Five pins propel Panthers to win

Powell High School head wrestling coach Nate Urbach said Tuesday night that his team didn’t look as “sharp” as he would have liked.

If it’s actually possible for the Panthers to look better than they did against visiting Greybull, the Wyoming High School Activities Association may just want to hand another Class 3A state trophy to PHS now.

The Panthers collected five pins as the outcome was never really in doubt during a 53-12 rout of the Buffaloes at the Panther Gym in Powell.

Still, with PHS’ biggest tournament coming up (the Missoula, Mont., Invite on Friday and Saturday), Urbach wanted his grapplers to look their strongest.

“I thought we looked OK,” Urbach said. “We need to be a little crisper out there. Some of my younger kids looked ... they need to be better ... I saw what they could do at [the Bozeman Invite] so as far as that goes, I know that those guys could do more.”

PHS (7-2 in duals this season) grabbed a 6-0 lead when Noah Wozney was awarded a forfeit at 113 pounds, but Greybull would win the next two matches over two of Urbach’s younger wrestlers.

At 120 pounds, James Moore was nearing a victory over Greybull’s Jorge Carmona, but in the waning seconds, Moore saw his 9-5 lead evaporate when he was rolled over for a reverse (two points) and nearly pinned (three points), giving Carmona a 10-9 win.

One match later, Marshal Wittick was unable to corral Alex Schlattman in a 10-4 loss. Junior Justin Theriault also had a tough night, suffering a first-round pin at 160 pounds to Cole Hill.

“I know some of our young kids have got better matches in them,” Urbach added. “All in all it wasn’t a bad performance, but you always search for perfection, I guess, and we definitely can improve a little bit.”

Getting the Panthers back on track and giving his team the lead for good was defending state champion Chance Karst (132). Karst used a flurry of takedowns to grab a 6-1 lead after one period, and raced out to a 17-3 cushion after two before picking up an 18-3 technical fall with an escape with 1:47 left in the third period.

Karst was happy to get an impressive victory with a big weekend ahead of him, but said he and his team can be better.

“Everything helps at this point ... building up our confidence to where we can go into tougher matches and not look at another guy and think he’s better than you,” Karst said. “I think we’re fairly strong as a team throughout right now. I think our bottom weights can use a boost, but from our middle weights and up we’re looking fairly strong.”

The middle weights certainly gave Karst’s comments some support, as Colton Parham picked up a first-round pin at 138 pounds, as did defending champion Nic Urbach at 145 pounds and Bailey Atkinson at 152.

Atkinson is an interesting story for PHS this season, as he may be the only Panther upperclassman who is flying under the radar despite being ranked fourth in his division.

With four state champs and several medalists on the Panther roster, Atkinson continues to do his best to make his mark for PHS.

“Sometimes it’s nice to be up there but otherwise the recognition doesn’t matter to me,” Atkinson said. “It’s wrestling and that’s all I care about. It’s a fun sport, I like doing it ... I like being aggressive on the mat and that’s all I’m here for.”

At 170, two-time state runner-up Jake Davis was in position for a technical fall of his own over Jose Carmona, but the senior took Carmona down and was able to score a pin despite leading 19-3.

“It was a good night, and I wrestled pretty well, I guess, for a tech pin in the second period,” Davis said. “This victory just gets us ready for a weekend in Missoula because there will be a lot of very good kids there. None of the kids here even compare to what we’re going to be facing this weekend.”

Sophomore Ty Dearcorn rounded out PHS’ victories with a late pin of Lane Nielson. Dearcorn was locked in a back-and-forth battle before overtaking Nielson and pinning him with 26.6 seconds remaining.

The final two victories for the Panthers came by forfeit, as sophomore Zach Easum (220) and senior Riley Stringer were without opponents.

Now, coach Urbach and his team will prepare for what could be a season-defining weekend.

“Missoula is by far our toughest tournament,” Urbach said. “You’re looking at all-star teams from Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington ... you’ll see top five guys in the nation, so it’s great for us. It’s an honor to be invited.”