Photos by Brian Hoffman
The Lord Botetourt wrestlers finished a solid second in the annual Titan Toughman wrestling tournament at Hidden Valley High School last week. LB also had an individual champ with TJ Piluso at 165 pounds.
PH won the championship with 252 points, followed by LB with 211. Cave Spring was third with 199, William Byrd was fourth with 180.5 and Salem was fifth at 174.5. There were 22 teams that scored.
“As a team I thought we wrestled well,” said LB coach Paul Craft. “A few of our younger guys had their first experience cutting a few pounds and making weight two days in a row. I think it impacted us on day one. By day two they were wrestling better.”
Piluso won his class at the Toughman for the second time. He beat Lance Duncan of Radford in the final, 3-1, to remain unbeaten after seven matches.
Two other Cavaliers made the final but settled for second, Gray Arnold at 150 and Aaden Thomas at 190. Arnold is now 5-2 and Thomas lost for the first time in seven bouts.
Also placing were Seth Williamson with a third at 175, fourth places by Cody Williams at 120 and Kevin Gergely at 144, fifth places by Declan Sullivan at 126 and Ty Hensley at 215 and a sixth by Canden Saunders at 138.
“Freshman Kevin Gergely made some noise in his varsity debut and sophomore Aaden Thomas has improved significantly since last season,” said Craft. “Aaden has continued to develop physically and it’s showing on the mat.”
The second place team finish was an improvement from last year’s fifth place finish at the Titan Toughman.
“To finish in second to 5A Patrick Henry is an improvement,” said Craft. “We’re wrestling aggressively from our feet and top position but need to work on our movement from bottom. Overall we’re where we need to be at this point of the season.”
The Cavaliers are back on the mat this Thursday at the Glenvar Quad, beginning at 6 pm. Botetourt’s female wrestlers have the Radford Lady Cat Invitational on Saturday.
