2015 B1G WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS CENTRAL
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Brandon Nelsen became the eighth Purdue wrestler to clinch an automatic berth to the 2015 NCAA Championships with a seventh-place finish at the B1G Championships Sunday in St. John Arena. The Boilermakers registered 37.5 points to place 10th and sent five to the podium, with a pair of sixth- and seventh-place finishers and one eighth-place showing.
Iowa and Ohio State shared the B1G Championships team title with 120 points, followed by Minnesota (108), Michigan (101.5) and Penn State (96.5) to round out the top-five teams.
"Like any tournament, it has its highs and lows," head wrestling coach Tony Ersland said. "Highs: eight qualifiers. We feel pretty good about the numbers that we're taking to nationals and the fact that we still have two weeks to get better, which I think we will. We'll be able to make some adjustments and our shape looks good. We are putting ourselves in a good position."
Nelsen (149) joined senior counterparts Nick Lawrence (141), Pat Robinson (165), Patrick Kissel (184) and Braden Atwood (197) with an NCAA ticket.
"I've said all along, these seniors have been great both from a leadership standpoint and how they've embraced this new staff," Ersland said. "I think that showed the past two days. They wrestled very hard, competed well and they all got trips to nationals, which makes you feel great about them. We don't want them to be satisfied with this, but I know it's a great milestone for them and it's something they can be proud of for the rest of their lives."
On March 11, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee will release the 70 at-large qualifiers, tournament seeds and brackets for the tournament that will be held March 19-21 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Mo.
In addition to the five seniors, the Boilermakers also qualified Danny Sabatello (133), Doug Welch (157) and Chad Welch (174). It has been a dozen years since Purdue has qualified eight wrestlers to the NCAA Championships and it's only the third time in program history eight have advanced. The eight qualifiers are a program high that was previously accomplished in 1993 and 2003. They are also the most qualifiers since 2010.
The Boilermakers finished with five B1G championships placewinners. Lawrence and D. Welch took sixth, Nelsen and Atwood placed seventh and Robinson was eighth.
Nelsen (22-12) clinched the seventh and final automatic bid for the conference. The redshirt senior disposed of Michigan State's Nick Trimble, 9-3, thanks to a five-point second period and rallied after being tilted in the third en route to his 22nd win.
With the seventh-place showing, Nelsen earned the third podium finish of his career and is the 25th three-time B1G placewinner in program history.
For the fourth time in his career, Atwood (16-8) placed in the tournament, taking seventh after receiving a medical forfeit from Northwestern's Alex Polizzi. The Delphi, Ind., native became just the 12th Boilermaker to place at the tournament each of his four years.
Complete brackets, match-by-match results, updated records, photo albums, videos and much more, please visit the 2015 B1G Wrestling Championships Central page here.
B1G NOTES
- Five grapplers wrestled above their seed: Nelsen (unseeded), Lawrence (8), Robinson (10), Kissel (10) and Atwood (9)
- Lawrence's six matches were the most matches of any Purdue wrestler at the tournament
- Purdue was 4-2 in overtime matches, including a fall from Kissel in sudden victory in his final match of the tournament
- Robinson's first career win over a nationally ranked opponent when he beat 10th-ranked Nick Moore of Iowa, 7-4, in the championship first round
- Atwood moved into a tie for the fourth spot on the career falls list by pinning Michigan State's Nick McDiarmid in 4:18. It was career pin No. 31 and his seventh of the season.
- Nelsen took over at No. 4 in career reversals with a pair at the championships, pushing his four-year total to 43.
- Nelsen moved up to No. 17 on the career back points list with 122 after scoring 10 at the tournament, Sabatello moved to 18th with 120 after tallying one three-point nearfall