Jake DuVall and Tyler Mann won individual titles and the Lord Botetourt team finished sixth in the Big Orange Classic wrestling tournament at William Byrd High School last weekend.
Patrick Henry won the team championship.
“We finished sixth in the Big Orange, not too bad considering we had five starters out of the lineup,” said LB coach Chuck Burton. “I was pleased with where we were. I still don’t think we’ve done our best wrestling yet, which is a good thing.”
It was a big weekend for DuVall, who now stands as the all-time leader in wins at Lord Botetourt High School. Jake defeated Seth Redman of Northside in a dual match last week, 16-0, to tie Mike Jones for the all-time lead. Jones, who graduated in 2012, had 153 wins at LB.
At Byrd, DuVall went undefeated in three matches in addition to having a bye and accepting an injury forfeit to take that honor by himself. After an opening round bye at 126 he pinned Jordan Duncan of Hidden Valley in 2:43, then pinned Jack Allen of Liberty in 1:36. In the semifinal he won by injury default over Jared Glover of Brookville, and in the final he beat Matthew Muller of PH with a 10-4 decision.
Jake is now 35-2 on the season. He was awarded the Bob McLelland Outstanding Wrestler award for his wrestling, academic, and community excellence.
Mann won the 120-pound title to improve to 23-5 on the season. Tyler beat Justin Mutter of Staunton River in the semifinal, 10-2, then pinned Brookville’s Hudson Stewart in the championship match in just 1:31.
Jacob Brown took a third at 170. Jacob lost in the semifinal but wrestled back to win two in the consolation round, including a 7-1 win over Anderson Huger of Rockbridge in the consolation final. Jacob is 29-7.
Ethan Young (7-3) took a fourth at 132 and Luke Young (27-5) was fifth at 138. Also placing was Hunter Sell (16-15) with a sixth at 145.
Botetourt also had a dual match with Northside last week and won 47-33. This Saturday the Cavaliers will be participating in the Conference 31 tournament at Alleghany High. Wrestling starts at 10:30 a.m.
“I’m excited to see how we perform,” said Burton. “This group of seniors has been working hard for five years with me now to reach goals that they all have set for the month of February. I never put too much importance on December and January win-loss records, because what counts is how we perform in February. I hope our kids will go out and control the things they can control, wrestle loose and confident, and let the results speak for themselves.”
