Lord Botetourt will send six wrestlers to the state Class 3 wrestling tournament at the Salem Civic Center. The civic center will host the Class 1, 2 and 3 Virginia High School League tournaments.
Action begins at 10 am Friday with the first round, followed by quarterfinals and first round consolation matches for Class 3. Second round consolations for all classes are at 5 pm Friday with quarterfinal consolations at 6:30 pm.
Things really get tight on Saturday with the semifinals scheduled for 10 am. Semifinal consolations follow at noon with consolation finals for third through sixth place beginning around 1:30 pm. The championship finals are at 5 pm and all three classes will compete simultaneously.
Botetourt will have six wrestlers competing, Colin Sell, Nick Young, Sam Francis, Conner Shiflett, Spencer Shiflett, and Andres Areallano. Cole McCray, Anthony Martin and Titus Hopkins are alternates.
As expected, host Christiansburg dominated the tournament. The Blue Demons scored 308 points to almost double second place William Byrd, who had 158. Hidden Valley was third with 142.5 and LB was fourth, just a point and a half behind third, at 141.
“When you get to this point in the season, it’s as much mental as it is physical,” said LB coach Chuck Burton. “Our kids performed well in one of the hardest region tournaments in the state and I’m very proud of their efforts. Division 3 is probably one of the top 2 toughest divisions in the state, so to get to the state tournament is a huge accomplishment, but if we only set small goals of getting there, we aren’t able to excel. Our goals remain the same moving forward, win your last match, don’t let one loss cost you two.”
LB had two region runnersup. Young made it to the 145 pound finals before falling to Kip Nininger of Christiansburg and Francis made the 152 pound final, losing to Jack Campbell of Abingdon.
Three Cavaliers took fourth places, Sell at 126, Conner Shiflett at 170, Spencer Shiflett at 182 and Areallano at 195.
