returning state champion Tate Nichols as well as another top four competitor in Jacob Miller as the Bulldogs won state by 60 strokes a season ago.

“Wheatland is the standard on the boys’ side the last couple years with the groups that they’ve had coming through,” Hildebrand said. “Behind that, there’s a lot of teams that are similar and I put us in that mix of a team that, on the right weekend, we can be a little closer to the top and we definitely have the potential to be a pretty solid group on the boys’ side.”

The short six-week season kicks off at home once again for the Panthers, with Powell welcoming in teams from all classes to the Powell Golf Club.

Thursday’s round is set to begin at 1 p.m. while the second round is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Friday.

Hildebrand is hopeful the early familiarity will help the Panthers get off to a strong start, while getting to evaluate the remaining players to determine travel spots moving forward.

“Opening at home allows us a couple things … But more than anything I’m able to get a few more players experience in the tournament,” Hildebrand said. “It allows some newer tournament players to know what’s in front of them and it gives them a little bit better opportunity at success.”

Along with opening the season at home, Hildebrand is hopeful the returning Panthers will get an opportunity to play with some top competitors from upper level teams that Powell does not always get to compete against.

“With the teams that are coming, there’s some really good top end players,” Hildebrand said. “It will allow us to play with some players from Campbell County, Sheridan, Lander that are very good. Then it will just give everyone a chance to see what’s out there.”

Powell turns around quickly, heading out on the road Monday and Tuesday to take part in an invitational in Lander, with the season ending in just over a month at the state tournament in Cody on Sept. 19-20.