As spring break came to its close, so did the NCAA wrestling season as Oklahoma City, Okla., hosted the Division I championships March 20-22.
Wisconsin completed a strong season by finishing 16th overall as a team with 36 points. It marked a major improvement over last season’s finish, when the Badgers finished tied for 27th place with just 16.5 points.
The Badgers had eight participants in the NCAA tournament—redshirt freshman Ryan Taylor (125 pounds), redshirt senior Tyler Graff (133), redshirt freshman Rylan Lubeck (149), redshirt freshman Isaac Jordan (157), senior Scott Liegel (174), redshirt senior Jackson Hein (184), redshirt junior Timmy McCall (197) and redshirt sophomore Connor Medbery (285).
Wisconsin’s star of the weekend was Graff, a No. 5 seed in his class, who upset the No. 1 seed, Northern Iowa’s Joe Colon, to reach the championship.
He faced off against Iowa’s Tony Ramos in a rematch of the Big Ten tournament final. Once again, Ramos prevailed in yet another evenly matched contest, winning 3-1 in the first tiebreaker.
Jordan also placed for Wisconsin, taking seventh place with a 2-0 victory over Rutgers’ Anthony Perrotti.
Penn State continued its recent string of dominance, rallying to surpass Minnesota and win its fourth consecutive team title. The Big Ten has now accounted for the last eight team championships.
UWBadgers.com contributed to this report.
