56 // VARSITY March 27, 2014
INSIDE
WRESTLING
Badgers close out strong
season at NCAAs
Graff and Jordan claim All-America honors
BY RYAN HILL @BADGERWRESTLING
T
he Badgers put a cap on
a successful 2013-14
season by sending mul-
tiple wrestlers to the podium
for the first time since 2011
at the 2014 NCAA Wrestling
Championships in Oklahoma
City, Okla., last wekeend.
Tyler Graff became just the
fourth four-time All-American
in program history and fresh-
man Isaac Jordan captured his
first All-America honor while
competing at the Chesapeake
Energy Arena on March 20-22.
Graff, competing at 133 lbs.,
fell to Iowa's Tony Ramos in
the national title match one
night after upending No. 1
seed Joe Colon of Northern
Iowa in the semifinals.
It was Ramos and Graff 's
fifth meeting, with each being
decided by two points or less.
Three of those clashes, including the 3-1
decision in the first tiebreaker period of
Saturday's battle for the championship,
went into overtime.
Despite the defeat in the champion-
ship match, Graff etched his name along-
side fellow UW four-time All Americans
Lee Kemp (1975-78), Matt Hanutke
(1992-95) and Donny Pritzlaff (1998-
2001) with his performance.
Graff finished fifth at the NCAAs in
2010 and 2011, took an Olympic redshirt
in 2012 and placed third in 2013. He
also closed out his career with 128 wins,
which ranks sixth in program history.
"You don't find too many four-time All-
Americans," UW head coach Barry Davis
said of Graff 's accomplishments. "He's
done it all here and he'll leave here as
one of the great ones."
Isaac Jordan just completed his fresh-
man season at UW but has already added
to his family's rich history. Between his
father Jim, uncle Jeff and brother Ben,
the Jordan family now owns seven All-
America awards.
Jordan added to that list after a 2-0
victory over Rutgers' Anthony Perrotti in
the seventh-place match at 157 lbs.
As a team, the Badgers placed 16th
with 36 points but Ryan Taylor (125)
and Connor Medbery (Hwt.) were both
just one win away from placing. Com-
bine that fact with the young team set to
come back for the 2014-15 season, and
Davis thinks the sky is the limit for the
program.
"The future looks very bright for us,"
Davis said. "We're getting a lot of expe-
rience, we've got some leaders com-
ing back and we've got a good couple
of freshman that'll be in the lineup next
year, too."
