Minnesota All-American Brayton Lee (photo courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com)MINNEAPOLIS - The University of Minnesota wrestling program has announced today that 157-pound returning All-American Brayton Lee will miss the remainder of the 2021-22 season after suffering an injury in last Friday's home dual against Ohio State.
"We're obviously heartbroken for Brayton that he won't be able to compete this postseason," head coach Brandon Eggum said. "Nobody loves to compete more than him and he was having a fantastic season, but our primary concern for him right now is to get healthy so that he can come back stronger next season."
The redshirt junior out of Brownsburg, Ind., was a consistent force in the heart of the Gopher lineup this season, as he tallied a 16-2 record on the year, including seven wins over ranked opponents. Heading into the postseason, Lee was widely considered a national title contender in the 157-pound field, as he is currently ranked fourth in the InterMat rankings.
Brayton is a two-time All-American in his career, placing sixth in last year's NCAA Championships, as well as becoming an NWCA First Team All-American in 2020. He holds a career mark of 55-14 in his three seasons in the starting lineup for the Maroon & Gold.
Lee is scheduled to undergo surgery to repair the injury this offseason, and is expected to make a full recovery ahead of the 2022-23 season. He will have up to two years of eligibility remaining.
As the old saying in rasslin goes, "that's why they rassle the matches." In these cases, it couldn't be more applicable.
We need to get away from calling people, "AA's" during the COVID year, as they simply were not; they didn't rassle the matches. Perhaps start phrasing it as, "AA by rank only during the COVID season?"