A quick turnaround after a long weekend on the road had the Powell Panther wrestling team welcoming the Thermopolis Bobcats to Powell High School — Powell defeated the Bobcats 58-24 in the Tuesday night dual.

POWELL 58, THERMOPOLIS 24

The night started out strong for the Panthers at 152 pounds, with Jack Van Norman getting a pin 1:31 into the match to give Powell a 6-0 lead.

For the first time in a dual this season, the Panthers entered a wrestler at 160 pounds, Rhys Bray.

His reward was a matchup with three-time finalist and two-time defending state champion at 160 pounds in 2A Roedy Farrell.

Farrell proved too strong for Bray, as he earned the pin in 1:14 to tie the match 6-6.

“Roedy Farrell wrestles awfully good,” coach Nick Fulton. “[Bray] has been putting time in and we got him out in front of the home crowd. You can’t win if you don’t wrestle but that is a good kid.”

That started a string of pins for the Bobcats, as they earned victories over Lannon Brazelton at 170 pounds and Dillon Melton at 182 pounds to push the lead out to 18-6.

Unfortunately for the visitors, the next five weights were left open — giving Powell the lead back 36-18.

Action picked back up at 120 pounds, where Weston Thomas earned a pin in under a minute to extend the Powell lead.

The Bobcats were open at 126 pounds to extend the lead out of reach, but Vinny Timmons lost a tight match at 132 pounds via pin at 3:12 to cut the Powell score down to 48-24.

Mitchel Wainscott earned a victory at 138 pounds via pin and Jeremy Harms earned a 13-4 major decision victory to make the final 58-24 in favor of Powell.

“Mitchel was in a tight battle and really poured it on in that third period,” Fulton said. “Jeremy was down three or four points early, then the kid chose down. [Jeremy] scored points at the end of the first period and we always talk about how important it is to score at the end of a round. After the kid chose down Jeremy rode him and really took control of the match … That kid has a heart and a motor and will give you 100% all of the time.”

FINAL HOME MATCH

Powell will have its final home dual of the season on Friday night, welcoming in the Lander Tigers at 8 p.m. following the Panther basketball games.

“Lander is going to be a big dual for us,” Fulton said. “It will be senior night, a really good bunch for us and we want to send them out of this gym with a win.”

Fulton said that he knows the Lander dual will be difficult as the Tigers are nearing full strength after some injuries have hindered their lineup throughout the season, and is expecting a tough fight on Friday night.