Starting the Wyoming portion of the season the Powell High School girls’ wrestling team placed four at the Lander Invite, including one champion, while the less experienced Panther wrestlers continued to show growth.

Leading the way was Allison LeBlanc, who received a first round bye before a pin in her quarterfinal match and a 16-0 tech fall in the semifinal to reach the final at 110 pounds.

She earned a 5-3 decision over Pinedale’s McKinzie Mortensen to take the title.

“Allison getting first is fantastic for her, really sets her up going into the Ron Thon here,” coach Jeriah Horsley said.

Her younger sister, Avery, earned her way to the championship bout at 105 pounds after three straight pins through the semifinals, before she was pinned by Lovell’s Harley Tillett in the final.

“Avery as a freshman, that’s fantastic getting second,” Horsley said.

Caydee Eden received a bye before winning two matches to reach the semifinal at 100 pounds, where she fell in a close 7-3 decision.

She rebounded with a pin to reach the third place match before falling via pin to take fourth.

“Tough semifinal match and then a tough third/fourth place match. Seeing those things, she’ll be able to turn that around and make those victories later on as we move forward here,” Horsley said.

Nalani Jordan was the final Panther placer, wrestling up at 145 pounds and winning two straight via pin to reach the semifinals.

She fell via pin, before rebounding with a pin of her own to reach the third place match. She fell via pin to an Idaho wrestler in that match to take fourth.

Additional competitors for Powell included Aubrey Blount getting her first pin and second win of the season to go 1-2 at 125 pounds. Elora Joy went 1-2 at 145 pounds while Stella Schmidtberger and Ellidi Joy went 0-2 at 155 and 170 pounds respectively.

“That was a lot of fun (those wins). That’s part of it is teaching them that, if you keep doing the little things, winning is a happy byproduct of those small tasks, and they’re starting to see those improvements and starting to see things there. The really fun part was just seeing the excitement from them, being able to say ‘hey, I actually did it.’ And getting to celebrate those wins with them.”

As a team the Panthers tied for seventh with Worland with 90 points each, as Pinedale was the highest Wyoming team with 122 points in second and Thunder Ridge, Idaho, took the top spot with 217 points.

The Panthers head back on the road this week, making the trip to Riverton for the Ron Thon Memorial which kicks off Thursday and finishes Friday for the girls.

“This week we’re going to focus in on some stuff, and really more just our conditioning than anything, and then just trying to get us into that mental state to understand that Ron Thon is a big tournament, and it is kind of a state preview, but at the same time it really doesn’t matter until state,” Horsley said.

He said he expects Eleasah Horsley to return to the lineup this week to help boost the Panthers to a full lineup for the first time in several weeks.