Panthers set to start seasons this Friday

This weekend kicks off Powell High School’s winter sports seasons — with both wrestling and boys swimming competing at home, the girls basketball team in Cody and the boys basketball team in Buffalo.

Wrestling

On Friday, around 20 wrestling teams will descend upon Powell for the two-day Powell Invitational wrestling tournament. Matches start at noon on Friday and 9 a.m. Saturday.

After this tournament, Powell wrestlers will not compete at home again until Jan. 24, in a dual against Lovell.

The Panthers will only wrestle on their home mats four times this season. That includes a Jan. 31 dual against Greybull and a Feb. 10 dual against Worland.

After a regular season full of travel, the wrestlers will only have a short trip to Cody for the regional tournament on Feb. 17 and 18.

The state wrestling tournament — where all school classes compete at the same time — will be held in Casper on Feb. 24 and 25.

Boys Swimming

At 4 p.m. Friday, the Panther boys swim team starts its season in a dual with Lander at the Powell Aquatic Center.

After traveling to Cody and Lander, the PHS swimmers return home for the Gene Dozah Invite on Jan. 7.

The team will stay home again the following weekend, hosting a dual with Worland on Jan. 13. 

Like the wrestlers, the Panther swimmers will also only compete at home a total of four times.

Their last home competition is set for Jan. 31, in a dual against Cody.

The conference competition will take place Feb. 10 and 11, but the location has yet to be determined. Cody was going to host the Class 3A West tournament, but the Broncs switched to the eastern conference, leaving the location up in the air.

State swimming will take place in Gillette on Feb. 24 and 25.

Basketball

The PHS basketball teams will be competing in the East/West Classic basketball tournaments this weekend to kickoff the 2016/2017 basketball season. A mix of six teams will battle it out at the tournament: Powell, Cody, Newcastle, Buffalo, Pinedale and Rawlins.

The girls tourney takes place in Cody while the boys will be competing in Buffalo.

The Lady Panther varsity faces Newcastle at 4:30 p.m. on Friday and a double-header on Saturday with games against Rawlins at 11:30 a.m. and Buffalo at 5:30 p.m.

All varsity contests will be played at the Sweitzer Gym.

The JV girls, meanwhile, will face Newcastle at 3 p.m. Friday at the Sweitzer Gym, then play Rawlins and Buffalo at Livingston Elementary at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., respectively, on Saturday.

As for the boys, they’ll start their season with a match-up against Rawlins. The varsity starts at 6 p.m., following a 4:30 p.m. JV game.

On Saturday, PHS takes on Buffalo at 12:30 p.m. and Newcastle at 5:30 p.m. (The JV tips off at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., respectively.)

Both the both the girls and the boys will play in Lovell on Tuesday, Dec. 13.

After the Christmas break both teams will return to action at the Big Horn Basin Classic Tournament on Jan. 6 and 7. The boys will host the tournament here in Powell while the girls will travel to Thermopolis for their part of the classic.

The rest of the season includes both the girls and boys teams traveling together and playing six games at home.

Five of those six games will be held over five consecutive weekends, starting on Saturday, Jan. 21 against Lander, Cody, Worland, Pinedale and Star Valley.

The teams’ final home game will be against Riverton on Feb. 18.

The regional basketball tournament will be held in Riverton on March 2-4. State basketball will be held in Casper March 9-11.