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Purdue All-Quarter Century Wrestling Team: 125 lbsPurdue All-Quarter Century Wrestling Team: 125 lbs

Purdue All-Quarter Century Wrestling Team: 125 lbs

Head coach Tony Ersland and his staff unveil Purdue's top wrestlers of the 21st century.

by Brook Weber

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — To commemorate the past 25 years, head coach Tony Ersland and his staff are unveiling Purdue’s All-Quarter Century Team featuring some of the greatest Boilermaker wrestlers since the turn of the 21st century.

Recognizing wrestlers who competed for Purdue between 2000-2025, the list will be revealed in 10 separate releases leading up to the 2025-26 season, one for each weight class, beginning on Monday with 125 pounds.

The selection criteria for any All-Quarter Century Team is unavoidably subjective, but wrestlers who earned All-America honors, NCAA qualifiers, multiple-time Big Ten placewinners and others with outstanding career accomplishments were among the key points of consideration.

Some of the wrestlers on the All-Quarter Century Team excelled at multiple weights while donning the Old Gold & Black. Most of the honorees will be presented among the weight classes in which they finished their careers, though some liberties were taken for the sake of keeping the number of wrestlers relatively even at each weight. For example, Chris Fleeger was an All-American at both 125 and 133 but finished as a 133-pounder and will be included in the 133 class.

Below is a look at the release schedule leading into the first week of the season.

Monday, Aug. 18 ... 125 lbs
Monday, Aug. 25 ... 133 lbs
Monday, Sept. 1 ... 141 lbs
Monday, Sept. 8 ... 149 lbs
Monday, Sept. 15 ... 157 lbs
Monday, Sept. 22 ... 165 lbs
Monday, Sept. 29 ... 174 lbs
Monday, Oct. 6 ... 184 lbs
Monday, Oct. 13 ... 197 lbs
Monday, Oct. 20 ... Heavyweight

Without further ado, here are the four outstanding Boilermakers from the 125-pound class.

MATT RAMOS (2021-25)

It’s only fitting that the first honoree of the All-Quarter Century Team is the most recent superstar to bring national recognition to Purdue. After transferring from Minnesota in 2021, Matt Ramos took the wrestling world by storm and went on to post the third-best career winning percentage in school history.

Ramos rose to international prominence by pinning Iowa’s three-time national champion Spencer Lee in the 2023 NCAA semifinals, considered by many to be the greatest upset in college wrestling history.

A two-time All-American and the 2023 NCAA runner-up, Ramos amassed a 115-26 (.816) record and ultimately tied Arnold Plaza’s (1947-50) Purdue record for the most career wins at the NCAA Championships (14). He’s one of Purdue’s five multiple-time All-Americans since 2000, and the most recent since Ben Wissel in 2005-06.

As a redshirt senior this past season, Ramos won two tournament crowns including the prestigious Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, won bronze at the Big Ten Championships and placed fourth in the NCAA tournament. During the season he was named a top-10 candidate for the Dan Hodge Trophy, awarded annually to the nation’s most dominant wrestler.

In June, Ramos signed on to stay at Purdue as a full-time assistant coach and will aim to compete for his native Philippines in the 2028 Summer Olympics.

DEVIN SCHRODER (2016-22)

One of Purdue’s most dominant wrestlers of the decade so far, Devin Schroder finished his collegiate career as a four-time NCAA qualifier and a 2020 All-American. Due to the COVID-19-impacted season in 2019-20, he missed out on a chance to win big in the NCAA tournament but earned All-America status as the No. 5 pre-seed before the event was canceled.

Schroder was a four-time Big Ten placewinner and currently ranks tied for 18th on Purdue’s win percentage record list with a tally of 96-37 (.722).

The Grand Rapids, Michigan, native was named Purdue’s most outstanding wrestler in 2021 and was a three-time most dominant wrestler from 2020-22. He ranks second on Purdue’s all-time back point list with 522, which is 131 more points than the next wrestler.

CAMDEN EPPERT (2010-14)

A two-time NCAA qualifier and four-time Big Ten placewinner, Camden Eppert of Anderson, Ind., was a stalwart of consistency in the last four years of the head coach Scott Hinkel era.

He started every dual for the Boilermakers as a redshirt freshman, earning honors as Purdue’s most outstanding freshman. He was a two-year team captain and stood out as a leader in the classroom.

Eppert was a four-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree and a three-time NWCA Scholar All-American. He ranks fifth on Purdue’s all-time reversals leaderboard with 42 total.

Earlier this year, Eppert was announced as a 2025 inductee to the Indiana Wrestling Hall of Fame, which he will officially join in October.

LUKE WELCH (2013-18)

Luke Welch is the youngest of the three Welch brothers from Newburgh, Ind., all of whom wrestled for the Boilermakers. He started at 125 lbs, moved up to 133 and then back down to 125 for his redshirt senior season, when he became a first-time NCAA qualifier as a No. 14 seed.

Welch also placed fourth in the Big Ten Championships that year before picking up three wins in the NCAA tournament. He was the first seeded 125-pounder for Purdue since Chris Fleeger was No. 1 in 2003.

Welch finished with a 93-64 (.592) career record and was the 2017 USA Wrestling university national champion (57 kg). Additionally, he was named Purdue’s 2018 most outstanding wrestler, garnered two Academic All-Big Ten selections and ranks just outside the top 20 on Purdue’s all-time takedown list with 227.

He now works as the associate head wrestling coach for The Citadel in Charleston, S.C.