WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Purdue wrestling team travels west this weekend to do battle with some of the nation's best in the 40th annual Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. The vaunted tournament will take place on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 2-3 in the Las Vegas Convention Center and will include 12 of the top-25 programs in the country with potentially 142 ranked individuals in the field.
SCHEDULE AND INFO Friday Round 1 - 12:00 p.m. ET – Championship Round of 32 + 16
Round 2 – 9:00 p.m. ET – Championship Quarterfinal, Consolation Rounds of 8 Saturday Round 3 – 1:00 p.m. ET – Championship Semifinals, 5th to 8th Place Matches
Round 4 – 6:00 p.m. ET – Championship Finals, 3rd Place Matches
PURDUE PREVIEW Head coach Tony Ersland and company will take 10 men to compete in Las Vegas, one for each weight class. Four Boilermakers earned pre-seeds highlighted by a No. 2 seed for Matt Ramos and a No. 5 seed for Kendall Coleman. Ben Vanadia and Parker Filius claimed the No. 11 and 12 seeds as well. It is a career best placement for Ramos in his second trip to the CKLV Invitational after coming in as the No. 6 at 133-pounds last year.
BOILERMAKERS' CKLV HISTORY • Purdue is making its 16th all-time appearance at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
• The Boilermakers have had eight top-10 team finishes at the tournament, including each of the last three trips.
• The program has 45 placewinners in their 16 trips, getting a program record seven on the podium in 2021. Devin Schroder became Purdue's fifth three-time placewinner on his second runner-up performance.
• Four active wrestlers have earned medals in Las Vegas. Both Kendall Coleman and Parker Filius took sixth last year, Matt Ramos finished in eighth and Thomas Penola battled his way to third. Coleman will be looking to join Schroder as the sixth three-time placewinner in program history. SCOUTING THE FIELD There's a reason the CKLV Invitational is seen as one of the best tournaments in collegiate wrestling. 12 of the top-25 teams according to the National Wrestling Coaches Association, including three of the top-five, will grace the mats of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Those programs have a collective 142 wrestlers ranked by tournament organizers FloWrestling, 43 of which are inside the top-10.
In the potential pool are 31 All-Americans, 13 that have earned that title on more than one occasion, three NCAA finalists and a former national champion in Virginia Tech's Mekhi Lewis. There is at least one NCAA placewinner in every weight class and three divisions will likely have at least four. LAST TIME OUT Purdue wrestling's last action came at the Boilermaker Duals on Nov. 20. The team came away with wins in all three of its matches, claiming 23 dual points in each to improve to 3-1 on the season. Victories over Cleveland State (23-13), Northern Illinois (23-11) and Chattanooga (23-16) came on the back of seven bonus point wins, including two pins.
The Boilermakers were anchored by sophomore Matt Ramos and redshirt-senior Kendall Coleman who both turned in perfect 3-0 days with five bonus point wins and a whopping 25 dual points between the two of them.
The 2022-23 squad has only competed in one tournament thus far on the season but it was a successful outing. At the 2022 Clarion Open Ersland's unit came away with six champions, a first-place team finish, seven finalists and twelve placewinners. SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED Head coach Tony Ersland has announced the 2023 Purdue wrestling signing class, inking six new Boilermakers to national letters of intent. He welcomes Joey Blaze, Greyson Clark, Orlando Cruz, Ashton Jackson, Delaney Ruhlman and Cole Solomey to the Boilermaker family to make up what will surely be Ersland's sixth top-25 recruiting class.
Blaze and Clark highlight the class as the No. 17 and No. 33 ranked prospects respectively with five state titles between the two of them. Purdue is one of just nine schools to have at least two top-35 ranked signees.
More on the class. NEWS & NOTES • Head coach Tony Ersland is in his ninth season at Purdue and is 73-56 in dual competition.
• Sophomore Matt Ramos moved down to 125-pounds this season and has been dominant thus far. He is 9-0 with a team leading seven of those wins coming in bonus point fashion.
• Ramos has been stellar and leads the team in almost every statistical category including: wins, tech falls, points scored in a single match, times scoring first, first period points, third period points four-point nearfalls, back points, riding time advantage and total points scored among others. He shares the lead in eight more categories.
• Ramos got his hot streak started in the off-season by winning the 2022 U.S. Open 57kg division.
• If Ramos doesn't hold the lead in a category for this Boilermaker squad, it is likely held by redshirt senior Kendall Coleman who has also been fantastic on his way to an 8-0 record.
• Coleman, who shares the lead in takedowns with Ramos at 34, has moved into sole possession of 17th on the career Purdue takedowns list with 248. He will likely climb more spots this weekend in Las Vegas as he is only six shy of 16th and 15 shy of 15th.
•The 157-pounder also holds a spot in the career winning percentage list for the Boilermakers (min. 50 matches). His career 0.744 winning mark would be good for 14th in program history.
• Purdue has outscored its opponents by 243 points so far in 2022-23 (848-605), accounting for an average margin of 6.5-4.7 per match.
• The Boilermakers have done a done a job starting quickly in matches thus far, scoring first 61% of the time and outscoring opponents by 139 points in the first period.
