There will be no eggnog and cookies for the county wrestlers as they work to stay under weight for some big holiday tournaments. Both the Lord Botetourt and James River grapplers will be on the mats this week.
James River travels to Wise County for the Bobby Bates Classic at UVA Wise for a two-day tournament on Friday and Saturday. Wrestling starts at 9 a.m. both days as Xaiden Wynn and Brayden Forbes both wrestle to defend their Bobby Bates championship titles in their respective weight classes.
Lord Botetourt will be in the Turner Ashby tournament on Friday and Saturday. There’s also a “Lady Cat” tournament for girls at Radford High School.
Last week in Springwood, River hosted Lord Botetourt, Liberty and the Lord Botetourt B team for a quad match. The LB A team beat River, 46-35, and the Cavalier B team edged the Knights, 36-35. James River beat Liberty, 55-18, and LB also beat Liberty.
“We wrestled a bit sloppy against Liberty, but I think we picked it up some against James River,” said LB coach Paul Craft. “We knew it was going to be a fight. Hat tip to Bobby (River coach Stewart) and his staff at James River. They always develop top level wrestlers up there.
“We just flat out don’t match up well with each other and that’s been the case the last few years and maybe more,” added Craft. “His lighter weights cause lots of problems for us and our middle and heavy kids cause more problems for them. I tell ya, man, if we had a combined high school that wrestling team would stand up to anyone in the state. I’d bet the farm on it.”
Photos by Brian Hoffman
Last Saturday the Cavaliers finished second in the Knights of the Round Table tournament at Cave Spring High School. Cave Spring beat LB in a close final in the dual tournament.
“We had some injuries and bumped some kids around to make Cave Spring earn it,” said Craft. “They were better than us Saturday. Our non-starters had success as well with almost everyone getting at least one match. Our conditioning is finally starting to come along.”
James River was in Richlands last weekend for the Richlands F5 Duals Tournament. Teams attending included host Richlands, Tazewell, Radford, Pulaski County, Riverside, W.Va., Hurricane, W.Va., and the Knights.
River had six matches, opening with a 52-24 win over Pulaski County. They beat Tazewell, 60-18, and Radford, 51-30, before falling to Riverside, 51-29. The Knights bounced back to beat Richlands, 45-36, and ended the day with a 59-24 loss to Hurricane High.
Undefeated wrestlers on the day for River included Forbes, Wynn, Evan Byers and Silas Whitson. Forbes achieved his 100th high school career win in the process.
