Seven teams tested the Powell Panther wrestlers last week, and all seven went down in defeat.The victims included five Eastern Region opponents, including Douglas, which last week was rated No. 1 in 3A wrestling, as well as the top-ranked 2A squad from Greybull/Riverside.The 7-0 string began on Thursday with a 49-18 win over Greybull/Riverside in Basin. Monte Nickles opened the dual by coming from behind to take a one-point win over G/R's Bob Anderson. Anderson dominated early and led 6-1 going into the third period before Nickles executed a takedown and a near fall to tie the score at six. He chose to give up a point and go back to the neutral position, and in the closing seconds, scored another takedown for the 8-7 win.

State runner-up Wes Ridgeway of G/R countered by scoring seven third-period points to win a major decision over Joe Lujan and put his team up 5-3, but after a forfeit at heavyweight, Dylan Rood and Luke Wozney won decisions and Jessee Craig got a pin to put the Panthers back in the lead.

At 125, Zach Thiel faced another state runner-up in G/R's Nathan Gossens and gave up a 7-4 decision, and Olie Olson needed overtime to edge out Nathan Hetzel, a third-place finisher last year. Olson led 6-5 after two rounds, but had to score a late takedown to tie the match at eight at the end of regulation, and scored another to end the match in overtime with an 8-6 decision.

Colt Nix ran into a tough wrestler in G/R's Luke Zeller, who took a 16-8 win for the Buffaloes third win, but Randy Andrews, Auston Carter and Mike Mundy all scored pins and Cole Kary won by forfeit when G/R's Chayce Goton, a defending state champion was unable to wrestle due to illness to put the match out of reach. Danny Harris faced another tough Buffalo in G/R's Clay Cundall and lost by a fall.

“Greybull has a good team,” said Powell coach Nate Urbach. “They were every bit as tough as Douglas was this week.”

At the Buffalo Duals, the Panthers opened by demolishing Torrington 75-6 and followed up with a 57-12 conquest of Buffalo before facing Douglas, a team that has been runner-up to Powell in the last two state tournaments and edged out Powell for the No. 1 ranking in last week's Wyowrestling.com poll. Friday was Powell's day, though, and the Panthers handed the Bearcats their only defeat of the weekend, 46-24, highlighted by Andrews' defeat of a state runner-up and a pin by Jim Seckman.

Urbach was happy about the win, but said Douglas cannot be taken lightly down the road.

“Douglas is a very good team,” Urbach said. “We just got on a roll and won the close battles this time.”

On Saturday, the Panthers completed a perfect weekend with a 72-12 win over Rawlins, a 57-19 defeat of the Gillette JV squad and a 54-15 defeat of Wheatland, a dual highlighted by a comeback win by Dylan Rood. Down 7-1 at one point, Rood scored nine straight points to with his match 10-7.

Craig, Wozney, Andrews, Nix and Carter all were undefeated during the weekend, according to Urbach. Seckman's only loss came to a tough Wheatland wrestler and Nickles' lost only to the top-ranked Douglas wrestler. Olson's only loss came to a Gillette wrestler, and heavyweight Trevor Griffith lost to a Gillette wrestler as well, but both defeated all of their 3A opponents. Lujan's losses came at the hands of two Gillette wrestlers.

Douglas finished the weekend 5-1, as did Western Region rival Worland, which lost to Douglas 43-36. Other West Region teams competing were Lander which went 4-2 in the tournament and Cody, which went 2-4.