Opening the season at home the Powell Panther wrestling team fought to a fifth place finish in a competitive field at the Powell Invitational, placing 10 wrestlers including two finalists in a first weekend.

On Friday the competitors took part in pool play matches, with the results determining seeding in brackets on Saturday.

For the Panthers, Talon Nuss went 2-1 at 106 pounds; Wyatt Nicholson went 3-0 at 113 pounds; Jonathan Hine went 1-2 at 113 pounds; Gabe Whiting went 3-1 at 120 pounds; Chevy Hill went 3-1 at 126 pounds; Tyler Wenzel went 2-2 at 138 pounds; Kash Brazelton went 2-1 at 144 pounds; Chase Visocky went 3-1 at 144 pounds; Patrick Haney went 3-1 at 150 pounds; Reese Lowe went 0-5 at 150 pounds; Cody Seifert went 2-1 at 157 pounds; McKale Foley went 5-0 at 165 pounds; Mitchel Wainscott went 3-2 at 175 pounds; Dusty Carter went 4-0 at 190 pounds; Jacob Eaton went 4-1 at 215 pounds; Denton Wainscott went 0-4 at 215 pounds and Doug Bettger went 4-0 285 pounds.

On Saturday, two Panthers advanced to the finals, starting with Nicholson at 113 pounds who went 2-0 before losing to a Huntley Project, Montana wrestler in the finals.

“Wyatt looked real tough,” coach Nick Fulton said. “The kid he lost to in the finals was just a talented kid and that’s the way the ball bounces sometimes. We want to wrestle those tough guys and be able to close the gap on them.”

The other finalist for the Panthers came at 215 pounds, where Eaton battled his way to the final before a loss to a tough wrestler from Natrona County.

“Eaton had a really nice tournament,” Fulton said. “Natrona kid got the better of him in the finals, but he’s trying to gather a lot of good wins. He lost to a Campbell County kid in the pools, and then turned around and beat him in the semifinals. That kid’s a 4A state medalist, so I was real pleased with his effort.”

Powell also had a third place finisher in Haney who went 2-1, while Nuss and Whiting both went 1-2 to place fourth.

Hine went 1-1 to take fifth, Seifert and Carter both went 2-1 to take fifth, while Hill and Foley each finished 1-2 to take home sixth.

“Good weekend. A lot of matches, kids got a lot of mat time which is kind of the goal for this time of year,” Fulton said. “We need to clean up some technique things and make sure we’re staying focused for the duration of a match. We had a couple matches that we would lose our focus for 30 seconds and it cost us sometimes.”

Other competitors on Saturday included Visocky going 0-2, Brazelton going 0-2 and Wainscott going 0-2.

“A really tough tournament for the first weekend,” Fulton said. “There’s just a lot of quality teams there, lots of quality kids. A good starting spot, putting 10 guys in the top six in a tough tournament.”

As a team the Panthers ended in fifth, earning 107 points, finishing just behind Sheridan in fourth with 107.5 while Laurel ran away with the team race with 145 points. Thermopolis was the highest scoring Wyoming team in third with 112, and Powell was the highest scoring 3A team ahead of Cody in ninth with 57.5.

“We’re not at our best yet, but we got a good base and will be able to build off this really easily,” Fulton said. “I was overall pretty pleased.”

Continuing the early season competitions the Panthers will split up the team this weekend, with the varsity taking a lineup to Gillette to take part in the Pat Weede Memorial while the Panthers will also take a lineup to compete in the Battle in the Big Horns in Worland.

Fulton is expecting more difficult opponents in Gillette, as the Panthers will battle 4A teams in Natrona County and Campbell County as well as teams from out of state including a Pennsylvania opponent, wrestling nine total duals on Friday and Saturday.

“I’m really excited to go mix it up with different teams,” Fulton said. “It’s a tough dual tournament, but we got a pretty solid lineup there … If you’re in that tournament, they’re pretty good teams. They don’t bring in weak ones.”