Warm weather, a home crowd and tough competition saw the Powell Panther boys’ track and field team end in a comfortable second place finish with 139.5 points — 44 behind winners Cody but 40 ahead of third place Lovell on Saturday.

The highlight of the day for the Panthers came in the sprint medley, where the team of Simon Shoopman, Nathan Dupont, Jace Hyde and Daniel Merritt not only won the relay and qualified for the state meet with a time of 3:40.27 — but smashed the previous school record by over seven seconds.

The previous record of 3:47.83 was set in 2021 by the team of Kadden Abraham, Riley Bennett, Cole Frank and Ethan Bartholomew.

“These boys were really excited to go after that record and it was really cool to see their teammates that weren’t competing out there cheering them on because everyone knew how much they wanted to break that record,” coach Scott Smith said.

Powell finished with three individual first place finishes on the day, as Merritt won the 3200 (10:14.77) to add a new qualifying mark; Shoopman won the 300 hurdles (43.11) — competing solo after a pair of timing errors forced his heat to be rerun with Shoopman being the only one opting to run again. The final event winner for Powell was Isaiah Woyak in the long jump with a leap of 19 feet, 10 1/2 inches.

“Getting qualifying marks is a really nice thing,” Smith said. “It works as a great insurance policy if something bad happens at regional track like an injury or a false start. The big thing is to see how early these kids are earning them. Now the key is to keep improving every week.”

A new qualifier for the Panthers was Jeremy Harms, who cleared 12 feet in the pole vault to reach his first qualifying standard of the season.

“Jeremy has come a long way over his career and is just starting to scratch the surface of his potential,” Smith said. “When he gets on a bigger pole I think we will see some really big things from him.”

Smith wanted to express his thanks to the volunteers who helped work the LA Kohnke, alongside the Powell Athletic Roundtable that helped put on the meet and continues to support the kids in Powell.

LOVELL INVITE

Powell will now take this week to continue conditioning and work on technique before returning to the track this upcoming weekend.

That meet will start at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday in Lovell, with the Panthers opting to remain in the Big Horn Basin with the state meet just a month away starting on May 18.

LA KOHNKE INVITE

* Denotes state qualifying mark

Team scores: 1. Cody 183.5, 2. Powell 139.5, 3. Lovell 99.5, 4. Worland 71, 5. Burlington 58, 6. Thermopolis 40, 7. Rocky Mountain 38.5, 8. Ten Sleep 16, 9. Greybull 14, 10. Meeteetse 3

100 meters: 6. Cody Seifert 11.64*, 14. Nathan Dupont 11.97, 34. Adam Williams 12.94, 38. Toby Sessions 13.07, 40. Treyson Norris 13.23

200 meters: 9. Cody Seifert 24.45, 12. Evan Whitlock 24.72, 16. McKale Foley 24.97, 33. Shane Kirkpatrick 27.2, 34. Seeger Wormald 27.75, 35. Tevon Schultz 27.77, 36. Landon Hyde 27.92, 39. Brighton Streeter 27.99

400 meters: 3. Evan Whitlock 55.32, 5. McKale Foley 57.08, 12. Landon Hyde 59.86, 13. Thomas Shuman 1:00.18, 16. Brighton Streeter 1:01.79, 21. Shane Kirkpatrick 1:02.6

800 meters: 15. Josh Pfeifer 2:18.91, 19. Thomas Shuman 2:23.18

1600 meters: 11. Korbyn Warren 5:02.17, 13. Liam Taylor 5:05.79, 18. Josh Pfeifer 5:32.75, 20. Tate Allred 5:40.93, 23. Colin Walker 5:45.03

3200 meters: 1. Daniel Merritt 10:14.77*, 3. Korbyn Warren 11:01.67, 8. Liam Taylor 11:26.77, 11. Colin Walker 12:38.67

110 meter hurdles: 2. Hyrum Jeide 15.96*, 3. Simon Shoopman 16.56*, 8. Treyson Norris 18.93, 9. Jeremy Harms 19.03, 12. Evan Staidle 20.7

300 meter hurdles: 1. Simon Shoopman 43.11, 2. Isaiah Woyak 45.7, 5. Treyson Norris 48.09, 8. Evan Staidle 51.26, 10. Jeremy Harms 51.26, 12. Michael Legerski 54.83

4x100 relay: 5. Hyrum Jeide, Simon Shoopman, Caden Nelson and Isaiah Woyak 46.2

4x400 relay: 4. McKale Foley, Evan Whitlock, Jace Hyde and Hyrum Jeide 3:47.35

4x800 relay: 2. Tate Allred, Korbyn Warren, Liam Taylor and Josh Pfeifer 9:30.68

1600 sprint medley: 1. Simon Shoopman, Nathan Dupont, Jace Hyde and Daniel Merritt 3:40.27*

High jump: 5. Jace Hyde 5-8, T8. Nathan Preator 5-4, 10. Nathan Dupont 5-4, T12. Landon Hyde 5-2

Pole vault: 3. Jeremy Harms 12-0*

Long jump: 1. Isaiah Woyak 19-10 1/2, 3. Nathan Dupont 19-7 3/4, 9. Cody Seifert 18-4, 19. Evan Staidle 16-5 1/2, 23. Tevon Schultz 15-10 1/4, 29. Seeger Wormald 14-9 3/4 

Triple jump: 2. Isaiah Woyak 39-8 1/4, 12. Tevon Schultz 34-7 1/4, 14. Evan Staidle 34-4 1/4, 17. Seeger Wormald 32-9

Shot put: 4. Jonathan Harms 37-1, 8. Wesley Preator 34-2 1/2, 9. Gabe Weimer 33-10, 19. Keenan Wenzel 29-11 1/2, 22. Joey Andrade 28-11, 24. Jeff McFarland 28-8, 37. Mason Coombs 19-3

Discus: 6. Jonathan Harms 107-06, 8. Gabe Weimer 105-04, 12. Keenan Wenzel 94-04, 19. Wesley Preator 81-10, 26. Jeff McFarland 72-08, 28. Joey Andrade 71-09, 37. Mason Coombs 45-09