After finishing third a season ago the Powell Panther boys’ track and field team is expecting an infusion of youth to try and pace the Panthers  and return to the podium in a crowded 3A field.

The leading Panther returner this season is sprinter and jumper Caden Nelson, who will be unavailable for the start of his junior season.

Nelson took first in the long jump a season ago and also placed in the top three for the 100 and 200 meters, but Nelson has not quite recovered from a knee injury suffered during the fall football season, and coach Scott Smith is unsure if the Panthers will see him return in the spring.

“He might be back, he might not,” Smith said. “If he’s back, he’s not going to be fully back. We’re going to be very cautious with him.”

One other area that returns experience will be the distance team, as senior Liam Taylor and junior Korbyn Warren return as state qualifiers from a season ago in the 1600 and 3200 meters.

“We’ve got a couple of really good kids coming back there,” Smith said.

Smith is hopeful that a strong indoor track season will also spur on sophomore Lincoln Crawford, who made the finals in the 55 meter hurdles and nearly placed in the long jump.

“Lincoln had a great indoor season,” Smith said.

Beyond that Smith is unsure  whether a couple of placers and qualifiers from last year’s team will compete this year, and he is hopeful for improvement from a large throwing group for the Panthers.

“There’s a couple of kids that could help us that may or may not come out,” Smith said.

That is where the Panthers are expecting a youth infusion, as a strong group of freshmen along with some returning underclassmen are hoping to make an impact for the Panthers this season.

“We’ve got some good, talented kids coming in out of the middle school,” Smith said. “Sometimes that doesn’t quite transfer as well for the boys as it does for girls, but sometimes it does. We’re going to have to rely on that youth to gain a lot of experience and really do a lot of good varsity things for us. They’re not going to have time to just kind of play around, across the board, (just) youth and young.”

In the team race the Panthers are hoping to compete for a trophy once again, competing in a mudded field of 3A teams that will include a new but familiar face this season.

That new team will be Cody, which dropped down to the 3A ranks. Smith expects the Broncs to be the top contender for the state title while the rest of 3A is expected to figure itself out throughout the season.

“The boys (race) is wide open,” Smith said. “Realistically, you look at the top four teams (last year), everybody graduated a ton of kids. Cody will be up there, and then after that it’s kind of a little bit of a crap shoot. You can’t even look at indoor, because Mountain View looked pretty good, and then this kid is from Kemmerer, scored a lot of points. They’ll have some good kids. I think you’re going to hear a lot of the same thing I’m saying across the state for boys, we’re really young and inexperienced, and we’re just going to throw them out there and see how they develop.”

An early season meet does not give the Panthers much time to rest, as they will head over to Cody on Friday to take part in the Cody Invitational.

That meet will not feature the entire Panther roster, as Powell had spring break during the first week of practice and not every athlete will meet the required practices.

Action will kick off at 11 a.m. with the 4x800 relay along with field events followed by a majority of track events at noon.

Smith said he expects a majority of the team to be eligible to compete in the Burlington meet next Friday, March 28, as the goal for the Panthers will remain the same this season despite the youthful roster.

“We’ve got 40-45 boys out there. They’re working hard,” Smith said. “I think by the end of the year, we’re going to have a decent team developed. It’s just hard to project it. But like we always do, we’ll keep improving, go out there, get as many medals at regionals and state as we can. Let somebody push a button to see what the team does.”