Boulanger Making Impact as True Freshman

DURHAM, N.C.-- Duke freshman wrestler Mikey Boulanger is a man of few words. If you ask him about his impressive start on the collegiate mats, he describes the experience as "an adjustment." If you ask him whether he really went 55-0 as a senior in high school, he nods yes. But when it came time for Duke head coach Glen Lanham to decide whether the freshman would redshirt or compete in his first year on campus, what Boulanger had to say proved pivotal.

As Lanham describes it, "He just came and said that he had thought about taking off the year when he's so close to competing. He was like, 'well if I don't get the rep, somebody else is. So, I just think it would make me better if I'm the starter.'"

The subsequent decision to let Boulanger wrestle has paid immediate dividends, as he collected eight wins over his first 12 bouts start to the season propelled the team to its best fall record in four years. The Milford, Massachusetts, native's eight wins ranks fifth on the team, anchoring the Blue Devils in the 157-pound weight class. It's a performance that has left Lanham and the Duke team impressed.
Mikey Boulanger

"He's definitely been surprising, coming out of nowhere, really," Lanham said. "We thought that he was going to have to use a redshirt, get bigger, that kind of stuff, get used to college wrestling, but he's just jumped right into it."

Boulanger took little time to make his mark. In the team's second dual of the season against Hofstra, with the Blue Devils down 14-6, he won a crucial match against the Pride's Frank Volpe in an 8-2 decision. Duke would go on to win four of the next five matches and win the contest 24-17.

His real breakout moment came the next day, however, when he took the mat in the Journeymen Collegiate Classic in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Facing wrestlers from Franklin & Marshall, Columbia and Army, Boulanger rattled off three straight victories by a combined score of 34-8 to win the 157-pound bracket. His perfect record in tournament matches leads the Duke squad.

It's a remarkable start for the Milford High School product, who was somewhat of a late bloomer for a sport characterized by lifelong participation in club training. Boulanger first joined a club during COVID, when he was in eighth grade, which is later than most collegiate wrestlers begin their club training.

"I just really wanted to get back on the mat, so I started going to club practices whenever I could," said Boulanger. "Before that, [wrestling] was only in season, so it was only a couple months out of the year, but then I started going to club and wrestling all year."

From there, Boulanger began rapidly improving. As he gained size and skills in high school, he moved from the 113-pound weight class as a freshman to 126 as a sophomore and then 138 as a junior. He helped lead Milford to back-to-back conference, sectional and state championships in 2022 and 2023 during his freshman and sophomore seasons.

It was the summer before his senior year that Boulanger's attention turned to the possibility of wrestling at Duke. Growing up in a basketball family, he had watched Blue Devil hoops with his older brother and dreamed of attending. Wrestling in the 157-pound weight class during his senior season, he capped off his high school career with an incredible 55-0 record and another Massachusetts state championship, attracting the attention of the Duke coaches.

"My mentality really switched that year to just trying to score points," said Boulanger. "Even if I give up a takedown, or if I get scored on, just to always try to win the next little battle."

It's that mentality that has fueled the freshman's stellar wrestling since arriving in Durham. Boulanger owns a 4-2 record in matches decided by seven or fewer points -- a credit to his persistence in tough contests.

Two matches in December highlighted Boulanger's resolve. Facing Joseph Giordano of Gardner-Webb on December 3, Boulanger gave up a 3-1 lead in the second period by allowing an escape and a takedown. Heading into the final period, Boulanger was down 4-3 and in the down position. He opened the third period with a rare reversal to regain the lead and held on for the victory. Two weeks later, facing Jeremiah Price of Appalachian State, Boulanger notched an even more thrilling victory with a takedown in the final two seconds, breaking a 1-1 tie and winning the match 4-1.

Boulanger was injured at the Norman Duals in late December and missed the Southern Scuffle, Stanford and Cal Poly matches. He has returned to action as Duke heads into the heart of ACC action.

Lanham says Boulanger's relentlessness is the secret to his success: "He just competes hard. He's got a couple of things to clean up, but he's going to wrestle the whole time. He's not going to stop. And that's helped him out in quite a few matches."

Another highlight from the fall season for Boulanger was getting to wrestle in Cameron Indoor Stadium for the first time. It's an experience he described simply, saying it was "really awesome."

Away from the mat, Boulanger has leaned on Duke's veteran leadership to ease the transition to college life. Team captains Connor Barket, Aiden Wallace and Gaetano Console, he says, have helped him "stay organized" and "working hard."

With Barket and Wallace (Duke's two ranked wrestlers) being the only members on the team with more victories than Boulanger, Lanham's decision to let the freshman wrestle this year has been thoroughly vindicated. The 18 points he has recorded for the Blue Devils in the 157-pound slot are already an improvement from the 15 points that Duke wrestlers earned during the entire 2024-25 season at 157. Boulanger will head into ACC play this spring looking to add more to that total.

Still, the freshman is staying humble and looking to improve: "I've been giving up the first takedown and then having to battle back. I feel like if I keep my defense better, then I can start opening up the matches more and trying to win by more points."

Lanham, perhaps, describes Boulanger best:

"He's just nonstop."

Duke will return to action Friday, Jan. 30 as the Blue Devils welcome Virginia to Cameron Indoor Stadium at 7 p.m.

To stay up to date with Blue Devils wrestling, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeWRES".

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Boulanger Making Impact as True Freshman

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Mikey Boulanger

Gaetano Console

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Boulanger Making Impact as True Freshman

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