Husker Wrestling: Nebraska Begins Big Ten Dual Season at Home vs. Purdue

The 6th-ranked Nebraska wrestling team opens conference play tonight when they host Purdue at 7 p.m. in the John Cook Arena.

Nebraska is 7-3 in duals this year, while Purdue is 7-1, but the Boilermakers have not faced a ranked team as of yet — Nebraska has wrestled a ranked team in eight of its 10 duals. The Huskers beat UNI 30-6 last time out; Purdue lost its last dual 19-16 to Drexel.

Purdue certainly isn’t one of the Big Ten’s heavyweight programs, but they always have a solid team and often have a couple really good guys — and this year is no different as the Boilermakers are led by #4 Joey Blaze at 165 pounds. Blaze lost to Nebraska’s Antrell Taylor 4-2 in the 157-pound NCAA final last year, but he’s since moved up a weight class.

According to FloWrestling, Purdue has five ranked wrestlers — all from 157 through 197. They’ll certainly push Nebraska at times, but the team score likely isn’t in the balance.

Weight-By-Weight Preview

125 pounds

Nebraska Head Coach Mark Manning said during his press conference Wednesday that sophomore Alan Koehler will wrestle here. Redshirt freshman Kael Lauridsen will be competing at the Hastings Open on Saturday as he returns from a knee injury he suffered against Oklahoma State.

Koehler has lost his last two matches to ranked opponents — a 4-1 loss to UNC’s #18 Kysen Terukina and a 5-2 loss to UNI’s #20 Trever Anderson. He’s 9-9 on the year.

It’s unclear who Purdue will send out — junior Jacob Macatangay is 5-5 this year, freshman Isaiah Quintero is 6-6, and Ashton Jackson is 4-5. This will be a good opportunity for Koehler to pick up his second dual win of the season.

133 pounds

Nebraska’s #8 Jacob Van Dee is coming in hot with a 10-1 record and a perfect 7-0 mark in duals.

Against Purdue, Van Dee will face senior Blake Boarman. Boarman was an NCAA qualifier last year and is 7-7 this season — he’s 5-3 in duals.

Van Dee should win this one pretty easily.

141 pounds

Husker senior #3 Brock Hardy is 11-3 this season, having just beat UNI’s #9 Cory Land 5-1 last weekend.

Against Purdue, Hardy will face Greyson Clark — a junior with an 8-4 record on the year. Clark is 5-1 in duals but 0-3 against ranked opponents.

In last year’s dual, Hardy beat Brown 15-4 by major decision, so Hardy by a lot if this matchup happens.

I’ve heard that true freshman Jake Hockaday may make his Husker debut here. A four-time state champion from single-class Indiana, Hockaday won his fourth state title with a torn up knee. He then got knee surgery to repair it before coming to Nebraska, but he’s recently been cleared.

A really good recruit and the heir apparent to Hardy at 141, Hockaday is a guy I’ve been excited to see finally compete for Nebraska.

149 pounds

Nebraska’s #14 Chance Lamer is coming off his first career win in the Devaney when he won via technical fall against UNI’s Ethan Basile. A transfer from Cal Poly, Lamer is 11-1 on the year.

Purdue will have Gavin Brown here. A junior, Brown is 14-3 on the year and 8-0 in duals, but he’s 0-2 against ranked opponents.

Lamer should be favored pretty heavily in this matchup.

157 pounds

In the night’s first ranked matchup, Nebraska’s #4 Antrell Taylor will face #17 Stoney Buell. Taylor is 11-2 this season after winning his last five matches, including a 3-2 win in tiebreakers over then-#2 Landon Robideau of Oklahoma State.

Interestingly enough, these two have met before. Buell is down this season from 165 pounds where Taylor wrestled as a redshirt freshman. Buell beat Taylor 12-1 by major at CKLV, but Taylor flipped things with a 14-6 win via major in their dual matchup later that year.

Since then, all Taylor has done is cement himself at 157 pounds by winning an NCAA title as a sophomore last season.

165 pounds

In the match of the dual, Nebraska’s #8 LJ Araujo will take on Purdue’s #4 Joey Blaze. A redshirt freshman, Araujo is 9-3 this season.

Blaze is a perfect 12-0 up a weight class — he won a title at Cliff Keen in Las Vegas and is 2-0 against ranked opponents. His best win was a 4-2 decision over #18 Nico Ruiz of Arizona State. On the flip side, Araujo has wrestled a much tougher schedule with six matches against ranked opponents (he’s 3-3 with two losses coming to wrestlers in the top-7).

I’m really interested to see how this match goes with Araujo — who was up at 174 last year while redshirting — likely holding a size advantage.

174 pounds

Nebraska’s #6 Christopher Minto has been really good since taking a couple losses at National Duals — he’s 11-2 on the year and on a five-match win streak. Minto placed fourth at NCAAs last year as a redshirt freshman down at 165.

Minto will face #21 Brody Baumann, a junior with a 12-3 record on the year. A two-time NCAA qualifier, Baumann is 6-1 in duals this year. He’s also proven to be a bit of a giant slayer with wins over #8 Carter Schubert of Oklahoma (7-3) and #16 Moses Espinoza-Owens of SDSU (10-7).

This match will be a good one to push Minto as he gets set for a pivotal late-January stretch.

184 pounds

Nebraska has #9 Silas Allred here. The senior finished seventh at NCAAs last year and holds a 10-3 record this season.

Allred will take on #29 James Rowley — a junior with an 8-5 record on the year. Rowley is 5-3 in duals but just 1-4 against ranked opponents.

Allred has proven to consistently beat guys like Rowley, so I expect him to take care of business.

197 pounds

In another rematch from last year’s dual, Nebraska’s #15 Camden McDanel will take on Purdue’s #23 Ben Vanadia. McDanel is 10-4 this year, while Vanadia is 13-4.

Vanadia is a perfect 8-0 in duals but 2-3 against ranked opponents. Last season, McDanel beat Vanadia 22-6 by tech fall, so I would expect more of the same in this one.

In fact, Vanadia has fallen to three different Huskers throughout his career — Allred, McDanel and Lenny Pinto — all of those losses came with bonus points given up.

285 pounds

Manning said he expects #4 AJ Ferrari to return to the mat tonight. The big off-season transfer, Ferrari is 5-1 this season. He’s been dealing with some injuries, so he hasn’t been in the lineup consistently yet.

In his stead, Harley Andrews got a win against UNI last weekend, and true freshman Cade Ziola has been impressing all year. With Ziola having only one date left for his redshirt season, I would expect to see Andrews again if Ferrari doesn’t go — I would imagine the Husker staff is saving that date for a real challenge.

Against Purdue, Nebraska’s heavy will take on senior Hayden Filipovich — he’s 5-5 on the year but has two career wins over Andrews from last year. In 2023, he was pinned by Allred at 197 pounds.