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Purdue All-Quarter Century Wrestling Team: 141 lbsPurdue All-Quarter Century Wrestling Team: 141 lbs

Purdue All-Quarter Century Wrestling Team: 141 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 141 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 four outstanding Boilermakers from the 141-pound class.

PARKER FILIUS (2017-23)

Purdue’s 61st All-American, Parker Filius was the second national placewinner of the head coach Tony Ersland era. He took seventh place at the NCAA Championships as the Boilers’ most recent 141-pound All-American in 2023.

He was a four-time NCAA qualifier and a four-time NWCA Scholar All-American, just the second four-time Scholar All-American in Purdue history. He wrapped his sixth-year senior season with a 25-11 record, saving his best wrestling for last. His final career record was 84-63 (.571).

Filius entered the 2023 postseason as a No. 12 seed, which is tied for the lowest seeded Boilermaker ever to become a national placewinner (along with Jason Silverstein, who took eighth as the No. 12 in 1999).

The Havre, Montana standout was also Purdue’s 2023 male Big Ten Medal of Honor recipient, the first Boilermaker wrestler to earn the honor since 2009 (fourth all-time).

NATE LIMMEX (2015-20)

Nate Limmex from Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a two-time NCAA qualifier. He outperformed his Big Ten Championships No. 5 seed in 2018, finishing in fourth to earn his first berth in the NCAA tournament.

Limmex totaled two NCAA tournament wins in his two years of qualification. In 2018 he was named Purdue’s Most Improved and Most Dedicated Wrestler, and he was a four-time Academic All-Big Ten selection.

To excel as a chemical engineering major at Purdue, as a four-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree while qualifying for multiple NCAA tournaments, makes Limmex an easy choice for the All-Quarter Century Team.

DANNY SABATELLO (2011-16)

Danny Sabatello was the first Purdue wrestler to twice earn Big Ten Wrestler of the Week honors in his career. He was a two-time 141-pound Big Ten placewinner as well, securing eighth in 2014 and fifth in 2016 as a redshirt-senior.

He was a three-year dual starter in the transition years from the Scott Hinkel era to head coach Tony Ersland’s early years in his tenure.

As a redshirt junior, he was named Purdue’s Most Outstanding Wrestler after leading the team in wins, dual wins, bonus point wins, matches scored first, third-period points, riding time advantage, and, well, just about everything else!

Hailing from Long Grove, Illinois, Sabatello majored in Law and Society. He holds the No. 15 spot on Purdue’s all-time takedown list with 266, and ranks 19th with 146 back points.

BRANDON NELSEN (2010-15)

Owner of an 84-55 career record, Brandon Nelsen was a two-time NCAA Championships qualifier who wrestled at both 141 and 149 lbs.

Nelsen was a master of falls, racking up 30 pins in his career. That number still stands as the sixth-most in program history.

After college, he went on to be a graduate assistant at UIndy and an assistant coach at Duke. These days, Nelsen laces a different kind of boot in the morning. He now wrestles with fires as a firefighter in his hometown of Indianapolis.