The Lord Botetourt High wrestlers finished in third place in the Blue Ridge District wrestling tournament, hosted by Staunton River last week. The Region 3D tournament is also scheduled for Staunton River High this Saturday.
William Byrd won the BRD title with 171.5 points, besting second place Staunton River who scored 164.5 in their home gym. LB was third with 127, followed by Northside at 103.5, Franklin County with 40 points and William Fleming with 25.
“Going into the tournament we expected second or third place,” said LB coach Paul Craft. “We still have some guys out injured. One got injured at the tournament and couldn’t continue, and one of our starters didn’t make weight. We had a lot of obstacles, but I thought our guys pulled together and wrestled well overall.”
Canden Saunders won the 138-pound district title for LB. He improved to 15-3 on the season with a 13-12 decision over Caleb Godfrey of Franklin County in the final.
At 144, Morgan Parr took a 3-2 decision over Zane Taylor of Byrd in the final to win that weight class. Morgan is now 25-11.
Backup wrestlers Cameron Craighead, at 132, and Kayden McClure, at 165, stepped in and both earned third place points. Other high place winners included seconds at 120 for James Dean, 157 for Angel Rigney, 175 for Cooper Roberts and Aaden Thomas at 285. Third went to Kevin Gergely at 150 and Tyler Butler at 215.
With inclement weather moving in, Craft was concerned about practice time heading into this Saturday’s region tournament. The top four in each weight class advance to the state tourney at the Salem Civic Center February 21 and 22.
“If school is out we can’t and won’t make practices mandatory,” said Craft. “We want to finish the season strong and our wrestlers need to be able to make weight with possibly only a couple practices at school this week. They should be out running, shoveling snow, and staying active. The weather is going to make an impact on all the teams in our region. We need to capitalize on schools being shut down.”
