Seth Romsa

Whether it be on the court, the mat, the track or in the pool, another another long, challenging winter season came to a close this past weekend.

The longest season of the year brought a number of challenges across the board for sports at each level, but a number of successes came through those challenges to make those rewards that much sweeter.

Powell High School crowned its first individual girls’ wrestling champion in school history with Allison LeBlanc finishing a convincing senior campaign with a title at 110 pounds. LeBlanc and the rest of the Panther girls also brought home a third place trophy — the smallest team to bring one home with only five wrestlers competing and all placing at the state tournament in Casper.

Trapper wrestling had another strong year on the mat, with three sophomore All-Americans returning to Powell as Zachary Covolo at 141 pounds and Asad Fayzullaev at 184 pounds both placed third, and Austin Richens brought home a national title at 285 pounds with the Trappers placing in the top 10 once again at the national tournament.

The Trapper basketball teams wrapped up their seasons this past weekend, with both advancing far in the Region IX Tournament but coming up just short of their end goal of the national tournament.

Catch full recaps of those games in Thursday’s Powell Tribune.

Indoor track continues to grow as a program, and brought home its first team trophy since its inception, as the girls’ team took third with impressive performances across the board and a number of school records broken in the process.

Panther swimming had a number of successes this year, as seniors Will Fuller and Hugh Carpenter again had top performances at the state meet, making their mark on the Panther Wall of Fame in their final season joining the Panthers from Lovell.

That partnership continues to help benefit our swim team as I know both the boys’ and girls’ teams are hoping to increase the participation of those programs in the coming years.

The boys’ wrestling team saw a couple of individual successes at state with five placers, including two finishing second in junior Jonathan Hine at 106 pounds and freshman Russell Goolsbey at 126 pounds.

That team will only continue to grow with only one senior from the contigent at the state tournament graduating in Tyler Wenzel, and 10 of the 12 qualifiers being freshmen or sophomores with more talent joining the program from Powell Middle School next year.

The Panther basketball teams experienced success at various points throughout the season, but were unable to continue streaks of qualifying for the state tournament.

Those teams will hope to reload next year, with plenty of potential on both sides with talent continuing to come up throughout Powell athletics from the middle school.

With that season now being in the rearview mirror, I will continue to work on the lower level teams this week as well as middle school basketball and get recaps in the coming weeks, as the busy end of winter has allowed me to finally take a breath.

I know that it has been a tamer winter than most, I am just hoping as we transition into the outdoor seasons that there will not be an uptick in the snow we missed the past few months and we can still have a relatively warm, cancellation-free spring season.

Athletes are on spring break this week, but practices are well underway for athletes at Powell High School as the college mostly takes a break this spring from competitive action.

Heading into the outdoor seasons the Panther girls’ soccer team is still hoping for its first state championship, bringing back plenty of experience from a team that fell 1-0 just a year ago in the title game to rival Cody.

That team will be hoping that experience can carry some younger athletes who will improve the team, as they continue to grow into the high school competitive level and make the Panthers a championship contender once again.

The Panther boys’ soccer team has returning experience and talent at different levels of the field, and hope to return to the state tournament once again with the state experiencing a change at the top as a number of teams graduated tons of experience a year ago including defending state champions Buffalo.

Track has a number of different standouts both on an individual and team level, as the Panther girls have a ton of talented individuals looking to impact the team race in the state.

Juniors Karee Cooley and Paige Sanders lead the team in the distance and jumps, while the Panthers have a number of other talented athletes in those fields as well as a number of freshmen hoping to make an impact as another group of strong middle schoolers join the team.

On the boys’ side, the Panthers will return senior Caden Nelson to the track after he missed his junior season, and will bring plenty of speed throughout the lineup as well as a number of different top contenders such as juniors Lincoln Crawford and Sawyer Wormald in the hurdles.

In order to place, those teams will continue to improve throughout the next two months, with the state soccer tournament in Gillette May 21-23 and track the same weekend in Casper.

Baseball should be joining those teams outside shortly as temperatures begin to increase in the coming weeks, with that team facing a number of new challenges this year.

Despite returning significant experience from a year ago, the Pioneers will face a bigger challenge with ‘AA’ and ‘A’ combining into one classification, bringing a tougher challenge to the team.

Speaking with coaches and players so far, they seem up to the challenge and willing to battle for those top spots regardless of class, which is a positive sign heading into the longest individual season of the year into the dog days of summer.

College rodeo will be the lone college team competing this spring, taking part in rodeos starting in April before hopefully sending some competitors to the CNFR in Casper in June.

This season may seem to slow down for many including me with less to cover thanks to the college, but it just continues to pick up for me regardless.

Outside of work I should be helping both soccer teams with some free time, while also spending some weekends dedicated to reffing soccer over the mountain in Sheridan, Gillette and Buffalo with one trip to Lander.

While I am thankful for all of the successes of winter sports and set to enjoy the beginning of March Madness this week, the madness never stops over here as we head into the warmer months.