Botetourt scored 108 points to win the boys’ championship, outdistancing second place Staunton River by 24 points. William Byrd was third with 76, followed by Rockbridge with 65, Alleghany with 54, and Northside with 40.

Tyler Bailey and the LB boys won the Blue Ridge District swim championship last week.

Tyler Bailey won a district championship for the boys with a first place finish in the 100 Fly, finishing with a time of 1:00.92. He also swam on the first place 400 Free Relay team. The boys 200 Medley Relay team also finished first with a time of 1:57.85.

Other events where LB boys qualified for regionals included the following: Boys 200 Free-6th Brandon Pierson 2:29.69; Boys 200 IM–2nd Ben Brinkley 2:35.35, 5th Ben Miller 2:54.24; Boys 100 Free-5th Robert Switzer 1:03.39, 6th Austin Smith 1:03.86; Boys 100 Back-2nd Devon Jackson 1:09.08, 6th Hal Bailey 1:28.67; Boys 100 Breast-3rd Matt Simpson 1:19.37; Boys 500 Free-5th Brandon Pierson 6:54.39; and the Boys 200 Free Relay took second.

William Byrd cruised to the girls’ title with 182 points, and LB edged Rockbridge, 80-78, to grab second. Alleghany was fourth with 62 and Northside had 26 points.

The 200 Medley and 400 Free Relay teams were both second and other events where LB girls made the regionals were as follows: Girls 200 IM-2nd Cassidy Jackson 2:29.07, 4th Anne Chappell Barkett 2:49.49; Girls 100 Breast-2nd Cassidy Jackson 1:17.81, 3rd Kristen Blanchard 1:22.46; Girls 100 Back-3rd Rachel Wrotniewski 1:10.36; Girls 100 Fly-4th Rachel Wrotniewski 1:11.79, 6th Anne Chappell Barkett 1:20.72; Girls 500 Free-5th Marissa Schade 7:11.76; Girls 50 Free-6th Kristen Blanchard 28.41; and the Girls 200 Free-6th Julia Bailey 2:36.93.

The Region III meet is at James Madison University this Saturday.

“If we win and also defeat Highland on Friday, that will force a play-off with the Cougars for the regular season championship,” said River coach Dan Bowser. “This is a big game for us. One of our goals at the begining of the season was to be district champions and now we have the opportunity to make that happen. We are looking forward to the challenge and hope that our fans will come out to support us.”

River comes into the game at 16-3 overall and 7-1 in the district, having lost only at Covington in Pioneer District play. Last week the Knights had little trouble with Craig County and Bath County as they beat both to set up the big game with Covington tonight.

The Knights beat Craig in Buchanan, 57-30. River was up 29-13 at the half and coasted to the win, with everyone on the team contributing.

“It was good to get everyone some playing time,” said Bowser. “Reanna Hamm got back into the lineup with a little playing time after being sidelined with an ankle sprain.”

Taylor England led River with 13 points and Morgan Hufford had 12 points, and six steals. Ashley King had nine points, Hamm had six, Ceira Webb had five and Cassandra Shaffer and Kaye Woods both had four points. Kaitlyn Barger and Libby Rhodes each had a bucket.

Last Friday at Bath the Knights won 45-30.

“We knew going in this would be a tough game,” said Bowser. “It was a close game until about halfway through the fourth quarter. We got several stops on defense and then converted from the foul line. We have been saying that sooner or later we would win a game at the foul line and that is what happened.”

The Knights were 13-for-16 from the foul line in the fourth quarter and 20-for-27 for the game. Hufford led River in scoring with 15 points and also had five steals and five assists. King had 10 points and 10 rebounds and Hamm just missed a double-double with nine points and 13 rebounds. England and Shaffer each had 4 points and Woods had three.

At 17-3 the Knights are now tied for sixth in the state poll of sportswriters and broadcasters among all Group A girls’ teams. Floyd County, at 19-1, is the top-ranked team in the state.

