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124 ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 2 f Boilermakers Confident Under New Regime Ersland likes competition among classes S enior Braden Atwood's eyes light up when he talks about this year's wrestling team. Purdue's starter at 197 pounds said he thinks "endless" things can be ac- complished by this year's Boilermak- ers. "We have a bunch of great guys top to bottom," Atwood said. "Some of the weights we don't know who's going to start, but it doesn't matter. I feel so much better about this team compared to some of the teams in the past just because I know the mindset everyone has." Purdue returns four wres- tlers with NCAA Champion- ship experience led by Atwood, who's qualified for the NCAA Championships in each of his f i r s t three seasons and led Purdue in wins (27) and falls (nine) last season. Danny Sabatello joined Atwood as an NCAA qualifier in 2014, while Branden Nelson and Chad Welch made it to nationals in 2013. "I love having that feeling on my shoulders that all the guys are relying on me," Atwood said. "I hold myself to a higher standard to put points on the board and re- ally get the whole team going." While Atwood will remain at 197 pounds, several oth- er returning starters changed weight classes, causing major shuffling in the Boilermaker lineup. Welch jumped from 165 to 174 pounds, and Sabatel- lo dropped from 141 to 133. Four returning starters are battling for two spots in the early portion of the season as last season's 157-pounder Alex Griffin will challenge Nelsen at 149 and Patrick Kissel, Purdue's returning starter at 174, bumps up to 184 where he'll look to get the nod over last year's starter in Tanner Lynde. "We have some situations at some weight classes where I feel like we have good competition and they're going to make each other better," first-year coach Tony Ersland said. "You can't have enough competition in the room. That's what makes everybody better." Ersland will turn to redshirt freshmen to fill in other vacated gaps from graduation. Luke Welch and Aaron Asaad are battling to replace two-time NCAA qualifier Camden Eppert at 125 pounds. Andrew Greers is a candidate to fill in at 285 pounds along with sophomore Tyler Kral. Ersland even singled out Jacob Morrissey as a wrestler who could challenge Welch at 174. "We have some guys coming up off redshirt years who I think can be very successful," Ersland said. Ersland is excited to see what his first team at Pur- due can accomplish. "I feel very good about the talent we have in the room," Ersland said. "It's going to come down to the details. They're working hard and it seems like they're focused. We have to keep them focused through March because of that grind and have the maturity and disci- pline to keep our focus through the course of the sea- son." —Travis Baugh Purdue Senior Braden Atwood is planning on making it four consecutive trips to the NCAA Championships.