Wrestling against a rival and the top team in the state, the Powell High School boys’ wrestling team fell to Cody on the road Thursday, losing to the Broncs 68-12 in the final action of the regular season.

CODY 68, POWELL 12

In what proved to be a difficult evening the Panthers fell behind early, as the Broncs took the win at 106 pounds with a pin in 51 seconds.

Cody added to the lead as Powell was open at 113 pounds, and the hosts added to their advantage with a 16-1 tech fall at 120 pounds.

Powell got one of its two wins at 126 pounds, as Russell Goolsbey was up 6-1 after the first period and worked his way to earn the pin with 1:08 left in the second period.

Cody got the win at 132 pounds with another pin, and another tech fall at 138 pounds made it 28-6 for the Broncs.

Tyler Wenzel earned Powell’s second win, notching a pin in the second period with 1:09 left after a scoreless first to make it 28-12.

“Tyler and Russell wrestled really well,” coach Nick Fulton said. “There’s always things you learn in winning and losing efforts. We’re picking things apart all the time with what to get better at. Just the aggressiveness of Cody, with a pretty experienced team, was pretty evident. That’s where we’re looking to be at. Where we’re going to be in a couple years, we’re going to be right back there. Just continuing to work and get better.”

Cody followed that with pins at 150 and 157 pounds, before a major decision of 12-4 at 165 pounds.

Powell was open at 175 and 215 while Cody earned pins at 190 and 285 to make the final score 68-12.

“Cody, they’re a good team right now, and they’re having a lot of fun being good, and that was pretty evident Thursday night,” Fulton said. “I wasn’t disappointed in them, we were a little short handed there with some injuries and illness that continues to plague us.”

REGIONAL TOURNAMENT

After that dual the Panthers had the weekend off before preparing this week for the 3A West Regional Tournament, with the boys’ team heading back to Cody for the one-day event on Friday.

“It’s the best of both worlds. We sleep in our own bed and we don’t have to put it (the tournament) on,” Fulton said. “Hopefully we get a good crowd there Friday, get these kids into the postseason.”

Fulton said the biggest goal of the team is to get as many as they can into the state tournament the next weekend in Casper.

“We’ve got a good chance to put the bulk of our guys in that we’ll enter,” Fulton said. “I think last year we qualified 21, I don’t think I’ll be entering 21 this year. But, we want to get as many of them into the state tournament that we can … We want them to be there. So we’ve gotta take it one match at a time, not look too deep into the brackets. We’ve been on an increase over the last couple of weeks here, and hopefully that pays off this week.”

To be able to qualify for the state tournament the Panthers need to place in the top eight of their respective weight.