WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — No. 19 Purdue Wrestling will close its season with four Boilermakers set to compete at the NCAA Wrestling Championships in Cleveland on March 19-21.
Purdue’s four national qualifiers all earned podium finishes at the Big Ten Conference Championships to clinch a spot in the NCAA tournament.
| WEIGHT (LBS) | WRESTLER (YEAR) | SEED |
| 133 | Blake Boarman (R-Sr.) | 24 |
| 165 | Joey Blaze (Jr.) | 2 |
| 174 | Brody Baumann (R-Jr.) | 22 |
| 197 | Ben Vanadia (R-Sr.) | 26 |
The first of six sessions will begin at noon ET on Thursday inside Rocket Arena. All sessions will be available to watch on the ESPN family of channels as designated below.
All times listed in Eastern | All sessions also on ESPN+
Thursday, March 19
- 12 p.m.: Session 1 (First Round) - ESPN2
- 7 p.m.: Session 2 (Second Round, Consolation Matches) - ESPN
Friday, March 20
- 12 p.m.: Session 3 (Quarterfinals, Consolation Matches) - ESPNU
- 8 p.m.: Session 4 (Semifinals, Consolation Matches) - ESPN2
Saturday, March 21
- 11 a.m.: Session 5 (Medal Matches) - ESPNU
- 6:30 p.m.: Session 6 (Finals) – ESPN
Stats and live scoring will be available on TrackWrestling. To keep up with the Boilermakers, follow @PurdueWrestling on X/Twitter for match-by-match updates and mat assignments.
The four Boilermakers will vie for Purdue’s first individual national championship since Charles Jones won the fourth in school history on the heels of a 33-0 season in 1992.
PURDUE WRESTLING NCAA CHAMPIONS
| 1948 | Arnold Plaza (114.5 lbs) |
| 1949 | Arnold Plaza (121 lbs) |
| 1950 | Joe Patacsil (128 lbs) |
| 1992 | Charles Jones (167 lbs) |
BLAZE OF GLORY
After a 22-1 junior season, Blaze holds a career-high No. 2 seed at nationals. He is one of just four Boilermakers since 1963 to earn a top-two seed in the NCAA tournament, joining Jones (No. 2 in 1992), Chris Fleeger (No. 1 in 2003) and Matt Ramos (No. 2 in 2025).
As mentioned, Jones won the national title that year. Fleeger finished as the NCAA runner-up and Ramos placed fourth to become a two-time All-American.
Purdue’s highest seed, Blaze took another giant leap forward this season competing at 165 for the first time after wrestling at 157 his first two years. Last season, Blaze was one of the biggest breakout stars in the nation, blitzing to the NCAA Finals as the No. 8 seed to become Purdue’s youngest national finalist since at least 1950.
A native of Perrysburg, Ohio, Blaze will aim for the top of the podium this time around competing in his home state. He posted just the fourth undefeated regular season by a Boilermaker in the past 50 years and has given up only one takedown in 23 matches.
Blaze won bronze at the Big Ten Championships for the second straight season, becoming the first Boiler with consecutive top-three conference finishes since Devin Schroder (2020-21) and the first to do so in different weight classes since Dave Walter (1989-90).
TAKEDOWNS, TAKEDOWNS, TAKEDOWNS
Competing in his third full season of varsity action, redshirt junior Brody Baumann (No. 22 at 174) has been one of the most prolific offensive wrestlers on the team. He leads Purdue with 63 takedowns after tallying the second-most trailing only Ramos last season (68).
Behind Blaze, Baumann has been the second-highest scoring Boilermaker with 235 match points this season.
Hailing from Evansville, Ind., Baumann is one of just three NCAA qualifiers from the state of Indiana who also qualified each of the past two years, joining Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) and Evan Bates (Missouri).
Baumann scores his match points in bunches early on; he leads the team with 117 first-period points and paces Purdue with three 2-point nearfalls.
The Evansville grappler holds a career-high No. 22 seed this season after being No. 26 in 2025 and No. 32 in 2024.
BLAKE “SCORE”-MAN
Head coach Tony Ersland is not known to dip into the transfer portal often, but Blake Boarman (No. 24, 133) from Chattanooga and fellow starter Gavin Brown (149) of Ohio State were exceptions this season. Ersland’s investment in Boarman has paid dividends at the low end of the lineup, as the four-year Chattanooga wrestler was one of just four Boilers to start all 16 duals.
Boarman qualified for nationals last year as a No. 20 seed and took a big step up in competition in the Big Ten this season. Also from Evansville and a former high school teammate of Baumann, Boarman showed what he was truly capable of when he took No. 1 Lucas Byrd down to the wire in a 5-4 dual decision, scoring the only takedown but losing on stall calls.
But Boarman faced Byrd again in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament and got the better of him, scoring two takedowns for a 7-3 decision to pull off a shocking upset as the No. 10 seed to clinch his spot in Cleveland.
Boarman will look to show more consistency in his final tournament, but at his peak he has proven a tough out for anyone of any skill level.
THE MUSTACHED MENACE
Competing in his fourth and final Big Ten tournament, longtime Boilermaker stalwart Ben Vanadia (No. 26 at 197) finally got it done with an eighth-place finish, becoming a first-time Big Ten placewinner and first-time NCAA qualifier in his final season.
Vanadia was arguably a snub last season for the national tournament after turning in a 19-12 record with 10 dual wins. But he will now make his last ride in his home state of Ohio less than 10 minutes from his childhood home.
With a season record of 15-10, Vanadia has missed some time but wrestled sharp when competing at full strength. He opened the season on a 13-4 run before opening a grueling Big Ten slate where he faced nothing but ranked opponents. In fact, Vanadia hasn’t wrestled an unranked foe since the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invite on Dec. 6.
Vanadia’s biggest win of the season came in a dominant 18-5 major decision over No. 15 Branson John. He wrestled his final dual match on Feb. 1 before returning at the Big Ten tournament over a month later, where he won the only match he competed in (7-2 decision over No. 23 Kael Wisler) and forfeited the rest, knowing his spot at nationals was secure.
BRACKET MATCHUPS
133 | #24 Blake Boarman - R-Sr.
Round of 32: #9 Dominick Serrano (UNCO)
Round of 16 (if advanced): #8 Markel Baker (NIU) OR #25 Will Betancourt
165 | #2 Joey Blaze - Jr.
Round of 32: #31 Jared Keslar (PITT)
Round of 16 (if advanced): #15 Connor Euton (ISU) OR #18 Gunner Filipowicz (ARMY)
174 | #22 Brody Baumann - R-Jr.
Round of 32: #11 MJ Gaitan (ISU)
Round of 16 (if advanced): #6 Matty Singleton (NCST) OR #27 Collin Carrigan (UNC)
197 | #26 Ben Vanadia - R-Sr.
Round of 32: #7 Cody Merrill (OKST)
Round of 16 (if advanced): #10 Mac Stout (PITT) OR #23 Mikey Squires (BING)