A year ago the Powell Panther boys’ track team found success throughout the season in distance and field events, winning the regional meet and finishing third at state while graduating more than half of the points earned.

This year’s team will bring a key mixture of youth and experience, as the Panthers hope to compete at the top once again this season.

The top point earner returning for the Panthers will be senior Daniel Merritt, who placed in the top six in each of the three distance races while earning a school record in the 1600 meter finals.

Merritt will be one of two returners alongside fellow senior Jace Hyde on the 4x800 meter relay, the only relay the Panthers qualified for the state meet last year.

“We might pick up a middle-distance runner with McKale Foley — it looks like his elbow injury might not make pole vault a thing this year,” coach Scott Smith said. “He’s looking at running 800’s and relays to give us depth in those areas.”

Powell returns a pair of placers in the 110 meter hurdles in junior Stuart Shoopman and senior Hyrum Jeide, in addition to senior Simon Shoopman who was ninth in prelims.

Smith said the Panthers have 22 hurdlers between the boys and girls, who are picking up hurdling quickly and will help add to the team’s depth.

Other point getters from last year’s meet include junior Jeremy Harms and sophomore Cody Seifert — who won the 3A indoor track triple jump at state in February.

Smith said he feels that Seifert will help the Panthers in the sprints alongside junior Marshall Lewis, helping the depth for the Panthers in relays while potentially adding qualifiers in events they didn’t compete in at state last year.

“Cody was fast last year, he was just hurt,” Smith said. “He showed that he had the speed indoors and he is going to help us out. We have some young kids that I think will help us out.”

Powell will need to make up points in the throwing events, where the Panthers graduated 32 points from the shot put and discus and features a young group of throwers this year alongside a new throwing coach.

“Tom [Rowley] is a hall of fame coach, he’s added some new things to it and I think he is really going to help us out,” Smith said. “We graduated all of our throwers, but right now they are improving and I think by the end of the year we will have some competitive kids.”

One key returner who did not compete at the state championships last year for the Panthers was junior Isaiah Woyak, who had the top height for the Panthers in the high jump at 6-6 but was injured late in the season and was unable to compete.

The youth coming into this year’s team is expected to come from the Powell Middle School program that won its conference title last year and brings in strong competitors from the get go.

Those include strong sprinters in Caden Nelson, Shane Kirkpatrick and Gabe Weimer; distance runners in Josh Pfeifer and Korbyn Warren; Nathan Preator in hurdles and jumping; while Weimer also features as the top thrower coming in from the middle school program.

“Those guys have the kind of things that if they develop into what they could be then they can really be competitive for us this year,” Smith said.

Powell is scheduled to head down to Burlington for its first meet on Friday at 1 p.m. and is looking to participate in a secondary meet on Saturday that could be put together in the Big Horn Basin.