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#24 Purdue Continues Homestand Sunday With #11 Illinois#24 Purdue Continues Homestand Sunday With #11 Illinois
Luke Fulkerson

No. 26 James Rowley (184 lbs) won his Mackey Mania match against Matthew Jens via 5-1 decision.

#24 Purdue Continues Homestand Sunday With #11 Illinois

The dual may feature as many as 16 nationally ranked wrestlers, eight from each team.

Dual Notes Live Stream Opens in a new window Live Stats Opens in a new window
by Brook Weber

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — No. 24 Purdue Wrestling is set to return to Holloway Gymnasium for a Super Bowl Sunday dual with No. 11 Illinois.

First match is slated for 1 p.m. ET, so spectators can expect to be home in plenty of time for the Big Game later that evening. The live broadcast will be on B1G+.

As always, admission is free and seating is open. Fans are encouraged to wear white as part of the team’s “Winter Whiteout” promotion. A free Purdue Wrestling ornament is the giveaway item for early-arriving fans.

The Boilermakers (9-4, 2-3 B1G) will wrestle the Fighting Illini (10-4, 3-2 B1G) for the 96th time. Illinois is the second-most common opponent in Purdue history, trailing only Indiana (111 meetings). The Illini hold a 62-31-2 series lead over the Boilers. Purdue last beat them on Jan. 21, 2022, a 25-13 victory in Holloway.

Head coach Tony Ersland has 99 career wins at Purdue entering Sunday’s dual. His next win will be his 100th, tying him with Claude Reeck (1938-69) for second-most in school history. Ersland would become the third Boilermaker coach to eclipse the century mark, doing so in his 12th season.

PROJECTED MATCH CARD

All rankings via InterMat | All matchups subject to change
#24 PURDUE WEIGHT (lbs) #11 ILLINOIS
Ashton Jackson / Isaiah Quintero 125 #17 Spencer Moore
#33 Blake Boarman / Jacob Macatangay 133 #1 Lucas Byrd
#33 Greyson Clark 141 Kole Brower
#31 Gavin Brown 149 #30 Michael Gioffre
#26 Stoney Buell / Isaac Ruble 157 #9 Kannon Webster
#4 Joey Blaze 165 #8 Braeden Scoles
#15 Brody Baumann / Aidan Costello 174 #25 Colin Kelly
#26 James Rowley 184 #19 Chris Moore
#29 Ben Vanadia 197 Cade Lautt
Hayden Filipovich / Dominic Burgett 285 #13 Luke Luffman

 

NUMBERS TO KNOW

99

Head coach Tony Ersland has 99 career wins entering Sunday’s dual. His 100th win will tie him for second-most all time at Purdue with Claude Reeck (1938-69). Jessie Reyes (1993-07) has the mark to beat -- 178.

10

For the first time in his career, junior Joey Blaze (No. 4 at 165) rose to the top-10 in the national pound-for-pound rankings. Per FloWrestling, he is the No. 10 wrestler in the country among all weight classes.

0

Blaze has still yet to surrender a single takedown or back point all season. He has 51 takedowns and 28 back points himself.

29-2

After missing three weeks due to injury, junior Greyson Clark (No. 33 at 141) has returned in dominant fashion, winning his last two by a combined score of 29-2.

62

Blaze and redshirt junior James Rowley (No. 26 at 184) have been Purdue’s top performers in the clutch; they’re tied for the team lead with 62 third-period points.

RANKED MATCHUP PREVIEW

The Boilermakers have eight wrestlers in the InterMat national rankings, their most since December 2. Illinois also has eight ranked wrestlers, three of which are in the top-10 and six in the top-20.

133: #33 Boarman vs. #1 Byrd

Blake Boarman re-entered the national rankings this past week after hanging tough with Wisconsin’s No. 11 Zan Fugitt, dropping a 2-0 decision without surrendering a takedown. He will have his hands full against top-ranked Lucas Byrd, the defending national champion who is 14-0 this season.

149: #31 Brown vs. #30 Gioffre

Gavin Brown was another Boilermaker who had a strong showing on Sunday despite taking a 10-8 loss to Wisconsin’s No. 15 Joe Zargo. If Brown can consistently show the energy he had in the first period of that match, when he led 6-2, he can be hard to beat. Michael Gioffre is 12-6 this season coming off a 4-3 win over Indiana’s Joey Buttler.

157: #26 Buell vs. #9 Webster

Stoney Buell will aim to rebound from a disappointing 10-3 loss to Wisconsin’s No. 26 Luke Mechler last Sunday. The senior team captain has scored first takedown in all but three matches this season. Buell just needs to maintain his offense consistently. Kannon Webster, last year’s Big Ten runner-up at 149, is 14-2 at his new weight this season.

165: #4 Blaze vs. #8 Scoles

Joey Blaze puts his undefeated and no-takedown streak on the line in the premier match of the dual. Braeden Scoles has won 10 straight dual matches, most recently an 11-9 decision over IU’s No. 19 Tyler Lillard. Blaze is 15-0 coming off his team-high seventh technical fall, an 18-3 win over No. 24 Cody Goebel. It’ll be Blaze’s second top-10 match of the year; he beat then-No. 8 LJ Araujo in an 8-2 decision at Nebraska last month.

174: #15 Baumann vs. #25 Kelly

Brody Baumann didn’t wrestle in last week’s Mackey match, and he has not competed since toughing out an apparent injury in his win against Michigan State. His status remains in question this week; if Baumann doesn’t go, freshman Aidan Costello will face a top-25 foe in Colin Kelly who’s 13-5 this season.

184: #26 Rowley vs. #19 Moore

James Rowley was one of three victorious Boilermakers last week when he overcame Matthew Jens in a 5-1 decision. Rowley has won three of his last four by a combined score of 39-14. Chris Moore, 12-7 this season, is on perhaps the hottest streak of his young career; his last three dual wins included a 4-2 decision over Michigan’s No. 8 Brock Mantanona, a 2-1 decision over Rutgers’ No. 14 Shane Cartagena-Walsh, and a 5-3 decision over IU’s No. 14 Sam Goin.

LAST TIME OUT

Purdue dropped its annual Mackey Mania dual to Wisconsin, 30-12, winning three of 10 matches last Sunday. Greyson Clark (141) won a 14-2 major decision, Blaze won an 18-3 technical fall and James Rowley won a 5-1 decision.

UP NEXT

The Boilers will close their extended homestand next Sunday, Feb. 15 with No. 6 Iowa. Iowa has nine ranked starters and six in the top-10. A massive showdown at 165 between Blaze and No. 3 Mikey Caliendo looms large. It figures to be Blaze’s first match as an underdog all season.

The matchup will serve as Purdue’s Senior Day; seven departing Boilermakers will be honored before the dual. First match is at 1 p.m. ET with the broadcast on B1G+.