After a busy start to the new year which saw a tournament quickly followed by a dual, the Powell Panther boys’ wrestling team took a break from action in order to prepare for the Jug Beck Rocky Mountain Classic in Missoula, Montana.

“It was nice for the kids to get a little time off, have a weekend to kind of recoup and regroup a little bit,” coach Nick Fulton said.

The break was much needed for the Panthers, who are still recovering from illness and injuries that have occurred in recent weeks with some starters expected to return to the lineup this week or next.

Fulton said that the team is set to figure out who is expected to compete as of Monday and who may need to sit out an extra week.

The week of practice was important for the Panthers, who focused on some minor tweaks and wrestling hard as athletes did not need to worry about weighing in throughout the week.

“We had a lot of little fixes, some shot defense stuff,” Fulton said. “Had some great practice. It’s nice when guys can walk in and not be focused on the scale or focused on the next competition, they’re just in there getting better at wrestling. That was a nice week. We’ll get better every day, and that’s kind of what we preach quite a bit. Our guys buy into that really well and we anticipate continuing to move forward.”

Heading north for the final time this year the Panthers are heading to a difficult tournament in the Jug Beck, which features more than 30 teams from Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington.

“Some of the best talent out of the northwestern part of the country, and we like to go up there and see where we stand with those guys,” Fulton said.

That will be the final out of state action for Powell, as the Panthers will return to Wyoming starting with a dual and tournament in Lander next weekend.