Wrestler Burroughs finishes season undefeated

Excuse Jordan Burroughs for not being surprised by the result of the 157-pound championship match.

Winning is all Burroughs knows.

The junior finished his campaign in St. Louis at the NCAA Championships with a dominant 5-1 win over Michael Poeta of Illinois in the 157-pound championship match.

Burroughs went from November to March - 35 matches - without losing. Undefeated, untouched, rarely challenged.

After the Iowa State dual, Burroughs said he had never gone undefeated in anything before. But that wasn't his only goal.

“I want to be the first Nebraska wrestler to go undefeated, too,” Burroughs said at the time.

He can check that off his bucket list now.

NU coach Mark Manning said he expected him to win in the title match, but it was how Burroughs responded when he went out on the mat that counted.

“He really wrestled well, and really wrestled within himself and did what he does best,” Manning said. “That was a really tough guy he wrestled in the finals.”

Burroughs caught Poeta relaxing at the end of the first period. With a quick strike, he scored two points before the clock struck 0:00, putting all the pressure on Poeta going forward.

What was Poeta thinking? Didn’t he know that he was facing the Usain Bolt of wrestling?

The ESPN announcers spent the match comparing the foot speed of the Jamaican sprinter, who won two gold medals in the 2008 Summer games, to the quickness Burroughs used to terrorize his opponent on the mat.

Burroughs' quickness allows him to explode at the legs of his opponents, often leaving them tied up with nowhere to go. He broke the Nebraska record for takedowns this season, which was set last year by none other than himself.

What's left for Burroughs? How can the Sicklerville, N.J., native follow up his junior campaign?

All he did was go undefeated, surrendering only one takedown all dual season and outscoring his opponents 54-18 during the Championships - not counting his pinfall in the second round.

“Jordan’s just going to get better over the summer. We’re going to get him to where he just keeps improving as a wrestler and keep it fun for him,” Manning said.

But this is fun for Burroughs. He relishes the opportunity to dominate his opponent.

It isn’t a cat and mouse game for Burroughs. He simply lines up across his man and proceeds to bowl him over.

If Nebraska football coach Bo Pelini is struggling to find another linebacker, he might want to glance toward the wrestling program.

And Burroughs doesn’t rely on natural talent alone.

Instead, he’s one of the hardest workers in the NU program.

“He’s really worked hard for this moment. He just wrestled a great tournament, I mean a dominating tournament, in arguably the toughest weight class in the tournament,” Manning said.

Burroughs said the championship and the season has not soaked in yet - an expected answer from the tireless worker.

“It still hasn’t really set in, maybe sometime during the week. It still seems like I have to go back on Monday and start working,” Burroughs said.

He barely acknowledged his win on Saturday, simply raising his arms.

Then, it was back to business as usual.

Whenever the realization of becoming the first Nebraska wrestler to ever finish a season undefeated sets in, maybe Burroughs will be so overcome with emotion that he’ll sneak off to a dark room where no one else is around, letting out a howl of celebration.

He earned it.

Mike Schaefer is a junior news-editorial major. Reach him at michaelschaefer@dailynebraskan.com.