EVANSTON, Ill. - Five Purdue wrestlers remain alive and the Boilermakers sit in 11th place with 28.5 points after the first day of the 52nd Ken Kraft Midlands Championships Monday in Welsh-Ryan Arena. Aaron Assad (125), Danny Sabatello (133), Brandon Nelsen (149), Doug Welch (157) and Chad Welch (174) are all one victory shy of securing a podium finish during Tuesday's third session, which is slated for a 1 p.m. ET start. The session will feature consolation bouts, followed by third-, fifth- and seventh-place matches. All four mats during Tuesday's third session will be streamed live via BTN2Go free of charge. Additional links to tournament seeds, updated brackets and much more can be found here.
Purdue is half a point behind Rider, who sits in 10th place with 29 points. Iowa leads the team standings with 110 points and is followed by Illinois (90 points), Northwestern (65 points), Edinboro (60 points) and Virginia Tech (54.5 points). Old Dominion is sixth with 49.5 points and the top-10 teams are rounded out by Wisconsin (42.5 points), South Dakota State (35 points) and North Dakota State (34 points).
Thirteen grapplers were in action for the Old Gold & Black, combining for a 21-21 record with seven bonus point victories (4 MD, 2 TF, 2 F). A trio advanced to the quarterfinals in Sabatello, D. Welch and C. Welch, but they were unable to punch their ticket into the semifinals.
Sabatello (17-2) had his 16-match winning streak come to an end as third-seeded Cory Clark of Iowa pinned the sixth-seeded Boilermaker in 2:12. The redshirt junior struck for a takedown in the opening 30 seconds for an early 2-0 edge. Clark was able to get his arm around the backside of Sabatello's head, reversed him and locked in working for the fall. Sabatello went into the quarterfinal matchup on the heels of a 6-0 decision of Penn's 11th-seeded Caleb Richardson and put on a clinic en route to a 20-5 technical fall of John Coukos of Northwestern in his first match of the day.
D. Welch, the No. 7 seed at 157 pounds, dropped a 9-4 quarterfinal decision to South Dakota State's second-seeded Cody Pack. The Jackrabbit took D. Welch down three times, had a reversal to start the third period and accumulated 2:36 of riding time to hand the Purdue redshirt senior his fifth loss of the season. D. Welch (16-5) registered half of the Boilermakers major decisions on the day. He shut out 10th-seeded Spencer Hill of Cal State Bakersfield in the championship third round (14-0) and was called for a penalty point in a 9-1 win over Maryland's Louis Mascola in championship second round. The major decisions were his second and third of the season.
Eighth-seeded C. Welch took a career-best eight match winning streak into the quarterfinals, but top-seeded Mike Evans of Iowa brought it to a halt by holding the 174-pounder scoreless in a 9-0 major decision loss. C. Welch (15-7) began the day by collecting the second fall of his redshirt junior's campaign, pinning Northern Illinois' Bryce Gorman in 1:27. He followed with an 8-4 decision over Jacob Davis, who was wrestling unattached.
After losing a high-scoring battle to unattached Seth Lange (15-14) in the championship second round, 14th-seeded Nelsen stormed back to win four straight in the consolation bracket at 149 pounds. Highlighting the 16-4 redshirt senior's comeback was a 2:54 fall of SIU Edwardsville's Karsten Van Velsor. The fall was his seventh of the season and the 30th of his career, moving him into sole occupancy of the No. 5 slot on Purdue's career falls list. With six switches, Nelsen also climbed the career reversals list Monday, catapulting from 12th into a tie for fifth with 40 to his name.
At 125 pounds, Assad rebounded from a loss in his first match to post a pair of victories in the wrestlebacks, including a 5-1 upset of 12th-seeded J.R. Wert of Rider. The 2-1 day evened his season mark at 9-9.
Luke Welch (125) and Nick Lawrence (141) bowed out of the tournament with 2-2 performances, while ninth-seeded Pat Robinson (165), Tanner Lynde (184) and Tyler Kral (285) exited after 1-2 showings. Dustin Schultz (157), Andy Hoselton (165), Drake Stein (197) also competed, but were eliminated during the first session after going 0-2.
