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Purdue All-Quarter Century Wrestling Team: 157 lbsPurdue All-Quarter Century Wrestling Team: 157 lbs

Purdue All-Quarter Century Wrestling Team: 157 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 157 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...

JOEY BLAZE (2023-present)

Joey Blaze was one of the highest-rated recruits in program history, and so far, the hype has been more than warranted.

This past March, the Perrysburg, Ohio, native became Purdue’s youngest NCAA finalist in at least 75 years, and perhaps the youngest ever. The only other true sophomore Boilermaker who made it to a national title match was Charles Moreno in 1950, but records of his exact age at the time have been lost over the decades.

Blaze burst onto the scene as a true freshman, upsetting No. 5 Ed Scott (NC State) with a 4-1 decision in just his eighth college match.

The junior has qualified for the NCAA Championships in both 2024 and 2025 and won the Big Ten bronze medal this past season.

Blaze became Purdue’s 62nd All-American after shocking the wrestling world by defeating No. 1 seed Tyler Kasak (Penn State) in the NCAA quarterfinals. All in all, he earned four big wins in Philadelphia on his way to the national title match.

In the offseason, Blaze showed out on the national freestyle circuit by taking third as a No. 7 seed at Senior World Team Trials, and earned a match at Final X to wrestle for a spot on the U.S. senior national team at age 20. Now that he’s fourth on the Team USA ladder (74 kg), he has been able to rep the Red, White and Blue at prestigious events like the Ziolkowski Memorial in Poland, which he won in August.

Blaze enters his junior season as a leader of a talented squad that returns six former NCAA qualifiers. The world will be watching as he moves up to his more natural weight, 165 lbs, where he opens at No. 3 in the country (via InterMat).

KENDALL COLEMAN (2018-23)

A 2020 NWCA First Team All-American who was robbed of a chance to win big in the cancelled postseason due to Covid-19, Kendall Coleman is one of the most talented wrestlers from the Ersland era.

With a 84-30 (.737) record, he ranks 15th on Purdue’s career win percentage list. He was also the 15th Boilermaker to qualify for four NCAA tournaments.

Coleman’s remarkable redshirt freshman season in 2019-20, when he went 29-8 and 13-3 in duals, marked the fifth-most wins by a freshman in school history. He was named Big Ten Wrestler of the Week before going on to earn the No. 6 seed at the cancelled NCAA Championships. His 6-seed was the best by a Boilermaker rookie since Chris Fleeger was No. 4 in 2002.

With 304 career takedowns, he has the eighth-most in Purdue history and is one of eight wrestlers to eclipse the 300 mark.

In July, Coleman was selected in the inaugural draft for the Champions League of American Wrestling (CLAW), where he’ll compete for the Mat Kings.

COLTON SALAZAR (2004-11)

Four-time NCAA qualifier Colton Salazar had a unique college wrestling career, as he missed the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons while serving a religious mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

After an impressive true freshman season when he gained a spot in the 2005 NCAA Championships, Salazar picked up where he left off when he returned from the two-year hiatus.

He was the Big Ten runner-up as a redshirt-junior in 2010, and ultimately amassed four national tournament wins in his four years of NCAA qualification.

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CLOVIS CRANE (1999-2003)

Clovis Crane was a two-time NCAA qualifier who worked his way back from a major back surgery in the midst of his college career.

"To come back from back surgery the way Clovis has is amazing," former head coach Jesse Reyes said in a 2003 story from the Purdue Exponent. "The doctors said he's the only one to ever do that; that shows you how mentally tough he is. The other guys see that and respect it."

Crane has gone on to have a successful career as a professional bull rider, a passion he has had since even before his Purdue wrestling days.

He remains tied for 11th in school history with 23 pins.

BRAD HARPER (2000-04)

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Brad Harper twice qualified for the NCAA Championships at 157 pounds, totaling two wins in the national tournament.

He also won the Big Ten bronze medal as a No. 5 seed in the 2004 Big Ten Championships.

Harper went on to serve as head wrestling coach at Penn High School in Mishawaka, Indiana, a role that he has held since 2006.

In 2021, he coached his former student Sarah Hildebrandt to a gold medal in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Thanks to Harper’s tutelage, Hildebrandt is one of the biggest names in women’s wrestling. She is the current RAF Women’s Strawweight Champion after winning the title at RAF 01, where Purdue assistant coach Matt Ramos also competed.