An up and down day had the Powell Panther boys track and field team fall just behind the competition, placing third at the Lovell Invitational on Saturday.

Overall the Panthers added one new qualifying mark, with the 1600 sprint medley relay team of Caden Nelson, Breckyn Kobbe, Evan Whitlock and Liam Taylor winning the event and qualifying for the state meet with a time of 3:44.66.

“The boys medley team getting automatically qualified was big, but they ran a great race that has them at the top of 3A by almost two seconds, which was a great statement to make at this point in the season,” coach Scott Smith said.

Powell had two individual event winners in Lovell, as Gabe Weimer won the shot put with a throw of 45 feet, 5 inches, and Nelson won the 200 meters with a 23.43.

The Panthers continue to have several athletes on the verge of automatically qualifying for the state meet whether that be in the throwing or distance events, as Nelson also overcame a false start in the 100 meters to claim that victory in the 200.

“Automatic qualifiers are great and we have a lot of kids knocking on the door. Great thing is that we still have over half of our regular season meets before regionals so I anticipate a lot more automatic qualifiers over the next two weeks,” Smith said. “Caden has shown a lot of strength this year and coming back to win the 200 after an earlier disappointment was a great display of character, especially for a sophomore. Those learning experiences can be great life lessons and I was proud of the way he responded in the 200.”

In the team scores the Panthers were not at the top of their game in the meet, as they were missing several key point getters due to injuries or prior commitments. The Panthers finished third with 127.5 points behind meet winner Lovell with 148 and second place Worland with 142.5.

“I felt our boys competed well in this meet,” Smith said. “The team scores can be deceptive as we were missing a few of our boys with injury and family and school commitments, but I think that we will be back to full strength soon, definitely by regionals.”

Powell will now head into the busiest portion of the season, with five meets over the next two weeks before the regional meet in Mountain View on May 10-11.

That begins with a recently put together home meet Tuesday (tonight), expected to be a dual against Park County rival Cody, beginning at 3:30 p.m. at Powell High School.

“The three main things we will be looking at from the dual is to gain more meet experience as we are really a pretty young team, continued improvement, and the type of conditioning that only meet intensity can bring out,” Smith said.

Powell will then head out on the road for the remainder of the season.

LOVELL INVITATIONAL

* Denotes state qualifying mark

Team scores — 1. Lovell 148, 2. Worland 142.5, 3. Powell 127.5, 4. Burlington 76, T5. Rocky Mountain and Greybull 11

100 meters — T5. Breckyn Kobbe 12.35, T10. Marshall Lewis 12.5, 14. Toby Sessions 12.64, 16. Shane Kirkpatrick 12.9, 23. Rowan Diaz 13.43

200 meters — 1. Caden Nelson 23.43*, 5. Breckyn Kobbe 25.76, 7. Marshall Lewis 26.03, 9. Toby Sessions 26.28, 11. Dayton Lawrence 27.12, 13. Rowan Diaz 27.2, 16. Evan Staidle 28.27

400 meters — 4. Shane Kirkpatrick 58.29, 6. Thomas Shuman 1:01.43

800 meters — 3. Liam Taylor 2:06.78, 5. Korbyn Warren 2:13.72, 12. Colin Walker 2:27.18, 14. Nathan Varian 2:30.86

1600 meters — 9. Nathan Varian 5:30.97, 13. Thomas Shuman 5:41.28

3200 meters — 2. Korbyn Warren 10:36.79, 6. Nathan Varian 11:38.76

110 meter hurdles — 2. Stuart Shoopman 15.83*, 4. Lincoln Crawford 17.49, 5. Jeremy Harms 18.31, 7. Michael Legerski 19.55, 8. Dayton Lawrence 19.73, 9. Sawyer Wormald 19.77, 10. Renzy Matthews 22.15

300 meter hurdles — 5. Stuart Shoopman 43.93, 8. Lincoln Crawford 47.04, 9. Michael Legerski 47.2, 10. Sawyer Wormald 47.28, 12. Jeremy Harms 49.32, 14. Renzy Matthews 54.63

4x400 relay — 1. Stuart Shoopman, Landon Hyde, Adam Williams and Evan Whitlock 3:44.66

1600 sprint medley relay — 1. Caden Nelson, Breckyn Kobbe, Evan Whitlock and Liam Taylor 3:46.27*

High jump — 4. Landon Hyde 5-8

Pole vault — 2. Adam Williams 13-0*, 4. Jeremy Harms 11-6, 7. Lincoln Crawford 10-6, 8. Dayton Lawrence 10-0, 15. Renzy Matthews 9-0

Long jump — 3. Caden Nelson 19-10 1/2, 5. Marshall Lewis 18-5, 9. Lincoln Crawford 16-9 3/4, T10. Breckyn Kobbe 16-8 1/4, 12. Evan Staidle 16-3

Triple jump — 5. Evan Staidle 36-5 1/2, 7. Sawyer Wormald 34-10 1/2, 11. Renzy Matthews 30-3 1/2

Shot put — 1. Gabe Weimer 45-5, 2. Jonathan Harms 43-1, 5. Seston Shoopman 39-10, 7. Keona Wisniewski 39-1, 14. Landon Smallwood 34-9, 20. Rowan Diaz 32-10 1/2, 21. James Emmett 32-2, 23. Kaden Wolff 31-5, 25. Brady Harvey 31-3, 32. Carson Moore 17-6

Discus — 2. Brady Harvey 123-2, 5. Seston Shoopman 106-7, 10. Gabe Weimer 100-2, 12. Keona Wisniewski 99-2, 19. James Emmett 90-8 1/2, 20. Landon Smallwood 88-5 1/2, 22. Kaden Wolff 85-11, 29. Rowan Diaz 69-6, 33. Carson Moore 40-3