Graham faces top-ranked team

Falcons will likely be big underdog against No. 1 Blair.

Graham's Micah Jordan, bottom, wrestles Claymont's Drew Dillon in the 126lb. championship match Sunday during the Division II state duals. Staff photo by Bill Lackey

Bill Lackey Graham's Micah Jordan, bottom, wrestles Claymont's Drew Dillon in the 126lb. championship match Sunday during the Division II state duals. Staff photo by Bill Lackey

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By Kermit Rowe, Staff Writer 11:32 PM Wednesday, February 1, 2012

ST. PARIS — Some of the top prep winter sports athletes in the country will be on display Saturday at Graham High School during a rare boys basketball and wrestling doubleheader.

The Falcons will welcome Blair Academy of New Jersey for a 3:30 p.m. boys hoops game, followed by a nationally-ranked wrestling clash between top-ranked Blair and No. 7 Graham at 7:30.

“Honestly, it’s just a great prep school with great athletics,” said Graham wrestling coach Jeff Jordan of Blair Academy. “Right now, their wrestling team is ranked No 1 in the country, and deservedly so, and their basketball team is a big-time program.”

Jordan expects a big crowd for both event.

“There’s nothing better than having the No. 1 team in the country in your gym,” he said.

But having to face Blair is as exciting a proposition.

“We’re a big underdog,” Jordan admitted. “They beat St. Ed’s and we lost to St. Ed’s on a tough night. We lost three overtime matches, another one by one point and one by two to St. Ed’s.

“But Coach (Jeff) Buxton watched the tape and said he knows it was a closer match than the final score (39-17). And he said they’ll come prepared, and I bet they will be. We beat them the last time they were here and it gave us a national championship. So they’ll be ready.”

Jordan spoke of the 106, 113, 120, 126, 145, 152, 160 and 182 weight classes as being key for the Falcons.

“We’ve got to win all the close ones,” he said. “Against St. Ed’s, we had to win all of the close ones and we lost all the close ones.

“The team I think actually got closer. After the meeting in the locker room, they were very upset. We only have one way to redeem ourselves and that is to really, really go after Blair. And that is one big task.”

Blair has 10 wrestlers in its starting lineup ranked in the top 10 in the country.

“If we wrestle good, we can have a tight match with them,” said Jordan. “If we don’t, I know Blair, they’ll blow us out of the water.”

Back points: Northeastern was sixth at last Saturday’s Ben Logan Invitational. Senior Justin Parcells (132) was an individual champion, while senior teammates Baylor Deselem (138) and Cole Howard (145) were runners-up and freshman Johnny Dean (120) was third. ... Northwestern was third as a team at Ben Logan. ... Greeneview sophomores Mason Gallagher (103) and Armani Robinson (170) were runners-up and freshman Andrew Hoskins (120) was third at the Lima Central Catholic Thunderbird Invite last Saturday as the Rams placed ninth. ... Graham remains first in Division II, while Mechanicsburg is still second in D-III.

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