Walking away from the 3A West Regionals with an individual title was one of many goals for Powell High School senior Stetson Davis and junior Jimmy Dees. The two made good that vision, with Davis earning a title at 220 pounds and Dees at 195.

The weekend started on a high note and continued to rise up for Davis, who finished with his 100th career victory after his first win of the weekend with a 48 second pin over Cody’s Wyatt Barton.

“That [100 wins] was a big goal this year,” Davis said. “[Nick] Fulton and I did some math at the beginning of the season and we knew it was going to come about regionals if things kept going the way they were going.”

He continued his march through the weekend defeating teammate Jacob Eaton in the semifinals, setting up a key matchup against Jace Grant from Cody in the championship bout.

Davis defeated Grant by pin in the championship match, earning a regional title and achieving one of the many goals he set for himself before the season.

“One of my goals this year was to not lose in the state and I have achieved that so far with my only losses coming in Montana,” Davis said. 

Dees had a similar dominant route to his regional title in Evanston over the weekend — finishing his first match in just 14 seconds with a pin over Nolan Orm.

He continued that strong performance with three more first-period pins, including a victory over Tarrin Haws in 35 seconds in the championship bout.

“It felt great to win it,” Dees said. “We have the bigger region and it was cool to make it through the bracket as the one seed. That is my second varsity tournament win ever, it felt great and it gives me a strong lead into state.”

Dees said he continued to focus on one match at a time throughout the weekend, which helped him a lot.

STATE TOURNAMENT

Both athletes head into the state tournament this weekend in Casper with high hopes, claiming the No. 1 seed out of the west.

Last year’s state tournament was a lesson to both athletes, with Dees being one of only two Panthers to advance to the semifinals.

“After last year I learned to not worry too much,” Dees said. “I think I got super nervous because it was my first shot at placing at state and I kind of learned this year to just relax a little bit and take it one step at a time instead of worrying about what comes next and focusing on everything.”

Davis has had a different kind of season, after shifting up three weight classes from 170 pounds last year to 220 this year and will look to improve on his 2-2 record at the state tournament last year.

“Last year I was cutting weight and trying to get down to 170,” Davis said. “That made me a lot mentally stronger. I don’t think I performed as well as I could at 170. Coming into this year I lifted as many weights as I could, ate as much as I could — getting up to my biggest weight gave me a competitive edge on my opponents conditioning-wise and strength-wise.”

Dees boasts a 37-9 record with approximately half of his losses coming from the defending 4A state champion Noah Sides from Natrona County — someone Dees will have to wait until next year to get another shot at.

The first matchup for Dees will be a rematch of his first round at regionals, matching up with Orm to start the weekend.

Davis heads into the state tournament with a 37-2 record, with his only two losses coming in tournaments in Montana earlier in the year.

His first matchup will be a rematch as well, coming up against Barton in the first round.

“I think we have a really strong team this year,” Dees said. “We have a great coaching staff that has set us up really well to do what needs to be done at state. I think we have multiple shots at state titles… I am looking forward to wrestling with this group of guys on my team and I am excited.”