Three Botetourt County girls, two from Lord Botetourt and one from James River, competed in the VHSL Girls State Wrestling Tournament held Feb. 24-25 at the Henrico Sports Complex in Glen Allen, Va. The tournament included 192 girls from all school classifications and featured 12 weight classes, each comprised of 16 of the top female wrestlers in Virginia who qualified through their respective Zone tournaments.
Serenity Shearer and Jasmin Andrade represented Lord Botetourt while Georgia Miller wrestled for James River. Shearer finished in sixth place in the state in the 145-pound class, pinning her way into the semifinals where she lost to the defending state champion. It was the same girl she lost to in the semifinals last season and that wrestler went on to win the state championship again this season.
“Serenity was having some back problems and dropped her consolation match before medical forfeiting her final match and taking sixth place,” said LB coach Paul Craft. “Serenity wrestled extremely well all season, I feel for her. She worked hard, trained hard, slept right, ate right and did all the off-season stuff on the mat and in the weight room.
“It’s a hard lesson to learn. Sometimes you can do everything right, but nothing is guaranteed. It shouldn’t overshadow her career here at LB. She helped spearhead the girls’ wrestling program and is a two-time state placer. She’s also graduating a year early with a 4.0 GPA and will wrestle in college. Her academic and athletic career at LB has been a huge success and we fully expect it to continue on the next level.”
Photo courtesy Botetourt wrestling
LB senior Andrade wrestled in the 165-pound class and made it to the blood round, needing one more win to guarantee a top six finish.
“I think Jasmin wins that match most of the time, she just happened to get caught,” said Craft. “Jasmin also wrestled through some hand and wrist pain that has been a problem for the last couple months. It definitely impacted her grip and her ability to be effective on offense and defense and transitions. Jasmin had a great senior season and is another girl that helped get the program up and running at LB. She’s always recruiting other girls and talking to them about coming out for our program.”
James River senior Miller finished 0-2, including a hard-fought second match that nearly advanced her into podium contention.
“Not the way I wanted to finish my high school career, but I’m thankful for four years of competing and for the opportunity to qualify for states,” said Georgia.
Miller closes her senior season with a 56 career wins, including three tournament championships and 11 podium finishes. She will continue her wrestling career this fall at Montreat College in North Carolina.
“I’m incredibly proud and honored to have coached Nora Lotts, Briley Goyer, and Georgia Miller this season,” said River girls’ coach Warren Carswell. “Nora and Briley are just freshmen and have a bright future ahead of them. No doubt Georgia’s work ethic will carry her through the next chapter of college wrestling.”
Craft and Carswell hope to expand the girls’ teams at both LB and River. Girls’ wrestling is a booming sport in the state of Virginia.
“Three years ago there were 310 girls in the state tournament since it was an open tournament,” said Craft. “Last season 600 girls wrestled across the state of Virginia. This season in Virginia, 1,030 girls weighed in and wrestled at least one match per statistics kept on trackwrestling. The sport is exploding and it’s here to stay.
“Serenity, Jasmin, and Georgia are the founders for girls’ wrestling in Botetourt County. If they hadn’t taken interest in it years ago then it would never have become what it is now. Wrestling has completely changed the trajectory of these girls’ lives. Both Serenity and Georgia will wrestle in college.”
Craft sees the interest in girls’ wrestling continuing to build at both county schools.
“We’re starting to see more girls showing interest here at LB and wanting to be a part of something,” he said. “They’re seeing the success of the girl wrestlers in the county, and also understand they can wrestle other girls instead of guys now. We’re going to miss our seniors. We hope after they’re done with college that they’ll come back and help out with the girls’ team.”
