A strong weekend on the mat kicked off the season for the Powell High School girls’ wrestling team in Cody, finishing fifth as a team and crowning one individual winner in Allison LeBlanc at 110 pounds.

LeBlanc went 6-0 over both days, only having one match not decided by pinfall en route to the title.

“Good start for Allison,” coach Jeriah Horsley said. “She wrestled her matches, she wrestled her style. She was nice and aggressive with it from the get go, she didn’t get herself into danger positions. Really good, solid wrestling with her.”

The second highest placing Panther was Caydee Eden, who went 3-1 over the weekend and finished second with a 12-6 decision loss in the final at 100 pounds.

“It was really impressive watching her wrestling this weekend. She was very technical, very clean wrestling,” coach Horsley said. “We’ve got some things of course to work on, try to get a little bit more in her repertoire. That last match was a tough fight, she never quit in it. Just couldn’t quite get the near fall points that we were looking for.”

Powell also added a pair of third place finishers as Avery LeBlanc went 6-2 over both days at 105 pounds and Eleasah Horsley also went 6-2 at 115 pounds.

“She’s (Avery) definitely got some little bad habits that we’ve got to work on, and then work on some more defensive positions from the bottom, just being a little cleaner there which is to be expected for a freshman. But very happy with her wrestling … Definitely has that solid look about her, I see her staying right there within that top of the podium, placements in every tournament if she keeps wrestling like she did this weekend,” coach Horsley said. “She’s (Eleasah) got some things to work on. I think conditioning was a little lacking looking at it … I think that was part of it. She also has a little injury that we’re working through … We’ll work on some things this week.”

Additional competitors who scored points for Powell were Ellidi Joy taking fourth in the ‘B’ bracket at 170 pounds and going 2-5 for the whole weekend, while Stella Schmidtberger took second in the ‘C’ 170 pound bracket going 1-4 for the entire weekend.

“She’s (Joy) all smiles, all open ears, listening to her coaches and we’ve seen her immediately changing what she’s doing in between each match and each time she was improving,” coach Horsley said. “She (Schmidtberger) won her first match ever in wrestling. This is her first year wrestling. So we’ve got some things to work on there, but I was telling her out of her first match like ‘you just proved to yourself that you have what it takes to be a wrestler.’ She went for all three rounds full on exhausted and she never quit once. I’m like, that’s the heart of a wrestler right there.”

Other Powell competitors included Elora Joy going 1-5 at 145 pounds and Aubrey Blount going 0-4 at 125 pounds with two being registered as medical forfeits.

The Panthers were without one of their top wrestlers in Nalani Jordan who was out due to injury. Despite her absence the Panthers finished fifth in a competitive field just 18.5 points behind second place with 92, while Thunder Basin ran away with the title with 208 points.

“She’s (Jordan) doing good, and we’re ready for her to come back to the wrestling room and start working on a little bit of things here and there and seeing where she’s at … She was there (at Cody) the whole time, encouraging them, wanting to work with them on the sidelines while we’re all waiting in between matches,” coach Horsley said. “They work hard to continue to encourage each other in the wrestling room and at these tournaments … They just keep improving … I think some of these teams brought like 30 girls with them, and that just shows the caliber of our ladies that we’ve got for Powell.”

The Panthers head over the mountain to Sheridan to take part in a dual tournament on Saturday.

“Really the biggest thing for me is this week we’re really working on that conditioning phase,” coach Horsley said. “I think if they put in the effort this week we can see a couple more wins out of some of the newer ones (wrestlers).”