Powell High School competes at meets in Worland and at home

It was a busy and fruitful late week for Panther track and field as the teams took a win at the four-team D&D Invite at Worland Thursday and placed a strong second while hosting the L.A. Kohnke — Powell Athletic Roundtable meet on Saturday.

At Worland, a tightly contested boys side of the meet saw all four teams finish with between 134 and 161 points.

The host Warriors totaled the 161 for the team win, with Powell 14 points behind at 147 for second-place.

Things were a bit more spread out on the girls side, with the Lady Panthers totaling 186 points, 41 ahead of Worland’s 145, giving Powell the overall win with 333 points to the Warriors’ 306.

Highlights from the meet included Anissa Warner pulling off the jump trifecta, winning the high, long and triple jumps, in dominant fashion.

The senior equaled her indoor state championship height of 5’6” in the high jump, winning by 9 inches and setting a school record, then notched her name into the school record books again when she soared 17-feet, 2-inches in the long jump, out-distancing second-place by nearly 2 feet, and was more than 4 feet ahead of the pack in the triple jump, landing 35-feet, 5.25-inches from takeoff.

Each finish surpassed the standards Warner needed to qualify for State.

The Panther boys quartet of Joe Rogers, Teagan Cordes, Brooks Asher and Paige Gann won the 4x400 relay. Danna Hanks got wins in both girls hurdles events and qualified for state in each, Julia Kay O’Neill won the 400-meter dash and Lexee Craig cleared 9-feet, 2-inches to win the girls pole vault.

Craig would show her versatility by also taking second in the 100-meter hurdles, while Maddy Hanks finished second in both the pole vault (7-feet, 8-inches) and 300-meter hurdles.

Other runners up saw Dagne Stratton place second in the 800-meter run, Alan Merritt in the 1600, A.J. Lewis in the triple jump and Mason Olsen in the discus.

Olsen’s toss of 140 feet notched his ticket to compete in the event at State.

Two more relay teams took second place in the girls 4x400 (Warner, Rachelle Cole, Danna Hanks and O’Neill) and the boys 4x100 (Paige Gann, Jacob Harrison, Jon Morrow and Lewis).

There were also six third-place finishes for Powell from Emily Sweet (100-hurdles), Nate MaGill (110-hurdles), Matt Kousoulos (3200-run), Jackson Griffith (high jump), Olsen (shot put) and Zach Easum (discus).

The strong showing was, however, a mere warm-up for the 21-team field on hand for Saturday’s meet at Panther Stadium as the girls finished second among 11 teams and the boys third out of 10 contenders.

While Cody took home overall honors, Powell’s 227-point total placed them in second, well ahead of third-place Riverton.

And this was with Warner not being available for two of the three jumping events that she was sure to score well in.

After winning the high jump, clearing 5-feet, 4-inches, Warner felt something not quite right as she warmed up for the triple jump.

“A tendon on the front of my lower left leg has been bothering me some,” she said. “Then during warm-ups for the triple jump, I felt something tweak a little bit and I didn’t want to risk anything.”

O’Neill kept up her mid-distance pace by taking second in the 800-meter run and Teo Faulkner finished just more than three seconds behind the winner in the 1600-meter run for second and she showed her stamina by coming back to take third in the 3200.

Faulkner, Stratton, Cole and O’Neill teamed up to win the 4x800 relay with a time of 10:50.99, qualifying the foursome for state.

The Lady Panthers’ strength and depth in the hurdles shone through again with Danna Hanks and Craig going first and second at the 100-meter distance, with Emily Sweet and Mollie Kissner finishing fifth and seventh, respectively.

Hanks followed that up with a win at 300 meters with Sweet again placing fifth.

Third place was won in the girls 4x400 relay by Gabri Lundburg, Cole, Hanks and O’Neill, and Craig cleared 10-feet, 2-inches in the pole vault to finish second.

Craig had qualified for state with her Thursday pole vault, with Saturday’s finish bettering her seed and coming within 4 inches of setting a school record.

Powell’s depth on the girls side extended into the jumps as, while Warner was now sidelined, Craig stepped in and got second in the long jump and Lundburg took fifth in the triple jump.

Further depth showed again in the girls throws as Haylee Ugalde, Rachel Bonander and Coby Calcotte went third, fifth and ninth in the shot put, with Calcotte and Bonander placing third and fifth in the discus.

On the boys side, Lewis and Kanyon Gann came in fifth and sixth in the 200-meter dash while Joe Rogers and Teagan Cordes were sixth and seventh in the 400.

Brandon Anderson (sixth), Kousoulos (eighth) and Cesar Corro (10th) all placed top-10 in the 800, with Anderson, Merritt and Kousoulos going sixth, seventh and ninth in the 1600.

Merritt bounced back to take second in the 3200, with Cody Akin adding valuable points with his third-place finish.

The Panther boys showed they have some hurdles chops as well as the girls, with Nate MaGill getting third and 10th in the 110 and 300, while Kolter McLaughlin finished fifth in the 110 and Paige Gann third in the 300.

The Powell boys relay teams also put up some strong finishes by taking fourth in the 4x100 (Gann, Harrison, Morrow and Lewis), third in the 4x400 (Rogers, Cordes, Asher and Gann) and second in the 4x800 (Cordes, Jesse Erickson, Merritt and Akin).

Lewis would place fifth in the long jump and Kanyon Gann ranked fifth in the triple jump, adding eight points to the Panther total. Easum got fifth-place in shot put and second in discus, his toss in the latter just 7 inches off the winning distance. Meanwhile, Olsen got sixth in the discus.

As the team seems to be heating up with the increasing temperatures, the Panthers will be back in action Friday at the Riverside Invitational in Basin and Saturday at Billings.