(PURDUE RELEASE)
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The No. 19 Purdue wrestling team aims to bounce back this weekend, heading east to No. 20 Rutgers for a tri-dual with the Scarlet Knights and No. 15 Minnesota at the Rutgers Athletics Center on Sunday. The Boilermakers and Golden Gophers (2-2) will kick off the day with a 10 a.m. ET dual, followed by Purdue and Rutgers (0-2) at noon, both streaming live on BTN+. PURDUE LINEUP & RANKINGS This week's national standings rank the Boilermakers between No. 15 and No. 25 in the country, holding top spots of 15th in WIN Magazine's Tournament Power Index, and a No. 17 dual ranking from The Open Mat. Eight of the 10 Purdue starters hold national rankings, most notably seeing senior Max Lyon rise to No. 10 in the country at 184 pounds via TrackWrestling and seeing freshman Gerrit Nijenhuis get his first career rankings at 165 pounds via The Open Mat.
LAST TIME OUT Purdue lost razor-thin battles at Illinois and Wisconsin last weekend, splitting 5-5 with the Fighting Illini and seeing a major upset flip the team score against the Badgers. Lyon had the biggest win of the weekend, taking down No. 11 Zach Braunagel at Illinois 4-3, and coming up just shy of a weekend sweep with a 4-2 loss to No. 9 Chris Weiler. Nijenhuis won his first two career matches by a combined score of 19-4, while sophomore Kendall Coleman and Thomas Penola both improved to 3-0 on the season, each posting a major decision.
PURDUE NOTES • Head coach Tony Ersland is 57-47 in his six seasons at Purdue, including a 21-36 mark in Big Ten Duals. He posted career-best marks of 12-5 overall and 5-4 in conference action in 2019-20, Purdue's best records, both overall and B1G, since 2012-13. • Purdue is 1-4 all-time against Rutgers, earning their first win in the series in 2020 in grand fashion. An overtime win by junior Parker Filius closed the dual and sealed an 18-16 victory over the Scarlet Knights at the RAC. • The Boilermakers are 9-40-2 all-time against Minnesota, aiming for their first win in the series since 2004. Purdue fell in last year's dual in Holloway Gymnasium 27-12, and had a closely contested affair in Minneapolis in 2016 (23-18). Sunday will be Purdue and Minnesota's first neutral-site meeting since 2002, when they met in Portage, Indiana, the hometown of Purdue volunteer assistant Leroy Vega, who was a senior for the Golden Gophers that season. • Senior Devin Schroder climbed to No. 2 in the country at 125 pounds via The Open Mat, TrackWrestling and WIN Magazine last week. It marks the second straight season the Boilermakers have had an individual move to No. 2 in the country, following Christian Brunner at 197 in 2019-20. • With 12 back points in his season-opening win, Schroder eclipsed the 400-career back point mark (402) and surpassed Scott Hinkel for second all-time at Purdue. • Schroder's 16-0 technical fall over Northwestern's Matt Vinci was the 20th of his career. Schroder tied for fifth in NCAA Division I last season with eight tech falls. • With his 3-0 start to the season, sophomore Kendall Coleman is now 32-8 in his career and surpassed the 100 career takedown mark last weekend with his six-takedown effort at Illinois. He is one of the fastest Boilermakers in program history to 100 takedowns, hitting the mark in his 39th career match. Cashé Quiroga posted 124 takedowns in 40 matches as a freshman in 2009-10, while Jason Silverstein tallied 109 takedowns in 44 matches in 1998-99. • Sophomore Thomas Penola leads the team with 15 takedowns and 39 total points through three matches, averaging 5.0 takedowns per match and 13.0 points per match. Twenty-nine of his 39 points have come in the second and third periods. • After seeing the debut of junior Parker Filius, sophomore Alec White, freshman Gerrit Nijenhuis and seniors Max Lyon and Jamarcus Grant last weekend, two more Boilermakers could see their first action of the season in freshman Jacob Rundell at 133 pounds and Griffin Parriott at 149. • The Boilermakers will wear a commemorative sticker on their headgear in 2021, honoring the late Morgan J. Burke, who served as Purdue's Athletics Director for 23 years and passed away in 2020. OPPONENTS Rutgers 125: No. 15 Nick Aguilar (R-So.) - 0-2 133: No. 6 Sammy Alvarez (So.) - 1-0 141: No. 3 Sebastian Rivera (R-Sr.) - 2-0 149: Michael VanBrill (R-Sr.) - 0-2 157: No. 22 Robert Kannaird (R-Fr.) - 1-1 165: No. 29 Brett Donner (R-Sr.) - 0-2 174: No. 23 Joe Grello (R-Sr.) - 0-2 184: No. 15 John Poznanski (Fr.) - 2-0 197: No. 27 Billy Janzer (R-So.) - 1-1 285: No. 30 Christian Colucci (R-Sr.) - 0-2 Minnesota 125: No. 9 Patrick McKee (R-So.) - 2-2 133: No. 21 Boo Dryden (Sr.) - 3-1 141: Marcos Polanco (R-Fr.) - 2-2 149: No. 17 Michael Blockhus (R-So.) - 2-2 157: No. 7 Brayton Lee (R-So.) - 3-1 165: No. 15 Andrew Sparks (Fr.) - 3-1 174: No. 16 Jake Allar (R-Jr.) - 2-2 184: Owen Webster (R-Sr.) - 1-2 197: No. 31 Garrett Joles (R-So.) - 1-3 285: No. 1 Gable Steveseon (Jr.) - 4-0 Rankings listed TrackWrestling