"Blaise is a tremendous competitor who worked extremely hard here," Garland said. "He will be dearly missed. I'm disappointed about his departure, but I love him just the same. We wish him all the best in his future plans."
A two-time NCAA Championships qualifier, Butler was 21-6 in 2014-15 and leaves UVa with a 56-20 career record. He won the 2014 ACC Championship at 157 pounds, then moved up two weight classes to 174 this season. He was the No. 5 seed at 174 pounds at the NCAA Championships this year, reaching the round of 12 before bowing out.
"I love the University of Virginia and the UVa wrestling program and want to thank my coaches and teammates for everything they have done for me," Butler said. "This was an extremely tough decision for me and was strictly a move based on my future career outside of wrestling. Toward the beginning of the year, I made the decision that I wanted to pursue a career in business. I knew that there was a chance I would not get into a business master's program at UVa, so I began to explore my options at other universities. I'm excited to work toward my MBA next year and make one more run at a national championship, but it is hard to leave the guys that I have had so many great memories with."
Butler will be attending graduate school at the University of Missouri and wrestling for the Tigers.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now