“James River is a much stronger team than the score indicates,” said LB coach Robert Haynie.  “Some of their best wrestlers were out so we didn’t get the showdown I was expecting. When they have everybody in the lineup, James River is one of the top tier teams in Region C and State Group A.  I have great respect for the program Coaches Jennings and Crimp have at our sister school.”

“The LB match didn’t go very well, but we had a couple of positives,” said River coach Tim Jennings.  “Luke(Arney), Kyle(Cook) and Creek(Turner) all won their matches, but we were without four starters and two of our best wrestlers. It would not have been easy to beat LB either way, they’re a pretty talented team and wrestling is so much about match-ups, but losing three of our better guys for a match hurts.  The team wrestled extremely hard and even with the outcome I think mentally it will help us. It put some things in perspective that don’t really show up in a scorebook or scoreboard.” 

On Saturday LB went to Covington to wrestle in the “War of the Wrestlers” tournament. LB won the tournament with 221 points, followed by Greenbrier East with 199, Roanoke Catholic with 168  and Turner Ashby with 103.5. 

“Coach Ray Sullins did a great job of keeping the tournament alive after several WV school withdrew because of snow,” said Haynie. “We had three of our strongest varsity wrestlers out due to injuries, so going in I told the guys everyone needed to fight for every point.”

Bryan Barnett and Kyle Haley won their first tournaments ever and Aaron Gunter also took a first.  Seth Carlton, Paul Lucas, Taylor Keller, Daniel Lloyd, and Brandon Winger all took second for LB.

 James River was at the Daily News Leader Tournament in Stuarts Draft last weekend. River had four boys place, as Owen Deacon won at 195, King took second at 160, Ian Batterson was second at 220, and Turner was third at 170.

 “It wasn’t our best outing as a team, especially since we won it last year, but we’ve had some injuries and sickness this week,” said Jennings. “There was a good mix of A and AA schools there and some of the kids got to see kids they’ll probably see again in February.”

Deacon wrestled extremely well.

“When Owen’s running at full steam, he’s hard to beat,” said Jennings.  “He’s been nursing a nagging injury off-and-on, but you couldn’t tell Saturday. He didn’t get to wrestle against LB on Wednesday night because of the weight control program. That really frustrated him and he certainly made up for it Saturday.”

King wrestled two of the top three boys in Group A at 160, and he is also in the top three. Kyle beat Austin Sanchez from Stuarts Draft in the semis but lost in the finals, 4-3, to Zac Richey from Buffalo Gap, the runner-up at 160 last year.

“Both matches were really close and Kyle did a great job pushing them for three periods,” said Jennings.  “He came out of the finals about as confident as he’s been all year. He knows he can beat the kid if they see each other again.”

The Knights travel to Magna Vista Saturday for the “Border Clash.” River was second in this tournament last year and won it the year before.

“The tournament gets stronger every year and I feel it will do the same again this year,” said Jennings. “It’s always great competition from Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, and it’s good to see schools not from our area.”

Lord Botetourt will wrestle district matches against Alleghany and Staunton River at William Byrd tonight. LB is currently 12-3 in dual matches.

“Given the tougher schedule this year, I would be very happy to close out our dual season with two more wins,” said Haynie.

This Friday and Saturday LB will participate in the “Big Blue” Tournament in Christiansburg for the first time. In past years this was held the same weekend as William Byrd’s Big Orange, a tournament LB always attends. This year the two are not on the same weekend, and the Cavs will participate in both. The Big Blue should be one of the top tournaments the Cavaliers participate in all season.

After starting the season 4-3 the Cavaliers have caught fire. They haven’t lost since falling to Floyd County, the top ranked team in Group A, nearly a month ago. LB won three straight in the Cave Spring Christmas round robin and was 5-0 in 2012 prior to Tuesday’s game.

Emily Wampler has been one of the top scorers for the LB girls.

Botetourt is getting balanced scoring in this run of success. Any of a number of girls are capable of leading the team in scoring, and opposing defense don’t know who to focus on.

