The Powell High School boys’ wrestling team tied for 15th place against tough competition at home, led by freshman Russell Goolsbey who was the lone placer for the weekend.

Goolsbey was one of three wrestlers at the varsity level who made it to Saturday, going 2-1 at 126 pounds on Friday before working through a bracket on Saturday.

On Saturday, he started with a pin in 1 minute, 29 seconds, before earning a 6-2 decision win in the semifinals.

In the finals, Goolsbey fell to Lockwood’s Philip Bryant via pin in 1:38, as Bryant was the lone opponent to defeat Goolsbey all weekend as he was his only loss on Friday as well.

“Russell had a nice weekend. Had some really quality wins,” coach Nick Fulton said. “He’s pretty seasoned for a freshman. He’s been on Team Wyoming, traveled quite a bit and wrestled in a lot of big tournaments. So I think that contributes to being able to step out there and perform immediately. He has a bright future, it’s nice to see a lot of the work that he’s done as a youth wrestler carrying into the high school ranks.”

Another Panther advancing to Saturday was Dylan DeBoer at 120 pounds, going 1-3 on Friday before going 0-2 on
Saturday.

“He was just sicker than a dog. Been under the weather all week. But one thing about Dylan, he’s gonna put his toe on the line and give you everything he has every time,” Fulton said. “I liked his attitude, he didn’t feel well, but he was gonna go hard.”

Sean Lowe was the final Panther competing in the bracket, going 1-2 on Friday before going 0-2 on Saturday at 132 pounds.

“Sean wrestled well … He battled really well even in his losses. A couple technical things to clean up with him, but I’d say he picked up where he left off last year which is good to see,” Fulton said.

A pair of competitors who wrestled well Friday but were unable to advance into brackets due to deep weight classes were Broc Frank, who went 2-1 at 150 pounds, and Tyler Wenzel, who went 2-2 at 144 pounds on Friday.

“Broc and Tyler wrestled really well. They were just in deep brackets,” Fulton said. “They were a pin short of making that top eight. That’s kind of the way the ball bounces.”

Powell also saw Trevin Morton go 1-2 at 165 pounds and Hunter Moulton go 1-3 at 106 pounds while David Yates was 0-3 at 132 pounds at the varsity level.

“We were back and forth on that one (Morton) a little bit. But he wanted to see where he stacked up against older guys. I thought he performed really well … I think we’re gonna see significant jumps this year. He did really well and I kind of admire him wanting to be tested,” Fulton said. “Hunter spent most of the season last year injured … He just needs a lot of mat time right now, and we’re here to give it to him.”

The Panthers had a number of athletes entered into the junior varsity due to their experience, noting that the youth of the team means there’s a lot of room to grow throughout the season.

“We’re young, there’s a lot of upside to this group,” Fulton said. “We’re going to see growth throughout the year as we expect to with our young guys and with our old guys. We’re going to be a better team every week. There’s going to be some road bumps along the way, but their effort is there as far as wrestling hard. I felt like we looked a little out of shape, which is my fault … They’re gonna be a team that looks a lot different in February than they do in December. They’re gonna have to go through the process to get there, but they’re excited for it.”

Powell finished tied for 15th in points with Wyoming Indian at 18 total, as Cody took the team title with 174.5 points.

“We really appreciate all the help to run our tournament. We’re pretty fortunate to have a district that supports bringing in 25 teams into the community,” Fulton said. “It’s great to be able to have a home tournament. It builds excitement for the sport. I see a lot of our middle school and USA kids being towel tappers, and that’s how you build programs. So we appreciate what everybody does to make it happen.”

The Panthers now head out on the road, splitting up between two tournaments at the Pat Weede Memorial in Gillette and the Battle in the Big Horns in Worland on Friday and Saturday.

“We’re gonna take our older kids, we’re gonna have quite a few open weights going to Gillette. So it might be difficult to compete in duals with that caliber of a dual tournament,” Fulton said. “Then we’re going to send our second line guys to that Worland dual tournament. Let them see some varsity time … Get a little taste of that before Christmas. Which I think is important for those kids to see that next level a little bit.”