Wrestling 2018-19

The season hasn't even started and the first bad news is that returning 197 AA Ben Darmstadt is injured and may take a medical redshirt for the season. No official word from the school but this is unfortunate.

how does that work since you cant RS in the ivies.. you just graduate or you dont.

Rob Pannell did it. An injury I believe is an exception. A military tour of duty might be also. Or maybe being a missionary?

On the Wrestling team alone, it appears Tucker and Womack have been granted an extra year of eligibility as they are both listed as Juniors but arrived over 3 years ago. From a possibly outdated Ivy League website:

Waivers of Ivy League Rules

9th or 10th Semester, or 5th Fall or Spring Term Eligibility
Ivy students are expected to use their four seasons of eligibility during the first four years in which they are enrolled. A student who plans to use a season of eligibility beyond his or her first four years of enrollment will need a waiver. This is true even if the student is enrolled in his or her eighth term, but took a semester off, and it is therefore his or her fifth season on campus. A waiver is not required if a student competes within 8 terms but took an entire academic year away from campus and is therefore on campus for a total of four fall and four spring terms. For a waiver to be granted there must be a non-athletic reason for any variation in the studentís enrollment pattern from the traditional four years. If there is a medical reason for the student not competing in four seasons within the first four years, medical documentation must be included that shows that the student was physically unable to compete. If the student competed during that academic year, even in a scrimmage or in the non-traditional season, an NCAA medical hardship waiver must also be requested. See above for information on filing Medical Hardship Waivers. In addition, there must be certification from an academic authority of a clear academic reason for the student to be on campus for the season in question. This could include a letter from the student's advisor, stating why the student will be on campus for a 9th term, or records from the registrar demonstrating that the student needs another term to graduate.

upprdeck
how does that work since you cant RS in the ivies.. you just graduate or you dont.

Taking five years to graduate isn't unusual (especially for student-athletes with the insane extra-curricular time commitments), are shelved for a year with an injury you can get the year of "athletic eligibility" back. Of course, if you finish the required coursework to graduate, you can't, since the Ivies don't allow graduate students to compete, IIRC, which is why you sometimes see Ivy students go someplace else for their fifth year.

All-American Darmstadt to miss 2018-19 with back injury per Sun article.

Porting this over from the 2017-18 thread

Cornell wrestlers going to Worlds:

Senior Freestyle Budapest, Hungary (October 20-28)

61kg: Nahshon Garrett '16 Withdrawn with an injury.
79kg: Kyle Dake '13 GOLD MEDAL

Senior Greco-Roman Budapest, Hungary (October 20-28)

72kg: Jon Jay Chavez '19 withdrawn, allegedly an injury

U23 Freestyle Bucharest, Romania (November 12-18)

61kg: Vitali Arujau '22 withdrawn for unspecified reasons
61kg: Chas Tucker '20 (backup) (but not the primary backup, so he's not the starter - NC State grad Sean Fausz takes Arujau's place - and wins silver)
97kg: Ben Honis '19 (backup)

Junior Greco-Roman Trnava, Slovakia (September 17-23)

82kg: Andrew Berreyesa '22 - SILVER MEDAL

Cadet Greco-Roman Zagreb, Croatia (July 1-7)

60kg: Phillip Moomey '22 - Did not place (0-2)

It's also possible that Dylan Palacio '17 is wrestling for Uruguay at Worlds but that's only based on a tweet of his and strangely enough he's not an incredibly reliable source (too weird). (EDIT: Nope.)

ugarte

upprdeck
how does that work since you cant RS in the ivies.. you just graduate or you dont.

Taking five years to graduate isn't unusual (especially for student-athletes with the insane extra-curricular time commitments), are shelved for a year with an injury you can get the year of "athletic eligibility" back. Of course, if you finish the required coursework to graduate, you can't, since the Ivies don't allow graduate students to compete, IIRC, which is why you sometimes see Ivy students go someplace else for their fifth year.

Another way some athletes get a "fifth" year is by taking a semester off so they don't graduate in four years. I remember RBs doing this back in the 90's (football only competes in the Fall, so the players take off spring semester to postpone graduation and retain Ivy eligibility for the following Fall). There is a rumor that Jon Jay Chavez is doing this as well, taking off this Fall but returning for the Spring semester, missing the opening matches but returning for EIWA and NCAA tournaments. If true, it would allow him to focus on Greco training for Worlds while also raising the possibility that he could come back to Cornell for '19-'20 as well.