“That’s when we’re at our best, when three or four of our girls are scoring,” said LB coach Chuck Pound. “We usually have four girls in double figures, and sometimes five.”

Last Tuesday at Rockbridge the girls took a 64-48 win over the Wildcats as Emily Wampler scored 18 points. Jade Lewis had 16, Meaghan Catron had 11, and Kendra Wood pulled down 13 rebounds.

On Wednesday LB beat a strong Brookville team, 53-48, as Lewis had 19 points and nine boards. Wampler had 18 points and Wood had a dozen as LB beat the Bees for the second time this year. Botetourt won a double overtime game against Brookville over Christmas.

On Friday the Cavs seized control of first place in the Blue Ridge District with a 61-56 overtime win at Staunton River. River led 26-14 at the half but the Eagles rallied down the stretch to tie it. The Cavs then hit nine of 11 free throws in the overtime period with Lewis and Wood both on the bench with five fouls. Ally Duvall and Miriah Martin picked up the slack underneath after LB’s best two post players fouled out.

“It was a strange game,” said Pound. “We probably should have won that game by 12 or 15 points.”

Catron had 19 points in this one, the third different leading scorer of the week. Wampler finished strong with 17 points, scoring 15 in the fourth quarter and overtime, and Lewis had 16 points and nine rebounds.

LB improved to 12-3 overall and 3-0 in the district with the win. Alleghany came into the week at 4-10 and Northside was 5-7 as the Cavs complete their first trip through the BRD.

Next Wednesday Botetourt will open the second half of the district season when they play William Byrd in Vinton.

Last Wednesday the girls avenged a prior defeat to Salem, beating the Spartans on their home floor, 58-45. LB jumped out to a big lead, holding the Spartans to two second quarter points as they ran up a 24-11 lead by intermission.

Ally Duvall of LB scores in last week's win in Salem. Photo by Carter Turner.

“That was a big win for us,” said LB coach Chuck Pound. “I thought we played pretty well and they weren’t on top of their game. We made a few defensive adjustments from the first time we played them. We tried to keep (Tay) Taylor out of the lane and we tried to keep (Carlye) Garst from hitting a bunch of threes.”

Emily Wampler led LB with 17 points. Wampler has been LB’s leading scorer during the five game win streak.

“Emily has been playing very well since right before Christmas,” said Pound. “She’s a good compliment to Jade(Lewis).”

Lewis had 13 points against Salem and Kendra Wood continued her strong post play with 11 points and a game-high 17 rebounds.

On Friday the Cavaliers played host to William Byrd in the Blue Ridge District opener and LB dominated, taking a 62-41 win. Again Botetourt had a big lead at the half, this time 34-15.

Wampler led the team again with 15 points and Meaghan Catron had 14 points and six assists. Lewis had 10.

Now 9-3, the Cavs were at Rockbridge on Tuesday and tonight they’re back home to play host to Brookville. On Friday the girls are at Staunton River and next Tuesday, January 17, they’ll play host to Alleghany.

Despite 14 days off over the holidays the Cavs didn’t look at all rusty last Wednesday as they took a 52-46 win over visiting Jefferson Forest. LB trailed 24-17 at the half but rallied in the third period, outscoring Forest 16-7 to take a 33-31 lead.

LB's Lucas Smith (42) goes to the hoop against Byrd. Photo by Reginna Devinney.

“We came out strong in the third quarter,” said LB coach Chad Conner. “I think that shows character, when you get behind and come back. One thing about our boys, they’ll never quit.”

Justin Goode had 19 points to lead the Cavaliers and Dustin Hassell had 16. Both are sophomores.

“I think they’ve adjusted to the speed of the varsity game,” said Conner. “We’re real fortunate to have them both for two more years.”

On Friday Botetourt got out of the gates quickly at William Byrd. The host Terriers didn’t have an answer for LB center Lucas Smith, who had 11 points in the first quarter as Botetourt raced to a 20-10 lead. Botetourt led 33-19 by intermission.

