Off the back of its first state championship in a decade, the Powell Panther wrestling team returns a few competitors from a season ago, hoping to build through a strong freshman class while just a handful of state qualifiers will return.

“We graduated a number of seniors, hats off to them,” coach Nick Fulton said. “But that was a big chunk of the points … I wouldn’t say at all (we’re in) a full reset. We’re gonna pick and choose where we wrestle those freshmen in the varsity lineup a little bit, because a lot of them will be filling some roles for us.”

Leading the way at the top for the Panthers as the lone placer from last season is senior Tyler Wenzel, who took fifth at 132 pounds.

“Tyler was fifth last year at arguably the deepest weight in 3A. He comes back with a medal in his pocket, looking to move up the ladder there a little bit,” Fulton said.

The lone junior returner who qualified for state a year ago was Broc Frank at 138 pounds.

Powell also returns a trio of sophomores who qualified last season, as Channing Wenzel returns at 120 pounds while Dylan DeBoer and Sean Lowe both return at 126 pounds as all returning state wrestlers recorded a win at the state tournament last year.

“They won matches. They weren’t in the Events Center as a spectator,” Fulton said. “They were out winning matches and making it deep into the tournament.”

The Panthers will also bring in a number of freshmen who have years of wrestling experience.

“We do return some experience, but we’ve got youth as well. I believe we have 16 freshmen on the roster right now, and they’ve been successful in their wrestling careers,” Fulton said. “They’ve been successful in the club program and been successful in the middle school, won conference and then they won the Wyoming Amateur Wrestling Association (WAWA) state last year with predominantly freshmen this year. They’ve experienced success, but there’s going to be some growing pains.”

“The kids know that, and they’re ready for the challenge.”

Among those freshmen Fulton noted have a strong chance to make an impact this year are Russell Goolsbey, Trevin Morton and Justin Marquez.

Among those freshmen, Fulton also noted there is a wide distribution of weights among that class, ensuring the Panthers will have weights filled out for much of the season.

“There’s some kids that nobody might know their name now, but I firmly believe they will,” Fulton said. “They’re all good kids, they’re competitors, they go hard. They’re pretty spread out in weights really well which is important. I’ve got everybody from an 87-pound freshman to a heavyweight freshman … They’ve got to buy in. They’ve got to develop, it is going to be a process with them, and they’re up for the challenge, I’m certainly excited for it.”

As is tradition, the Panthers begin the season at home this weekend, hosting the Powell Invitational on Friday and Saturday.

“I think for the most part we’ll wrestle most of our freshmen in JV this first weekend, because the next weekend we turn around and go to the Pat Weede (in Gillette) and Worland. Pretty much my entire lineup is going to wrestle in varsity matches week two regardless of age,” Fulton said. “We’re going to get those young kids some matches and see where they are. Be able to evaluate what we need to work on, what we need to do long term with those kids.”

Fulton said he knows the difficulties of putting on the first tournament of the year, and is excited to get going with the help of his assistant coaches Juston Carter and Cody Kalberer.