A final home dual with Cody greeted the Panther wrestling team on Thursday with regionals and state rapidly approaching. The Panthers dropped the dual 50-25, but showed improvements heading into a loaded 3A West regional meet with state qualifying spots on the line.

The night started out with both teams earning points at 120 and 126 pounds as each school left a weight class open.

After the action started at 132 pounds, the Panthers came out with a lead as junior Vinny Timmons earned a pin in the first period just 1:02 into the match.

Following Vinny at 138 pounds was his brother senior Mikey Timmons, who was making just his third competition appearance of the season.

Matching up with Micah Grant from Cody, M. Timmons was unable to make up an early deficit as he was defeated by technical fall 18-2 in the second period.

After that match Powell held a minor 12-11 lead, and went into what ended up being the match of the night needing a win to extend the lead.

PHS freshman Cody Seifert took the challenge at 145 pounds and matched up with Aaron Trotter from Cody.

The match started out close, as both competitors earned points in the first two periods that set up a third period where Seifert trailed 12-11.

Early in the third period, Seifert took advantage of positioning and earned five quick points through a takedown and a three point near fall that gave him a 16-12 advantage.

“Cody (Seifert) is coming off an injury and he needs those long matches to help him here down the stretch,” Panther head coach Nick Fulton said. “He is a good athlete and is going to be a good one for us here down the stretch.”

Seifert continued his aggressive start in the third period, and earned three more points to take the 19-12 decision and hold Trotter scoreless in the final two minutes.

Powell left another class open at 152 pounds, which gave Cody the lead at 17-15 before the Broncs took advantage of a strong run of weights.

At 160 pounds, junior Lannon Brazelton was pinned at the 2:48 mark in the second period.

Junior Stetson Davis has continued to come down in weight throughout the year, marking a recent run at 170 pounds with a matchup against Cody’s Dylan Campbell.

Campbell got off on the right foot for the Broncs, as he took advantage of an early aggressive push that gave him a strong lead at 10-0 heading into the third period.

Knowing that they needed a late response, Fulton and Davis agreed that he needed to be aggressive and took top heading into the third period.

Davis nearly completed a comeback, as he had a three point near fall to start the period and was a second away from pinning Campbell before he was able to escape, and walk away with a 10-3 decision.

“We talked with Stetson after about how that first takedown in that match is big because Campbell is really tough on top,” Fulton said. “He spent four of those six minutes in his best position and that is something we have to look at going into next week.”

Following 170, Cody earned pins at both 182 and 195 pounds in the second periods over senior Carter Gines at the 3:18 mark and sophomore Jimmy Dees at 2:43.

Needing a pin to get back into the match, the Panthers put freshman Doug Bettger in at 220 who earned a quick pin at the 1:06 mark in the first period.

Sophomore Adam Flores appeared to continue that momentum early at 285 pounds, as he jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead over Zach Barton.

Flores maintained a 9-4 lead after the second, but allowed Barton to score those four points in the closing seconds of the second period.

Going into the final period, Flores was able to regroup and earned a 14-4 major decision to make the score 38-25.

“Adam showed a lot of maturity for a sophomore earning the major decision,” Fulton said.

Circling back to the lightweights, freshman Kaiden Apodaca was pinned in the second period at the 2:19 mark.

Powell was again open at 113 pounds to make the final score 50-25.

REGIONALS

The Panthers will now head back on the road, as they make their way to Lander to take part in the 3A West regional tournament all day Friday.

Powell heads into the tournament knowing that they are competing against top competition from the state, as they will square off against five of the top nine scoring teams from the Ron Thon Memorial last month.

Fulton is hopeful that the Panthers will be able to field a full team going into the tournament as they have been plagued by various injuries throughout the season.

Going into the tournament, a wrestler must place in the top eight in order to advance to the state tournament, which will take place next weekend in Casper on Friday and Saturday.