Panther boys win Lander Invite

Ron Thon this weekend

Posted 1/28/25

A busy weekend in Fremont County saw the Powell Panther boys’ wrestling team defeat Lander in a dual 50-26 on Thursday night before walking away with the Lander Invitational team title by 13.5 …

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Panther boys win Lander Invite

Ron Thon this weekend

Posted

A busy weekend in Fremont County saw the Powell Panther boys’ wrestling team defeat Lander in a dual 50-26 on Thursday night before walking away with the Lander Invitational team title by 13.5 points against 26 other teams.

“A good, solid tournament that we came out on top of, and our guys need to enjoy that. That’s a nice feather in their cap. I think it proves to them what we’ve been working on for a long time, but we also know our work’s not done,” coach Nick Fulton said.

     

POWELL 50, LANDER 26

Starting out the week the Panthers took on the Tigers in a dual to begin their 3A West dual schedule in the coming weeks.

Lander got on the board first, as Ty McWilliams earned a 12-0 major decision over Talon Nuss at 106 in his return to the lineup from injury.

Wyatt Nicholson got a forfeit win at 113 pounds and Gabe Whiting followed with a pin in 1:37 over Henry Quiver at 120 to make it 12-4 Powell.

Chevy Hill added to the lead in a close bout at 126 pounds, winning 12-11 over Noah Irvine to extend the Panther’s advantage.

Lander answered with consecutive pins, as Colin McWilliams pinned Sean Lowe in 52 seconds and Wyatt Holloway pinned Kash Brazelton in 5:01.

Chase Visocky stopped Lander’s run, as he pinned Doug Mowrey in 1:27 to make it 21-16.

Lander answered with a 9-0 major decision by Landon Jones over Reese Lowe and a pin of Cody Seifert by Sawyer Nachazel in 4:48 to give Lander the lead back at 26-21.

Powell rallied and reclaimed the lead for good via a pin by McKale Foley over Cody West in 3:09.

Mitchel Wainscott followed with a pin of Taj Prine in 1:30, alongside a forfeit to Dusty Carter to make it 39-26 Powell.

Jacob Eaton earned a 15-0 tech fall over Billy Velarde before Doug Bettger received a forfeit at 285 pounds to make the final score 50-26.

“It’s good for my guys to walk into a hostile environment a little bit. Lander performs well at home and they kind of rise to the occasion,” Fulton said.

     

LANDER INVITE

Staying in Lander on Friday and Saturday the Panthers matched up with the top teams in 3A, some tough 4A teams in Green River and Evanston, and some of the tougher 2A teams in Thermopolis and Kemmerer.

Despite not winning any weights, the Panthers scored points in 13 out of the 14 weights to help take the team title.

“I don’t think any of our guys necessarily had a perfect tournament. They all had good tournaments, but we still have a lot of room for growth and we’re going to do that over the next five weeks,” Fulton said. “We’ve got to continue to get better and continue to maximize those points and maximize each individual’s potential to put our team where we want to be.”

Powell’s highest placer was Bettger, who won three straight matches by pin after a bye before losing via a late pin to Curtis Strohschein of Greybull/Riverside at the 5:05 mark.

In addition to Bettger the Panthers had two third place finishers, as Wainscott rallied from an opening round loss to win five straight matches and make it to the third place match, before taking third following a medical forfeit by his opponent.

Eaton was the other third place finisher, as he bounced back from a close 4-1 semifinal loss to win two straight, including a 1-0 decision in the final match over teammate Denton Wainscott who went 3-2 on the weekend.

Two more fourth place finishes came from Nicholson at 113 pounds who went 2-2 alongside Carter who went 3-2 at 190 pounds.

Other placers included Seifert going 5-2 at 157 pounds alongside Foley taking fifth at 165 pounds after going 4-2.

Nuss earned a sixth place finish at 106 pounds going 3-3.

Other Panther competitors included Broc Frank going 3-2 at 138 pounds; Hill going 2-2 at 126 pounds; Visocky went 2-2 at 144 pounds; Jonathan Hine at 113 pounds going 1-2; Whiting going 1-2 at 120 pounds; Reese Lowe went 1-2 at 150 pounds; Brazelton going 0-2 at 138 pounds and Michael Legerski going 0-2 at 165 pounds.

“Proud of our guys, proud of our performance. Top to bottom we showed growth over the weekend which translated into those team points,” Fulton said. “What I’m most excited about is we scored points at 13 out of 14 weights. The one weight we didn’t score points at our guy was at home with the flu. That’s a real positive moving forward and that’s what it’s going to take to have good success there at the state tournament is scoring points at every weight.”

Powell ended up on top with 180 points, just ahead of 4A schools Green River with 166.5 points and Evanston with 163.5 points. Cody was the next highest scoring 3A team with 150 points.

     

BUSY WEEK

The January grind will come to an end for the Panthers this week, starting with a dual on the road Thursday in Worland.

“We need to bring our best there,” Fulton said.

Powell then heads to the biggest tournament of the season in Wyoming on Friday and Saturday, taking part in the Ron Thon Memorial in Riverton.

“The bullseye is pretty firmly on our backs now. So we’ve got to win one day at a time and stay steady,” Fulton said. “Ron Thon this weekend has every team in the state of Wyoming. If you’re somebody who’s a wrestler, you’ll be there.”

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