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A strong team effort from the Powell Panther boys’ wrestling team led to a title at the 3A West Regional Tournament this past weekend, with four individual champions and 20 qualified wrestlers …
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A strong team effort from the Powell Panther boys’ wrestling team led to a title at the 3A West Regional Tournament this past weekend, with four individual champions and 20 qualified wrestlers heading to the state tournament in Casper.
“Overall, pretty good weekend,” coach Nick Fulton said. “Obviously proud of the kids’ effort winning regionals. That’s another feather in their cap, but we set ourselves up well to be successful at the state tournament and that’s what we’ve been focused on all year.”
The Panthers finished with 220 points, 24.5 ahead of Pinedale and 32.5 ahead of Cody.
Leading the way for the Panthers was Doug Bettger, who had a dominant weekend at 285 pounds, pinning three of his opponents and tech falling his other to win the regional title.
“Doug pinned and tech falled his way through the tournament, that was a good showing for the Panthers,” Fulton said.
Chevy Hill also had a strong weekend at 120 pounds, winning two matches via pin and winning his championship match via a 9-6 decision over Lander’s Henry Quiver to claim his title.
“Chevy had a great tournament. A really good tournament up to the finals and then he just smothers the Lander kid in the finals. Chevy dominated him, stayed really smart, stayed on the attack the whole time,” Fulton said.
In smaller brackets at 106 pounds and 113 pounds Talon Nuss and Wyatt Nicholson won their respective titles, as Nuss won two decisions at 106 pounds and Nicholson had one pin and one decision to win 113 at pounds.
“Nuss had a great tournament, he beat the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked kids, and both kids that had beaten him earlier in the year. We pride ourselves on that as a program, being able to get wins over kids late in the year,” Fulton said. “Wyatt beat the Garcia kid out of Worland that had beaten him at Ron Thon. That was a huge win for him.”
Powell had two additional finalists, as McKale Foley took second at 165 pounds going 2-1 and Mitchel Wainscott took second going 3-1 at 175 pounds.
The Panthers added two third place finishers, as Chase Visocky went 4-1 at 144 pounds and Dusty Carter went 3-1 at 190 pounds.
“Chase, he’s really come along the last month. He’s moving the right way at the right time, beat some really good kids, just continuing to get better every week and doing a good job,” Fulton said.
Fourth place finishers included Dylan DeBoer going 2-2 at 126 pounds, Broc Frank going 3-2 at 138 pounds, Reese Lowe going 3-2 at 150 pounds and Jacob Eaton going 2-2 at 215 pounds.
Sixth place finishers for Powell were Kash Brazelton at 138 pounds going 2-2 and Michael Legerski going 0-2 at 165 pounds.
Eighth place finishers were Channing Wenzel at 120 pounds going 1-2; Sean Lowe going 2-2 at 126 pounds; Tyler Wenzel going 2-2 at 132 pounds; Cody Seifert going 2-2 at 157 pounds; Denton Wainscott going 2-2 at 215 pounds and James Emmett going 2-2 at 285 pounds.
Those 20 Panthers will be heading to state, hoping to end a title drought that extends back to 2015.
Powell is expected to be in a battle against Pinedale and Cody from the West alongside East region champ Torrington.
“Putting 20 guys in, I’m really proud of that. We’re not a program that coaches just four or five guys, we’ve got 20 guys that are going to walk into the events center. That bodes well for a team and for a program,” Fulton said. “We got our kids in favorable positions. They need to take advantage of those opportunities and I’m confident that they will. My guys, as much as any team out there, they’ve got a lot of try and a lot of heart. If you’re going to beat us, you’re going to have to beat us for six minutes.”
Heading to the state tournament in Casper the Panthers will kick things off on Thursday at noon at the Ford Wyoming Center, before a start time of 10:30 a.m. on both Friday and Saturday.
“This is the greatest team sport that every individual matters,” Fulton said. “Every single kid has a chance to benefit our team. That’s crucial getting all 14 weights in, now the next step is to score points in all 14 weights and put as many of them on the podium and high on the podium as we can. Kind of keep our head down and take it one match at a time, and we’ll see where the team scores fall Saturday night.”
STATE MATCHUPS
QF indicates quarterfinal matchup, if no QF then it is a first round matchup and the athlete did not receive a first round bye
106 pounds — QF Talon Nuss vs. Wesley Morris (Buffalo)
113 pounds — QF Wyatt Nicholson vs. Lathan Reiman-Villamor (Wheatland)
120 pounds — Channing Wenzel vs. Jacob Jewell (Worland), Chevy Hill vs. Troy Christensen (Newcastle)
126 pounds — Dylan DeBoer vs. Wes Holman (Glenrock), Sean Lowe vs. Colin McWilliams (Lander)
132 pounds — Tyler Wenzel vs. Wylee Willson (Pinedale)
138 pounds — Broc Frank vs. Jaxon Tillotson (Lyman), Kash Brazelton vs. Octaveas McGahan (Douglas)
144 pounds — Chase Visocky vs. Talon Burton (Lovell)
150 pounds — Reese Lowe vs. Branden Strong (Rawlins)
157 pounds — Cody Seifert vs. Colter Tims (Mountain View)
165 pounds — McKale Foley vs. Israel Robertson (Cody), Michael Legerski vs. Alex Sitz (Cody)
175 pounds — Mitchel Wainscott vs. Jackson Boggs (Douglas)
190 pounds — Dusty Carter vs. Boston Busskohl (Lyman)
215 pounds — Jacob Eaton vs. Oliver Hare (Burns/Pine Bluffs), Denton Wainscott vs. Max Gregory (Lyman)
285 pounds — James Emmett vs. Wyatt Barton (Cody), Doug Bettger vs. Cash McCann (Pinedale)
