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Purdue All-Quarter Century Wrestling Team: 133 lbsPurdue All-Quarter Century Wrestling Team: 133 lbs

Purdue All-Quarter Century Wrestling Team: 133 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 is being revealed with 10 separate releases leading up to the 2025-26 season, one for each weight class, continuing on Monday with 133 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.

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 five outstanding Boilermakers from the 133-pound class.

CHRIS FLEEGER (2002-06)

A true lock for the All-Quarter Century Team, Chris Fleeger is one of the most decorated athletes in 105 years of Purdue wrestling. He is one of three Boilers to earn All-America honors three times, alongside Waldemar VanCott (1947-49) and Arnold Plaza (1948-50).

Fleeger was a two-time All-American at 125 lbs, finishing third in 2002 and second in 2003. After a brief hiatus from college wrestling, he returned to Purdue and finished as the NCAA runner-up once more, this time at 133 in 2006.

The grappler from Trout Run, Pennsylvania, also won the Big Ten title at 125 as a sophomore in 2003.

Fleeger holds numerous spots on the school career record charts, including No. 2 in win percentage (.905 with an 86-9 record), No. 5 in back points (304) and tied for No. 19 in pins (17). He also posted the second-best single season record in school history when he went 32-1 in 2003, which was Purdue’s most recent undefeated regular season until Matt Ramos finished 23-0 last spring.

After college he pursued a coaching career, serving as head coach at Darton College and the University of the Cumberlands. In between those stops, he returned to serve as an assistant coach for the Boilers from 2012-14.

He’s now the head coach at Midwest RTC in New Carlisle, Indiana.

CASHÉ QUIROGA (2010-14)

Cashé Quiroga was a three-time NCAA qualifier for the Boilermakers and in 2010 became the school’s first true-freshman All-American since at least 1950. Additionally, he was a three-time Big Ten placewinner, finishing sixth as a freshman, fifth as a redshirt sophomore and eighth as a redshirt senior.

Quiroga ranks fourth all-time on Purdue’s career takedown list, totaling 383 throughout his career. He was also named Purdue’s most outstanding wrestler three separate times.

Quiroga graduated in 2014 with a degree in organizational leadership and supervision, went on to coach at the University of Indianapolis and now serves as an assistant coach for Orange Lutheran High School in Orange, California.

RENE HERNANDEZ (2001-04)

A Purdue standout from the early 2000s, Rene Hernandez was a two-time Big Ten placewinner at 133 lbs.

Hailing from Hammond, Indiana, Hernandez outperformed his conference pre-seed as a redshirt sophomore, when he placed sixth in the 2003 Big Ten Championships.

Rene Hernandez

He also placed fifth, a career best, at the 2004 Big Ten tournament when he picked up three wins in Columbus, Ohio.

Hernandez was additionally a two-time NCAA qualifier who totaled four wins at the ’03 and ’04 NCAA Championships.

BEN THORNTON (2015-19)

There from the start of the head coach Tony Ersland era, Ben Thornton held things down as a four-year starter between 125 and 133 lbs. He broke out as a redshirt sophomore when he started all 16 duals and won a team-best 10 dual matches, scoring 35 points.

The grappler from Stoddard, Wisconsin, was a two-time NCAA Championships qualifier and a three-time Big Ten placewinner.

Thornton registered 162 career back points, which still stands at No. 16 on the all-time Purdue record list. He ranks just outside the top 20 on the all-time win list with 91 career victories.

EVAN ROBINSON (1997-2001)

A Boilermaker star at the turn of the century, Evan Robinson twice qualified for the NCAA Championships at 133 lbs.

A three-time Florida state champion from Punta Gorda, Florida, where he went 95-2 in high school, Robinson’s patience paid off after redshirting in 1996-97 and going 9-10 in 1997-98.

Evan_Robinson

He went on to be a two-time Big Ten placewinner, taking fourth in both 2000 and 2001. He entered the 2000 NCAA Championships as the No. 12 seed, Purdue’s first seeded 133-pounder (due to the NCAA’s 1999 restructuring of weight classes to what they are today).

Robinson owns three career wins in the NCAA tournament and is literally Purdue’s original starting 133-pounder.