SCHEDULE AND INFO Friday Round 1 - 12:00 p.m. ET – Championship Round of 32 + 16
Round 2 – 9:00 p.m. ET – Championship Quarterfinal, Consolation Rounds of 8 Saturday Round 3 – 1:00 p.m. ET – Championship Semifinals, 5th to 8th Place Matches
Round 4 – 6:00 p.m. ET – Championship Finals, 3rd Place Matches
PURDUE PREVIEW Head coach Tony Ersland and company will take 10 men to compete in Las Vegas, one for each weight class. Four Boilermakers earned pre-seeds highlighted by a No. 2 seed for Matt Ramos and a No. 5 seed for Kendall Coleman. Ben Vanadia and Parker Filius claimed the No. 11 and 12 seeds as well. It is a career best placement for Ramos in his second trip to the CKLV Invitational after coming in as the No. 6 at 133-pounds last year.
| PROJECTED LINEUP | ||
| 125 | #8 Matt Ramos (9-0) | |
| 133 | Dustin Norris (5-2) | |
| 141 | #23 Parker Filius (6-2) | |
| 149 | Trey Kruse (3-4) | |
| 157 | #11 Kendall Coleman (8-0) | |
| 165 | Stoney Buell (3-2) | |
| 174 | Macartney Parkinson (4-3) | |
| 184 | #28 Ben Vanadia (6-1) | |
| 197 | Hayden Filipovich (4-5) | |
| 285 | Tristan Ruhlman (8-1) | |
BOILERMAKERS' CKLV HISTORY • Purdue is making its 16th all-time appearance at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
• The Boilermakers have had eight top-10 team finishes at the tournament, including each of the last three trips.
• The program has 45 placewinners in their 16 trips, getting a program record seven on the podium in 2021. Devin Schroder became Purdue's fifth three-time placewinner on his second runner-up performance.
• Four active wrestlers have earned medals in Las Vegas. Both Kendall Coleman and Parker Filius took sixth last year, Matt Ramos finished in eighth and Thomas Penola battled his way to third. Coleman will be looking to join Schroder as the sixth three-time placewinner in program history. SCOUTING THE FIELD There's a reason the CKLV Invitational is seen as one of the best tournaments in collegiate wrestling. 12 of the top-25 teams according to the National Wrestling Coaches Association, including three of the top-five, will grace the mats of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Those programs have a collective 142 wrestlers ranked by tournament organizers FloWrestling, 43 of which are inside the top-10.
In the potential pool are 31 All-Americans, 13 that have earned that title on more than one occasion, three NCAA finalists and a former national champion in Virginia Tech's Mekhi Lewis. There is at least one NCAA placewinner in every weight class and three divisions will likely have at least four. LAST TIME OUT Purdue wrestling's last action came at the Boilermaker Duals on Nov. 20. The team came away with wins in all three of its matches, claiming 23 dual points in each to improve to 3-1 on the season. Victories over Cleveland State (23-13), Northern Illinois (23-11) and Chattanooga (23-16) came on the back of seven bonus point wins, including two pins.
The Boilermakers were anchored by sophomore Matt Ramos and redshirt-senior Kendall Coleman who both turned in perfect 3-0 days with five bonus point wins and a whopping 25 dual points between the two of them.
The 2022-23 squad has only competed in one tournament thus far on the season but it was a successful outing. At the 2022 Clarion Open Ersland's unit came away with six champions, a first-place team finish, seven finalists and twelve placewinners. SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED Head coach Tony Ersland has announced the 2023 Purdue wrestling signing class, inking six new Boilermakers to national letters of intent. He welcomes Joey Blaze, Greyson Clark, Orlando Cruz, Ashton Jackson, Delaney Ruhlman and Cole Solomey to the Boilermaker family to make up what will surely be Ersland's sixth top-25 recruiting class.
Blaze and Clark highlight the class as the No. 17 and No. 33 ranked prospects respectively with five state titles between the two of them. Purdue is one of just nine schools to have at least two top-35 ranked signees.
More on the class. NEWS & NOTES • Head coach Tony Ersland is in his ninth season at Purdue and is 73-56 in dual competition.
• Sophomore Matt Ramos moved down to 125-pounds this season and has been dominant thus far. He is 9-0 with a team leading seven of those wins coming in bonus point fashion.
• Ramos has been stellar and leads the team in almost every statistical category including: wins, tech falls, points scored in a single match, times scoring first, first period points, third period points four-point nearfalls, back points, riding time advantage and total points scored among others. He shares the lead in eight more categories.
• Ramos got his hot streak started in the off-season by winning the 2022 U.S. Open 57kg division.
• If Ramos doesn't hold the lead in a category for this Boilermaker squad, it is likely held by redshirt senior Kendall Coleman who has also been fantastic on his way to an 8-0 record.
• Coleman, who shares the lead in takedowns with Ramos at 34, has moved into sole possession of 17th on the career Purdue takedowns list with 248. He will likely climb more spots this weekend in Las Vegas as he is only six shy of 16th and 15 shy of 15th.
•The 157-pounder also holds a spot in the career winning percentage list for the Boilermakers (min. 50 matches). His career 0.744 winning mark would be good for 14th in program history.
• Purdue has outscored its opponents by 243 points so far in 2022-23 (848-605), accounting for an average margin of 6.5-4.7 per match.
• The Boilermakers have done a done a job starting quickly in matches thus far, scoring first 61% of the time and outscoring opponents by 139 points in the first period.