The Class 3A and 4A wrestling tournaments will be held at a new site this year, and Lord Botetourt will be sending four to the tournament in Portsmouth this weekend.
Churchland High School will be the site of the tournaments after many years at the Salem Civic Center. Action begins at 9 a.m. Friday with semi-finals scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday. Championship finals are scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Last weekend at Christiansburg the Cavaliers finished sixth in the Class 3A, Region D tournament. Host Christiansburg was the heavy favorite and the Blue Demons didn’t disappoint, winning with 307 points and nine region champions. Cave Spring was second with 196, followed by Staunton River with 176, Abingdon with 167, Northside with 166 and LB with 116. There were 11 schools in the tournament.
Botetourt didn’t have a regional champion but the Cavaliers had three wrestlers take second and one third, all qualifying for the state.
At 106, Nick Young took a second, falling to Christiansburg’s Brandon Crowder in the championship match. Nick is now 37-8.
Nick’s brother, Luke Young, took a second at 160. After winning by first period pins in the quarter-final and semi-final matches, Luke lost a 7-5 decision in the championship match to Malik Sallah of Cave Spring. It was Luke’s first lost of the season in 45 matches.
At 170, Jacob Brown took a second, falling to Nick Giantonio of Christiansburg in the final. It was just the second loss of the season for Brown, who will take a 43-2 record to Portsmouth.
Hunter Sell qualified for the state with a third place finish at 145. After a 54-second pin in the quarter-final round over Hunter Curren of Stanton River, Hunter lost to Jack Campbell of Abingdon in the semi-final. He then wrestled back for third, defeating Curren again in the consolation final by pin. Sell is 41-7 on the season.
Josiah Grooten, at 138, and Noah Shephard, at 152, both finished fifth and will be first alternates should someone in their weight class not be able to compete this weekend.