Capping off a busy week on the road the Powell Panther girls’ wrestling team made the trip to Douglas on Friday and Saturday, finishing eighth as a team and bringing home four placers including …
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Capping off a busy week on the road the Powell Panther girls’ wrestling team made the trip to Douglas on Friday and Saturday, finishing eighth as a team and bringing home four placers including an individual champion.
Allison LeBlanc claimed the top spot at 110 pounds after going 3-0, with all three victories coming by pin.
She defeated Douglas’s Kam Hineman in the quarterfinal in 4:51 after a first round bye, then defeated Shoshoni’s Sawyer Arnhold in 3:39 in the semifinal before defeating Taylee Williamson of Chadron, Nebraska, in the championship in 2:22.
“It was sweet to see Allison finally win a finals match this season as she was runner up at the Cody Invitational and the Tom LeProwse Bozeman tournament last week,” coach David Holland said. “She has been wrestling well so it was great to see her come out on top. She hasn’t lost to any Wyoming schools this season.”
The next highest placement for the Panthers came from Nalani Jordan, who wrestled her way to the championship with three straight pins in under two minutes.
Jordan came up short in the final against Cheyenne East’s Halley House, losing by pin in 3:06 to finish runner up in her second straight tournament.
Powell had one third place wrestler, as Eleasah Horsley placed at 115 pounds.
She won her first two matches via pin following an opening bye to advance to the semifinals before losing a close 12-9 decision to Hanna Elk Mountain’s Alaina McNees.
Returning to the mat Horsley earned two straight pins to finish third.
“She wrestled well, but felt a little frustrated because she felt like she would have had a pretty good chance against the girl who placed second but she was happy she was able to place as high as she did,” Holland said.
The final placer for the Panthers was Caydee Eden, who went 4-2 and rebounded to make the third place match after losing a close 5-3 decision in the quarterfinal.
She finished the weekend fourth, with three pins and only lost her two matches via decisions.
Holland noted one wrestler who has been showing improvement was Ellidi Joy, who earned a pin at 170 pounds and finished 1-2 on the weekend but she continues to show a desire to improve each week.
“Ellidi was able to get a win and wrestled hard during the weekend,” Holland said. “She is a first year wrestler and hasn’t experienced a lot of victories yet, but is a hard worker and tries her best. We have been seeing her progress week in and week out. We are starting to see a shift in her wrestling, she asks questions, watches her matches and stays after practice. Ellidi said after the tournament that she plans on working hard and practicing even harder to continue to grow as a wrestler.”
Powell had two more wrestlers in attendance as River James went 0-2 at 115 pounds and Harley Spinden went 0-2 at 120 pounds while two wrestlers were unable to attend due to illness and injury.
Overall the Panthers finished eighth as a team with 102 points while Chadron won with 150.5 points just ahead of Cheyenne East with 149.
“We hadn’t been down to this tournament before so we were excited to wrestle against southern Wyoming teams and some Nebraska schools that we typically do not see until the end of the season,” Holland said.
WEEK OFF
Following the Douglas tournament the Panthers will return home to take a weekend off from competition, before returning to the mat next week in Lander for a dual and tournament from Jan. 23-25.
“It’s not too often that we get a mid-season break, so we are going to take full advantage of it,” Holland said. “We will work on the fixes that we need to improve on and get healed up from the bumps and bruises that the wrestling season brings. We have a free weekend and I want the girls to go be a kid and have some fun and relaxation over the weekend before we get ready to gear up for the rest of the season.”