Photos by Brian Hoffman
The Lord Botetourt wrestlers competed in the Old Dominion Cup event at the Roanoke College Kerr-Cregger Field House in Salem Saturday. The Cavaliers finished fifth among eight teams, winning three times after losing their first two.
Lord Botetourt was the smallest school of the eight. The Cavs opened with a loss to Class 5 state champion Frank W. Cox, then lost to Brook Point, who was fourth in the state at Class 6 last season.
“That first match was a blowout,” said LB coach Paul Craft. “We came out flat and made lots of mistakes and Cox made us pay for it.
“We had a ‘Come to Jesus’ moment after that. We challenged our guys to turn the day around and finish strong. We dropped the second match to Brook Point but we looked better. Those two matches are what I like to call a planned ass kicking. We need to wrestle 20 percent of our matches against teams that are significantly better than us. It exposes weaknesses and areas we need to address.”
Powhatan, a Class 4 school, was the third match and LB earned a 46-35 win. Then the Cavs went up against Mountain View, the Class 6 state champ from a year ago, and LB took a 53-28 win against their “B Team.” Botetourt then finished with a 47-29 win over Franklin County.
“We continued to get better throughout the day,” said Craft. “We challenged our guys and they accepted it. It was the rough start we needed but we finished strong. We’ll keep going back to that tournament each year they have it. It’s the best wrestling in the state that weekend.”
The Cavaliers are scheduled to wrestle at Carroll County this weekend. The girls are at Virginia High School in Bristol on Saturday at the Ed Cressel Classic 2025 girls tournament.
