Recap courtesy of Purdue Athletics
The No. 13 Purdue wrestling team closed out competition at the South Beach Duals with a 23-30 win over West Virginia on Sunday at the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center. The Boilermakers (3-4, 0-1 B1G) went 1-3 while wrestling at the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center and facing a pair of top-10 teams.
Purdue captured five weights from the Mountaineers, with No. 18 Devin Schroder and Nate Limmex contributing bonus points. Schroder opened the dual at 125 pounds by major decisioning Joey Thomas 11-3.
With nearly every win, the redshirt sophomore climbs on both the season and career back points top-20 lists. Schroder added a four-point nearfall in the win over Thomas, moving to No. 15 on the season list with 84 and eighth on the career list with 204. Schroder split his four matches during the weekend, taking his season mark to 13-6.
Limmex showed his explosiveness, blasting West Virginia’s Luke Martin with four takedowns and turning him for a four-point nearfall in a 15-4 major decision. The 141-pounder put up big points in the first and third periods, going for five and six, respectively. Limmex, a native of Ada, Michigan, also split his weekend matches and moved to 12-7 as a redshirt junior.
A low-scoring heavyweight match that goes to overtime is nothing new, but to go from a 1-1 match to a 5-2 tiebreaker final is an exciting one. Jacob Aven shined in the overtime session to upset Missouri’s 13th-ranked Zach Elam.
The Tiger corner unsuccessfully challenged an Aven reversal as time expired in the first 30-second tiebreaker, putting the Boilermaker ahead 3-1. Elam escaped in the next 30-second tiebreaker and Aven eyed his shot. The redshirt senior from Zionsville, Indiana, took Elam down with just a few ticks remaining on the clock to seal the upset.
Aven’s thriller was the lone victory for the Boilermakers in a 41-3 loss to sixth-ranked Missouri in Sunday’s first dual.
After spending the first two months of the season on the road, Purdue wrestlers can now look forward to their home opener. They’ll make their first of six appearances at Holloway Gymnasium on Jan. 11 when they take on Maryland starting at 6 p.m. ET. The dual will also air live on the Big Ten Network.
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