WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Brody Baumann and Joey Blaze were named Big Ten Preseason Wrestlers to Watch on the conference’s annual list, which released on Monday.
Baumann, ranked No. 22 in the country at 174 pounds, returns for his final season after becoming a three-time NCAA Championships qualifier last March. The Evansville native is one of just three wrestlers from Indiana to qualify for the past three national tournaments.
The fifth-year grappler started the season with an impressive 19-4 technical fall (3:42) in Sunday’s season opener against Kent State, securing bonus points to help Purdue clinch head coach Tony Ersland’s 100th career victory.
Blaze, ranked No. 3 at 165 pounds, is coming off a second-straight All-American season in which he placed sixth at the NCAA Championships. After also finishing as the national runner-up in 2025, Blaze is Purdue’s first back-to-back All-American since Ben Wissel (2005-06).
After being named a preseason wrestler to watch last year as well, Blaze posted just the fourth undefeated regular season by a Boilermaker in the past half-century, doing so in his first season competing at 165 pounds. The Perrysburg, Ohio, senior aspires to become Purdue’s fifth national champion and first since 1992. Since he never redshirted, Blaze will have one more year of eligibility after the 2026-27 season.
Blaze is also 1-0 after scoring a team-high 21 points with seven takedowns in a dominant tech fall on Sunday. His 21 points were the most by any Big Ten wrestler in a Week 1 dual.
After opening the season with a victory over the Golden Flashes on Sunday, the Boilers will head to Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, on Saturday, Nov. 7, for a unique opportunity to compete on the top deck of the USS Yorktown CV-10 aircraft carrier.
In the annual event dubbed “Throwdown on the Yorktown”, Purdue will wrestle a pair of duals against Air Force (2:30 p.m. ET) and The Citadel (5 p.m.). The matches will be streamed live on FloWrestling.