Iowa football recruit Aaron Graves is a star in wrestling and basketball, too

DES MOINES — Aaron Graves of Southeast Valley is an unusual three-sport athlete.

The 6-5, 260-pound four-star defensive lineman according to 247Sports will play football at Iowa, but Thursday he competed in two sports that typically don’t mix: Wrestling and basketball.

Graves — the Class 2A No. 2 seed at heavyweight — pinned his first-round foe Thursday morning in 1:46.

Several hours later, he was 45 miles north of Wells Fargo Arena, trying to help the Jaguars topple Roland-Story in a district semifinal basketball game in Story City.

Graves scored a game-high 33 points, but the 10th-ranked Norsemen (20-2) moved on with a 56-51 win over the Jaguars (12-11).

“Basketball is a team sport, so you’ve got teammates you have to rely on,” said Graves, who recently became Southeast Valley’s all-time leading scorer with 1,323 points. “Wrestling is just you go out there and that’s it.”

Graves juggles both competitive concepts by relying on a consistently intense approach in each sport.

“Wrestling is a little more aggressive and physical, obviously,” Graves said.

Sure, but …

“The way I play basketball is still pretty aggressive and physical,” he added.