Competing around the region the Powell High School girls’ wrestling team saw plenty of success on the mat, defeating Worland in a home dual on Jan. 13 before placing 10th at the Tiger Grizz Invitational in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

WORLAND DUAL

Starting at home and capping off an already busy week of duals, the Panthers welcomed in the Warriors on Tuesday night.

Powell got the lead immediately with an open weight at 100 pounds for Worland, and that lead expanded as Avery LeBlanc got a pin 25 seconds into the second period to make it 12-0.

Another open weight at 110 made it 18-0, before the Panthers were open at 115 to make it 18-6.

The Warriors crept closer at 120 pounds with a pin of Aubrey Blount with 33 seconds left in the first period, and tied it at 18 with an open Panther weight at 130 pounds.

Nalani Jordan gave Powell the lead for good again at 140 pounds, pinning her opponent with 1:19 left in the first, as three more open weights gave Powell the 42-18 win.

“I thought we wrestled great,” coach Jeriah Horsley said.

There were several additional exhibition matches during the evening.

TIGER GRIZZ INVITATIONAL

The Panthers took four of their top wrestlers to compete in Idaho, earning a 10th place finish despite the small group.

Leading the way at the top were Caydee Eden at 100 pounds alongside Allison LeBlanc at 110 pounds who both placed third overall.

Eden advanced all the way to the semifinal with a pin and tech fall after a first round bye, before falling via an 11-2 major decision in the semifinals.

Eden earned a 9-7 decision in the consolation semifinal before earning a pin in the third place match.

“Caydee, her wrestling this year has just improved so much. It’s the same thing every single tournament, she’s just getting better and better,” Horsley said.

LeBlanc had a difficult route to her third place finish, losing to the tournament’s No. 1 seed in the first round before winning five straight matches via pin in the consolation bracket before earning a 16-1 tech fall in the third place match.

Throughout the course of the weekend, LeBlanc reached a major milestone, earning her 100th win of her career in the process.

“That was awesome,” Horsley said. “Allison absolutely wrestled fantastic. We were coming into an area where we haven’t even had the experience getting to see how they wrestle or anything. She did amazing.”

Another top finish came from Avery LeBlanc, as she had a first round bye before earning two wins by pin to reach the semifinal at 105 pounds.

She fell via pin in that match, before winning the consolation semifinal by pin.

She ultimately fell via tech fall in the third place match to finish fourth.

“She’s [Avery] just improving and improving,” Horsley said.

The final Panther placer was Jordan at 140 pounds, as she had a first round bye and earned a pin to reach the quarterfinal.

She fell in the quarterfinal, before winning two straight via pin to reach the consolation semifinal.

Jordan fell via pin in both the consolation semifinal and the fifth place match to finish sixth.

Powell finished with 83 points as the second highest Wyoming team behind Star Valley, which brought 10 wrestlers and garnered 115.5 points.

“I think we actually beat Star Valley in overall match points, it was just advancement points where they beat us with more athletes,” Horsley said.

Thunder Ridge Idaho took the team title with 185 points.

WYOMING COMPETITION

The Panthers now return to Wyoming for the remainder of the season, taking part in duals and tournaments around the state over the next month.

After spending several weeks out of state, Horsley is hopeful his wrestlers have learned plenty abroad and bring a new aggressive approach to their wrestling.

“It’s going to be fun to watch what they’ve learned and all their experience from wrestling these girls, because these girls are wrestling completely different styles than what we see in Wyoming, a lot of the time more aggressive,” Horsley said. “Our girls came out, and they had to adjust really quickly and learn from those experiences … They were picking up and improving on how they were wrestling.”

Powell was originally supposed to dual Lovell at home on Thursday, but that dual has been moved to Feb. 3.

That means the Panthers have this week to prepare for a tournament on the road in Lander on Friday and Saturday.

“We will have an actual solid week getting to work on a lot of what we saw this (past) weekend,” Horsley said. “Getting those wins where we need them, help them seed for regionals and state. I really just look for us to improve this week, work on our conditioning, work on some things that we just learned over the weekend and be ready to wrestle.”