The Powell High School golfers put together some of their best results of the season last week competing on a course none of the players had seen, as the Panther girls took home the team crown in Evanston and Cody Fisher won the individual title on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Fisher led the way through the whole tournament, as he held a three shot lead over teammate Park Harvison and six over the remainder of the field after the first day, expanding that to a seven shot victory with rounds of 72 and 74.

“He has had an incredible season and for him to win the conference championship is a real testament to the work and growth that he has had in his career,” coach Troy Hildebrand said. “Cody has established himself as one of the top players in the state and it will be exciting to see what he does this week at state on another unfamiliar course.”

Leading the way for the girls was Emery Hernandez, who turned in rounds of 100 and 91 to take second overall.

“Emery did a great job of battling back from a very tough start over her first five holes of the tournament,” Hildebrand said. “She is definitely a player that could put together two good days in Torrington and find herself right near the top at the end.”

Just behind Hernandez was Ali Scott, who carded rounds of 98 and 100 to take third.

“After a strong first round, Ali found herself playing in the final group on the second day and that was a bit of a new position for her at this point in her career,” Hildebrand said. “She handled the pressure of that group really well and played much like she has all year to earn third place.”

Hadley Gutierrez put up rounds of 114 and 106 to take eighth overall and third for the Panthers.

“Hadley has been steadily improving each week this season and it was a really nice surprise to see her earn All-Conference honors in her freshman year,” Hildebrand said. “She is a very calm and steady player that does a really good job of staying steady through the ups and downs of each round. That is often difficult for young players but she is doing an excellent job for us.”

Powell’s final All-Conference golfer was Maddie Croft, who finished 10th with rounds of 114 and 110.

“Maddie has been working very hard over the past couple of weeks on a couple of things so it was nice to see them kind of come together for her and it seemed like this week she did a good job of avoiding the big numbers or really bad stretches of holes,” Hildebrand said.

Rounding out the five golfers for Powell was Grace Gordon, who shot rounds of 113 and 115 to take 12th overall.

“Grace has also been trending up over the past three tournaments and while this wasn’t quite her best ever pair of scores she played really well on such a tough course,” Hildebrand said. “Going from a player that never traveled for us last year to someone that we will be counting on at state is a sign of great growth from Grace as a player.”

The Panthers secured the conference title with rounds of 311 and 297, well ahead of Worland in second with rounds of 330 and 316 while Lander was third with rounds of 339 and 331.

Hildebrand was also named the 3A West Girls Coach of the Year.

On the boys’ side the Panthers also had another top three finish, as Park Harvison tied for third, putting up rounds of 75 and 81.

“He really played to his strengths both days and did a better job than most of the players at keeping himself in play every hole and making a ton of pars,” Hildebrand said.

Xander Clark of Powell was 19th with rounds of 91 and 87.

“He’s really good about making smart decisions around the course and finding a way to try and get the best he can out of each round,” Hildebrand said.

Tucker Muecke took 23rd with rounds of 94 and 96 while Ryder Stewart was the final Panther in 24th with rounds of 99 and 92.

“Evanston is a challenging course and Tucker had stretches both days where he put together four-to-six very good holes,” Hildebrand said. “Ryder has grown a ton over the past three seasons both physically and mentally as a golfer and he’ll be a player that will be very important for the team heading into next fall.”

The boys finished second with rounds of 332 and 334, Lander took the team crown with rounds of 313 and 309 and Lovell was third with rounds of 358 and 342.

“None of our players had ever seen the course and they showed up and overall played their best golf of the entire season,” Hildebrand said. “That was about as good of a tournament and results as we could have hoped for at a new course in a culminating event.”

Heading into the postseason the Panthers make the trip to yet another new course, heading to the southeast corner of the state for the state tournament in Torrington.

Hildebrand said the Panthers will get to play a practice round on Thursday before the actual tournament on Friday and Saturday.

“The goal for this team is to have both the boys and girls battling for a team trophy and then we will hopefully have four to six players fighting for top 10 honors,” Hildebrand said.

He said Wheatland is the heavy favorite on both sides for the team titles at state, with the Lander boys likely in the mix as well. Defending champions return individually in Tate Nichols from Wheatland and Addie Bettinger from Buffalo.