PURDUE MATCH-BY-MATCH // SESSIONS 1 AND 2
125 // Aaron Assad
Championship First Round: David White, Binghamton // L, D, 5-3
Consolation First Round: BYE
Consolation Second Round: Johnny Jimenez, Wisconsin // W, D, 5-1
Consolation Third Round: No. 12 J.R. Wert, Rider // W, D, 5-1
125 // Luke Welch
Championship First Round: No. 12 J.R. Wert, Rider // W, D, 10-7
Championship Second Round: No. 5 Kory Mines, Edinboro // L, D, 3-1 (SV1)
Consolation Second Round: No. 6 Brandon Jeske, Old Dominion // W, D, 6-5
Consolation Third Round: David White, Binghamton // L, D, 4-3
133 // No. 6 Danny Sabatello
Championship First Round: BYE
Championship Second Round: John Coukos, Northwestern // W, TF, 20-5 (6:08)
Championship Third Round: No. 11 Caleb Richardson, Penn // W, D, 6-0
Championship Quarterfinals: No. 3 Cory Clark, Iowa // L, F, 2:12
141 // Nick Lawrence
Championship First Round: Sal Annoreno, Northern Illinois // W, D, 3-1
Championship Second Round: No. 9 Alex Kocer, South Dakota // W, D, 7-3
Championship Third Round: Michael Shaw, Eastern Michigan // L, D, 3-2
Consolation Fourth Round: Logan Arlis, Illinois // L, D, 3-2
149 // No. 14 Brandon Nelsen
Championship First Round: Coleman Hammond, Cal State Bakersfield // W, MD, 12-1
Championship Second Round: Seth Lange, Unattached (Minnesota) // L, D, 15-14
Consolation Second Round: Nick Barber, Eastern Michigan // W, D, 9-3
Consolation Third Round: Karsten Van Velsor, SIU Edwardsville // W, F, 2:54
Consolation Fourth Round: Elroy Perkin, UW Whitewater // W, D, 12-6
Consolation Fifth Round: No. 11 Ryan Lubeck, Wisconsin // W, D, 3-1
157 // No. 7 Doug Welch
Championship First Round: Brooks Martino, Penn // W, D, 6-3
Championship Second Round: Louis Mascola, Maryland // W, MD, 9-1
Championship Third Round: No. 10 Spencer Hill, Cal State Bakersfield // W, MD, 14-0
Championship Quarterfinals: No. 2 Cody Pack, South Dakota State // L, 9-4
157 // Dustin Schultz
Championship First Round: No. 8 Maaziah Bethea, Penn // L, D, 11-8
Consolation First Round: BYE
Consolation Second Round: Louis Mascola, Maryland // L, MD, 12-3
165 // No. 9 Pat Robinson
Championship First Round: BYE
Championship Second Round: Chad Strube, Virginia Tech // L, D, 9-2
Consolation Second Round: BYE
Consolation Third Round: Zach Zupan, Binghamton // W, TF, 16-1 (5:21)
Consolation Fourth Round: Ty Prazma, Missouri // L, MD, 20-5
165 // Andy Hoselton
Championship First Round: Matt Nora, Illinois // L, D, 6-0
Consolation First Round: BYE
Consolation Second Round: Zach Zupan, Binghamton // L, D, 8-7
174 // No. 8 Chad Welch
Championship First Round: BYE
Championship Second Round: Bryce Gorman, Northern Illinois // W, F, 1:27
Championship Third Round: Jacob Davis, Unattached (Eastern Michigan) // W, D, 8-4
Championship Quarterfinals: No. 1 Mike Evans, Iowa // L, MD, 9-0
184 // Tanner Lynde
Championship First Round: No. 2 Jack Dechow, Old Dominion // L, MD 12-2
Consolation First Round: Sean Pollock, Cal State Bakersfield // W, D, 8-4
Consolation Second Round: Ryan McWaters, Southern Oregon // L, D, 7-4
197 // Drake Stein
Championship First Round: BYE
Championship Second Round: Anthony Abro, Eastern Michigan // L, MD, 15-2
Consolation Second Round: Troy Hembury, Columbia // L, D, 7-4
285 // Tyler Kral
Championship First Round: BYE
Championship Second Round: Dan Garwood, Virginia Tech // L, D, 5-3
Consolation Second Round: BYE
Consolation Third Round: Jake Cochrane, Northern Illinois // W, D, 4-1
Consolation Fourth Round: Garrett Goldman, Indiana // L, D, 3-1
Note: Nos. reflect tournament seeds, InterMat rankings are not included