 “We’ve had trouble starting games, but on Friday we got off to a great start,” said Conner. “We didn’t do anything differently, but Byrd always has a great crowd and I think our kids fed off the crowd.”

Smith finished with 17 points and four blocks. Goode had a dozen points and nine assists and Ross Wimmer had nine points and eight rebounds.

The two wins lifted LB to 4-6 on the year and the Cavs put their 1-0 Blue Ridge District mark on the line Tuesday at home against Rockbridge, but results were too late for publication. On Friday Staunton River is here and next Tuesday, January 17, the Cavaliers are at Alleghany.

Ryan Broughman, a two time state champion for LB as a student, was on the William Byrd bench for the first dual match of the season for the two Blue Ridge District teams. LB won the match, 39-33, on “Senior Night” in Daleville. 

Lord Botetourt's Matt Bower is close to a first period pin in his 152-pound win over Byrd.

“Byrd is much improved under new coach Ryan Broughman,” said LB coach Robert Haynie. “It wa an exciting match. This was the first time this year that we have been at full strength.”

Brandon Winger clinched the team victory with an exciting back and forth 5-3 overtime victory over Byrd’s Ryan Pruett. Adam Giambersio, Matt Bower, Daniel Lloyd, Aaron Gunter, and Michael Jones all put points on the board for LB.

On Saturday the Cavaliers participated in the 10 team Topper Duals near Bristol. This was a duals tournament with many good out of state teams.

“Since we have toughened up our schedule this year, I was anxious to see how we would compete and whether we have made any progress as a team compared with last year,” said Haynie. “

LB started the day off with a 50-14 loss to a wrestling powerhouse from Asheville, NC,  TC Roberson.

“I was happy with the way we competed as the matches were much closer than the team score indicated,” said Haynie.

LB then got a high quality win over Eastside, the reigning 3A state champs from South Carolina, 37-32.

“That is, by far, the biggest dual win we have had since I have been coach over the past three years,” said Haynie.

The Cavaliers followed that up with a convincing win over Dobyns Bennett from Kingsport TN, 46-21, which put LB in the 3rd/4th place consolation finals.  Botetourt then lost an exciting back and forth match to a very good squad from Wayne County, KY 42-33. 

“We had two matches that came down to some very controversial calls at the end, which would have made the difference between us winning and losing,” said Haynie. “I was proud with how our boys handled themselves with sportsmanship and class under the circumstances. It’s one of those things that this sport teaches about life in general. Life isn’t always fair, and we can’t leave the decision in the referee’s hands.”

LB is now 4-2 in dual matches as the Cavs head to Lebanon, VA today to participate in the Pioneer Duals before the holiday break.

The win comes just a week and a day after the Cavaliers hammered River, 58-35, in Daleville. That broke a string of five straight River wins and appeared the mantel of county supremacy was being passed to the Cavaliers. Well, let’s put that on hold for the time being.

“We’d beaten them so many times the law of averages was bound to catch up with us,” said River coach Mike Goad. “They came after us with enthusiasm and pride last week and they beat us so badly, maybe they were a little overconfident this time. They found out we have pride ourselves, and we focused a little better in our gym. Let’s call it a ‘Tale of Two Towns’.”

Botetourt jumped off to an 18-12 lead after one quarter but the Knights cut the lead in half by intermission at 32-29. LB held on to a one point lead, 48-47, after three quarters and River passed them down the stretch.

“Give them credit, they attacked us off the dribble,” said LB coach Chad Conner. “They played zone and we didn’t do a good job of attacking it.”

River won the game at the line, hitting 16 of 21 free throws while visiting LB was five for seven.

“They attacked the basket and we didn’t,” said Conner. “We’ll learn from it. They were out to get us and they played with a lot of pride.”

John Bennett led the Knights with 19 points, Caleb Lythgoe had a season-high 12, and JT Sandidge had 11. Justin Goode led LB with 17 points and Zack Kelly hit three threes and had 11 for the Cavs.

