In a normal season the Lord Botetourt golfers would have made the Class 3 state tournament on Monday. However, this is anything but a normal year.
Lord Botetourt shot a 303 at Ashley Plantation to finish nine strokes behind Abingdon in the 12-team regional. Normally, the top two teams advance to the state tournament, but in this pandemic-shortened season only the top team advances and that will be Abingdon.
“I knew they were good but I wasn’t expecting them to be that good,” said LB coach Todd Smith. “We looked at their scores this season and they averaged about a 303, and I thought we could beat that. But they played really well. They had two girls in the top four and they didn’t mess up once.”
Will Watson of Abingdon and LB sophomore Ashton Harper tied for medalist honors with 70 on the par 72 Ashley course. Samir Davidov of LB shot a 73 and also qualified for the state as an individual along with Harper and Seth Walker of Christiansburg, who shot 74. Also scoring for LB were Jake Koffman at 76 and Kaitlyn Mosdell with an 84. Dylan Salvi shot 86 and Trey Sharp had a 95.
While the Cavs didn’t qualify for the state, they should be in the mix again when the tour returns for the fall season. Only Mosdell is a senior among the four scorers and Botetourt is coming off a dominating performance in the Blue Ridge District series of mini-matches. The Cavaliers won all five rounds to finish 114 strokes ahead of second place Franklin County.
Last week the BRD season ended with a round at Hanging Rock in Roanoke County and LB shot a team score of 301. Davidov tied Cutter Harvey of Franklin County for medalist honors with a three-under par 69.
Davidov, a junior, won the district season competition and Harper was second. Mosdell was fourth and Koffman was fifth as LB took four of the top five spots for the season.
“We should be pretty good again next year,” said Smith.