Orange Panther of the Week: Owen Wimsatt

This week’s Orange Panther of the Week is sophomore lacrosse midfielder Owen Wimsatt. The younger brother of former Orange face-off ace Jake Wimsatt, Wimsatt helped the Panthers win its fifth consecutive Mid-Carolina Conference championship this season. He’s second on the team with 49 goals and 69 points. When he played at Orange Middle School, Wimsatt played as a longstick midfielder. Orange Panthers head coach Chandler Zirkle encouraged him to change to a short stick and he’s become one of Orange’s most accomplished scorers. In his varsity debut this season, Wimsatt had a hat trick in an 18-1 win over Southeast Alamance in Hillsborough. That was the first of eleven hat tricks during the regular season. On April 8, Wimsatt scored four goals in a win over Southern Alamance in Hillsborough. On March 7 against the Patriots in Graham, Wimsatt scored a season-high seven points. He had a string of three straight games with hat tricks against Williams, Cedar Ridge and Southern Alamance. Last Monday, he scored four goals as Orange defeated Cedar Ridge 4-3 to officially clinch a share of the conference title. He completed the regular season by scoring five points as the Panthers defeated Riverside 8-5 at Linny Wrenn Stadium in Durham. Orange will start play in the 3A/2A/1A State Playoffs against Carrboro at Auman Stadium in Hillsborough on Friday night.