Photo courtesy LB wrestling
Last week was a busy week for the Lord Botetourt wrestling team as Cavaliers competed in three different events, both boys and girls.
Lord Botetourt took three girls from the “Pink Team” to Virginia High School in Bristol last weekend to wrestle in the Zone 1 Qualifier. Three other LB girls missed the event due to illness.
“The qualifier is basically the region qualifier for the state tournament,” said LB coach Paul Craft. “The difference is that for the guys the regions are broken down into divisions, 1A 2A 3A etc. For the girls, it’s all schools across all divisions in the region qualifier. So, our girls were wrestling 1A-5A girls from other schools in the region.”
Serenity Shearer won the region at 145 pounds, rallying to win both her semifinal and final matches with pins. She is the first girl to win the region in Lord Botetourt history.
History was made by two other LB girls as well. Jasmin Andrade and Elizabeth Odell both placed third. All three of these girls will wrestle in the girls state tournament on February 26 and 27 in Henrico.
The LB boys wrestled at William Fleming last Wednesday in a quad with Franklin County, Albemarle and the host Colonels. Botetourt beat William Fleming, 48-35, Albemarle, 50-21, and Franklin County 53-27.
“Any time we can go get three wins over some 5A schools is great for our program,” said Craft.
On Saturday, LB sent 10 wrestlers to Riverheads for the Eighth Annual Big Red. Botetourt took third place.
“We had a couple starters out and I think if we’re healthy we come away in first place there, but our guys wrestled great,” said Craft.
The Blue Ridge District tournament is tonight at Staunton River.
“The district tournament doesn’t really mean much anymore,” said Craft. “It’s a holdover from years ago when it was just 1A, 2A, and 3A divisions in the state. At that time, everyone in the Blue Ridge District was a 2A school, so you had to place in the top four of the district tournament in order to qualify for the region tournament. Now, it doesn’t matter if you’re 0-25 or 25-0, you’re still going to the region tournament. The district tournament is basically for bragging rights and hanging a ‘District Champion’ date on the banners hanging in the gyms.”
