Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/441806
GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 15 • 27 BY GOLD AND BLACK STAFF D oug Welch was the lone Purdue wrestler to medal at the Midland Championships, which wrapped on Dec. 30 in Evanston, Ill. Welch, a 157-pounder, took seventh place after beating Eastern Michigan's Brandon Zeerip, 7-0, in his final match. He was only the 34th Purdue wrestler to place at the tournament. "Doug had a pretty good tournament and he is progressing the way we would like him to at this point in the season," first- year coach Tony Ersland said on Monday. "The meet itself was the tale of two days as we competed much better the first day, but the second day we were a bit sluggish. I am looking for us to be more aggressive as a team, and we didn't quite get there as a team at Midlands." Purdue finished 16th among 33 programs at the meet. It had 33 points. Iowa, Illinois and Northwestern finished as the top three teams with 189, 130.5 and 106 points. The Boilermak - ers had four other wrestlers who just missed reaching the medal round, as Aaron Assad, Danny Sabatello, Brandon Nelson and Chad Welch, one of the three Welch brothers on the team, lost in their matches just before that round. Doug Welch (18-6) got to the medal round by de- feating Wisconsin's Jarod Donar, 6-3. By then beating Zeerip in the seventh-place match, Welch became only the third Boilermaker in that weight class since 1988 to medal and the first since Tommy Churchard took sixth in 2011. Purdue begins its Big Ten schedule on Friday at Nebraska before going to Wisconsin to wrestle Sun- day. Ersland served as an as- sistant for the Cornhuskers for the past eight seasons. "Sure, it is nice for me to be going back to my for- mer home, but we are re- ally focused on the task at hand," he said. "We train to be at our best in March for nationals, and I think for the most part we are on sched- ule to do that. "We know the Big Ten is a grind with two matches in (as) many weekends, so we will have to be ready as it is a long, tough road." j DOUG WELCH FARES WELL AT MIDLANDS Wrestling starts conference play this weekend Purdue Doug Welch, pictured with first-year coach Tony Ersland, had the best Midlands of any Boilermaker, finishing seventh in the highly competitive tournament. 2014-15 WRESTLNG SCHEDULE Date Opponent/Event Location Time/Result Nov. 8 Gold & Black Matches West Lafayette, Ind. 3:30 p.m. ET Nov. 14 at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Calif. W, 30-9 Nov. 16 Roadrunner Open Fresno, Calif. 11 Placewinners Nov. 23 Northern Iowa vs. Indiana Tech West Lafayette, Ind. 11:30 a.m. ET vs. Indiana Tech West Lafayette, Ind. W, 39-6 vs. No. 18 Northern Iowa West Lafayette, Ind. W, 21-15 Journeymen/ASICS Northeast Duals Nov. 29 vs. Binghamton Troy, N.Y. W, 25-7 vs. No. 5 Missouri Troy, N.Y. L, 23-9 vs. No. 21 Old Dominion Troy, N.Y. L, 16-15 Dec. 6 vs. SIU Edwardsville West Lafayette, Ind. W, 39-0 Dec. 12 at No. 20 Chattanooga Chattanooga, Tenn. W, 19-16 Dec. 13 vs. North Carolina Kell High School, Marietta, Ga. W, 19-12 52nd Annual Ken Craft Midlands Championships Dec. 29-30 Midlands Evanston, Ill. 16th; 33 points Jan. 9 at Nebraska Lincoln, Neb. 8 p.m. Jan. 11 at Wisconsin Madison, Wis. 2 p.m. Jan. 16 vs. Northwestern West Lafayette, Ind. 7 p.m. Jan. 18 at Penn State University Park, Pa. 1 p.m. Jan. 30 at Ohio State Columbus, Ohio 7 p.m. Feb. 1 vs. Illinois West Lafayette, Ind. 2 p.m. Feb. 8 vs. Michigan West Lafayette, Ind. 1 p.m. Feb. 15 vs. Michigan State West Lafayette, Ind. 1 p.m. Feb. 20 vs. Indiana West Lafayette, Ind. 7 p.m. B1G Championships March 7 B1Gs // Day 1 Columbus, Ohio All Day March 8 B1Gs // Day 2 Columbus, Ohio All Day NCAA Championships March 19 NCAAs // Day 1 St. Louis, Mo. All Day March 20 NCAAs // Day 2 St. Louis, Mo. All Day March 21 NCAAs // Day 3 St. Louis, Mo. All Day