It was a good week for the Knights, who lost their first five games before winning at Glenvar last Tuesday, 63-49. Sandidge had 20, Bennett had 17, and Bryan Hoppe had 10 for the Knights in that game.

A night later the Knights were back home to host Rockbridge on Saturday and dropped a 67-35 game, as Andrew Rowsey scored 23 for the Wildcats. Sandidge had 14 to lead River.

A busy schedule continued on Monday of this week as River dropped a 41-36 game to Cave Spring in Buchanan. River jumped off to a 10-2 lead but Cave Spring bounced back to go up two by the half, 19-17. Sandidge had 10 to lead River.

Now 2-7, River is 1-1 against Group A schools and 1-6 against Group AA teams. They continue a brutal schedule with a trip to Alleghany tonight.

“We play over half our schedule in December,” said Goad. “We have our 10^th game this week and some teams have only played five or six.”

Lord Botetourt fell to 2-4 with the loss to River, and the Cavaliers were scheduled to play at Blacksburg on Tuesday of this week. Glenvar is at LB on Thursday for the final game before the holiday break.

“We’re getting better every game,” said Conner. “Every game we see something we need to do to get better and we’re working on it.”

“Overall I was very pleased with how we did,” said LB coach Ashley Stoneham. “Salem has an incredible team, and I was very glad that my team had a chance to swim them. I feel that my swimmers learned a great deal by watching their team perform. We had to dig deep for new personal best times, and strong finishes.

Julia Bailey swims the freestyle for LB.

LB’s Rachel Wrotneski won two firsts, taking the 50 Free with a time of 27.36 and the 500 Free in 6:26.69. Cassidy Jackson won the 100 Breast with a time of 1:19.28 and the 400 Free Relay team of Anne Chappell Barkett, Laura Kate Jennings, Julia Bailey, and Marissa Schade took first with a time of 4:52.55.

Seconds went to Bailey in the 200 Free, Barkett in the 200 IM, Jackson in the 100 Fly, and Kristen Blanchard in the 100 Free among the girls. Also taking second was the 200 Free Relay team of Meredith Sweeney, Jennings, Julia Workowski, and Blanchard, and the 200 Medley team of Barkett, Jackson, Wrotneski, and Blanchard.

For the boys, the best finish was a second by Tyler Bailey in the 500 Free. Cameron Nelson, Bailey, Austin Smith, and Devon Jackson took second in the 400 Free Relay.

James River had a meet at the Radford Dedmon Center scheduled for last week, but that was postponed due to a conflict with Radford High School. River is scheduled to swim in a meet at the Kirk YMCA in Roanoke tonight, and both River and LB will be at the Southwest Virginia Invitational in Christiansburg Saturday.

“On the surface it looks like we didn’t compete as well as we should have, but our outstanding heavyweight, Mike Jones, was out taking the ACT test on Saturday and I didn’t think it would be fair for the others in his weight class to have him wrestle on Friday, knowing he wouldn’t be there on Saturday,” said LB coach Robert Haynie. “We also had two more of our best varsity starters out, which cost us big in the team score, and we were wrestling up in six weight classes. I am anxious to see how we do when we get everybody on the mat at one time and everyone in the right classifications.” 

LB's Trey Markvart gives Andrew Saunders a ride in the Titan Toughman 152-pound semifinal match.

LB’s Aaron Gunter lost a close one to Quan Lee of Salem in the finals at 182 to take second.  Dax Hodges, Jonathan Guessford, Trey Markvart, Matt Bower, Taylor Keller, and Brandon Winger also placed in the tournament.

“All in all we wrestled well on Friday and Saturday morning,” said Haynie. “I was not pleased with our effort at all Saturday afternoon. We wrestled like we didn’t care and even losing to people we dominated earlier. That’s a mental thing and long tournaments can put you in a funk. We have to rise above that and learn to finish strong.”

Botetourt will wrestle William Byrd tonight in the first dual match of the season. That’s scheduled to begin at 6 pm at LB.

The Cavaliers will participate in the “Topper Duals” near Bristol this Saturday.