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Blaze Wins Big Ten Bronze; 4 Boilers to NCAA ChampionshipsBlaze Wins Big Ten Bronze; 4 Boilers to NCAA Championships
Trish Sexton

Blaze Wins Big Ten Bronze; 4 Boilers to NCAA Championships

Results Opens in a new window B1G Championships Central Opens in a new window Day 1 Recap Opens in a new window
by Brook Weber

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Junior Joey Blaze won his second consecutive bronze medal at the Big Ten Conference Wrestling Championships on Sunday.

Purdue's All-American was leading Nebraska’s No. 4 LJ Araujo 5-1 midway through the third-place match when the Cornhusker injury defaulted, giving Blaze the win inside Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center.

Blaze (No. 2 at 165 lbs.) responded from his first loss of the season on Saturday to wrestle all the way back and finish third, which is the best possible outcome for anyone who drops a match before the finals.

Purdue’s foursome of Blaze, Blake Boarman (fifth at 133), Brody Baumann (eighth at 174) and Ben Vanadia (eighth at 197) earned spots on the Big Ten podium and secured automatic qualifying spots for the NCAA Championships in Cleveland on March 19-21.

Other Boilermakers could remain in the mix for nationals with at-large selections, which will be announced in the coming week.

Since he also placed third last year at 157, Blaze is the first Boilermaker to earn consecutive top-three conference finishes since Devin Schroder in 2020 and 2021. More impressively, Blaze is the first to do so in different weight classes since Dave Walter from 1989 and 1990.

The 2025 NCAA finalist added four wins over the weekend against the current No. 7, No. 8, No. 11 and No. 16 wrestlers in the country. With a record of 22-1, including 11 ranked victories, Blaze’s chief objective remains intact: becoming Purdue’s first national champion since 1992.

Boarman became a second-time NCAA qualifier in his first season as a Boilermaker. He wrestled the past four years at Chattanooga and qualified for the 2025 national tournament before transferring to Purdue last offseason.

Boarman took a big leap forward in his Big Ten tournament debut, upsetting the No. 7 seed Sean Spidle and defending national champion Lucas Byrd (No. 2), who had won 29 straight matches entering the bout. Read more about his shocking upset here.

Another homegrown talent from Evansville, Ind., Baumann earned his third venture to the NCAA Championships in his redshirt junior season. He beat No. 7 Ethan Riddle in the second consolation round, which was the only win he needed to make his third appearance at nationals. Baumann was one of just five Indiana natives to qualify for NCAAs the past two years and the only underclassman to do so.

Vanadia competed in his fourth and final Big Ten tournament and won the only match that he wrestled in, defeating No. 7 Kael Wisler 7-2 before injury defaulting his remaining bouts. Vanadia did just enough despite a grueling final month of the season and opted to save his best stuff for the national tournament in two weeks.

Hailing from Brecksville, Ohio, Vanadia will return to his home state to wrestle on the sport’s grandest stage in two weeks.

Purdue finished 12th in the Big Ten tournament standings with 29.5 team points.

UP NEXT

Purdue’s four automatic qualifiers and any potential at-large selections will head to Cleveland for the 2026 NCAA Wrestling Championships on March 19-21. The three-day national tournament will take place inside Rocket Arena, home of the NBA’s Cavaliers.

RESULTS

125 | #13 Ashton Jackson (R-So.) – DNP
Round 1: #4 Jacob Moran (IU) – L, TF 17-2 (3:53)
Cons. Round 1: #5 Ayden Smith (RU) – L, Dec. 4-2 (TB-1)
9th Place Quarters: #12 Nick Corday (MSU) – L, Dec. 7-0

133 | #10 Blake Boarman (R-Sr.) – NCAA Qualifier (6th Place)
Round 1: #7 Sean Spidle (NU) – W, Dec. 3-2
Quarters: #2 Lucas Byrd (ILL) – W, Dec. 7-3
Semis: #3 Ben Davino (OSU) – L, TF 21-5 (4:17)
Cons. Semis: #4 Zan Fugitt (WIS) – L, MD 11-1
5th Place Match: #2 Lucas Byrd (ILL) – L, Dec. 5-2

141 | #7 Greyson Clark (Jr.) – DNP
Round 1: #10 Joey Olivieri (RU)
Cons. Round 1: BYE
Cons. Round 2: #8 Billy DeKraker (NU) – L, Dec. 5-4

149 | #12 Gavin Brown (R-Jr.) – DNP
Round 1: #5 Carter Young (MD) – L, Dec. 8-1
Cons. Round 1: #13 Clayton Jones (MSU) – L, MD 10-2
9th Place Quarters: #11 Joey Buttler (IU) – W, Dec. 2-1
9th Place Semis: #8 Ryder Block (IOWA) – L, MD 8-0

157 | #9 Stoney Buell (R-Sr.) – DNP
Round 1: #8 Luke Mechler (WIS) – L, Dec. 7-2
Cons. Round 1: BYE
Cons. Round 2: #7 Brandon Cannon (OSU) – L, MFFL
9th Place Quarters: BYE
9th Place Semis: #12 Darius Marines (MSU) – L, MFFL

165 | #2 Joey Blaze (Jr.) – NCAA Qualifier (3rd Place)
Round 1: BYE
Quarters: #7 Andrew Barbosa (RU) – L, Dec. 3-2
Cons. Round 2: #9 Tyler Lillard (IU) – W, Dec. 4-1
Cons. Quarters: #6 Braeden Scoles (ILL) – W, Dec. 5-0
Cons. Semis: #5 Andrew Sparks (MIN) – W, Dec. 3-1 (TB)
3rd Place Match: #4 LJ Araujo (NEB) – W, Inj Def. 3:47 (Led 5-1)

174 | #8 Brody Baumann (R-Jr.) – NCAA Qualifier (8th Place)
Round 1: #9 Colin Kelly (ILL) – L, MD 11-2
Cons. Round 1: BYE
Cons. Round 2: #7 Ethan Riddle (MIN) – W, Dec. 8-6
Cons. Quarters: #11 Lenny Pinto (RU) – L, Dec. 8-5
7th Place Match: #9 Colin Kelly (ILL) – L, Dec. 11-5

184 | #10 James Rowley (R-Jr.) – DNP
Round 1: #7 Shane Cartagena-Walsh (RU) – L, Dec. 5-2 (SV-1)
Cons. Round 1: BYE
Cons. Round 2: #8 Angelo Ferrari (IOWA) – L, Dec. 5-1
9th Place Quarters: BYE
9th Place Semis: #12 Sepanta Ahanj-Elias (MD) – W, MD 8-0
9th Place Match: #9 Sam Goin (IU) – L, D 7-3

197 | #9 Ben Vanadia (R-Sr.) – NCAA Qualifier (8th Place)
Round 1: #8 Gabe Sollars (IU) – L, MFFL
Cons. Round 1: BYE
Cons. Round 2: #7 Kael Wisler (MSU) – W, Dec. 7-2
Cons. Quarters: #3 Remy Cotton (RU) – L, MFFL
7th Place Match: #4 Branson John (MD) – L, MFFL

285 | #11 Hayden Filipovich (R-Sr.) – DNP
Round 1: #6 Luke Luffman (ILL) – L, Dec. 5-1
Cons. Round 1: #14 Caleb Marzolino (IU) – L, Fall 0:29
9th Place Quarters: #14 Caleb Marzolino (IU) – W, Dec. 4-3
9th Place Semis: #8 Hunter Catka (RU) – L, Dec. 4-1