Kyle Dake is wrestling for a gold medal tomorrow at the world championships. He demolished the #1 seeded Russian in the semifinal, and has outscored opponents 35-0. I’m sure Ugarte can fill us in with more details.

scoop85
Kyle Dake is wrestling for a gold medal tomorrow at the world championships. He demolished the #1 seeded Russian in the semifinal, and has outscored opponents 35-0. I’m sure Ugarte can fill us in with more details.

Dake is now world champion. Don't know score.

2-0 Dake. He goes unscored upon during the tournament. 37-0.

Post-match Dake interview:

[www.youtube.com]

Video:
[www.nbcsports.com]

I don't subscribe to TrackWrestling, so I didn't get to watch, but I can still fill in a little. Dake dominated the tournament, winning 11-0, 11-0 and 13-0 before the final. The semi was against the top-ranked wrestler, who had beaten Dake at the Yarygin tournament finals in Russia. Dake whipped him, throwing him twice and frustrating him so much that he got a one point penalty for an intentional head-butt. Real Dake-heads will remember that Taylor was the guy he beat in the NCAA finals his senior year at 165 and that Cox is the guy who beat him in the Olympic wrestling qualifying tournament in 2016 at 86kg. The World Championships added a weight at 79 this year, and Cox moved up, so all three guys were able to find a spot on the team in addition to Burroughs (who beat Dake in qualifying at 74kg in 2014 and 2015 IIRC. Unfortunately, 74 and 92 aren't Olympic weights, so the guys are going to have some decisions to make before Rio in 2020 unless the Olympics add more weight classes. (My guess is that Dake drops down to 74 and Cox goes back to 86.)

Overall, an insanely good tournament for the Americans. In 10 weight classes we have three golds (Dake at 79kg, Taylor at 86kg and Cox at 92kg), three bronze (Colon at 61kg, Burroughs at 74kg and Gwiazdowski at 125kg) and one silver (Snyder at 97kg). Unfortunately, it isn't going to be enough to catch the Russians. Who have 4 golds, 1 silver, 2 bronze and more victory points from wrestlers who didn't medal than we earned.

Meanwhile, Dylan Palacio didn't wrestle on behalf of Uruguay but he did do this:

The New Halloween Movie Looks Lit. #spookyseason pic.twitter.com/epnhUxZRgN

— Dylan Palacio (@greentoepalacio) October 14, 2018

Koll sent out his fall newsletter, so here's the skinny on the lineup.

125: Junior Noah Baughman is back and hopefully after two years of getting snubbed by the committee he'll get himself into NCAAs. He's got a backup this year in frosh Dom LaJoie, who will push for the starting spot.

133: NCAA qualifier and Senior Chas Tucker is back, and he'll be fighting to hold on to his starting spot over greyshirt frosh / elite recruit Vito Arujau, who has been wrestling internationally for age group titles for years.

141: Returning national champ Yianni Diakomihalis is back for his sophomore season. He's still recovering from knee surgery, from an injury he sustained during the quarterfinals of his national title run. He's back on the mats for practice and is expected to return to competition in mid December. A lot of people will fill in while he's out but this is not a contested weight class.

149: The older Koll, Will, is back again for his senior year, and hopefully this is the year he stays healthy and qualifies for NCAAs. He's had a strange career but has shown that he's good enough to get to the national tournament, but for some bad breaks along the way. We've got another brother backing him up - Max Pickett is the brother of former Big Red NCAA qualifier Duke.

157: Fredy Stroker is the favorite to come out of a crowded field, but this is still not one of the stronger weights. Jonathan Furnas, Christian Schoenherr and Hunter Richards are the top competition, with frosh Jake Brindley possibly (but probably not) in the mix.

165: All-American Jon Jay Chavez will take the starting spot when he comes back for spring semester, but in the meantime it will be either Milik Dawkins or, possibly greyshirt frosh and World Junior silver medalist Andrew Berreyesa.

174: Brandon Womack is back at 174 after a disappointing follow-up to his AA frosh campaign at 165. Apparently Berreyesa wants to try to take the 174 starting slot from Womack, so that's the first challenge of the year. If Womack holds on to the starting job, expect the team to try to get Berreyesa to go down to 165 to fill in while Chavez is out.

184: Soph Max Dean returns after finishing on the podium in 8th as a frosh. Jake Taylor will back him up and also back up 197.

197: Returning All-American Ben Darmstadt will be taking the year off to recover from a back injury he suffered during the national semifinals. In his place, senior Ben Honis, a 2017 NCAA qualifier, will take back the starting spot. He had been bulking up to challenge Sweany at heavyweight.

285: Sweany is back for his senior year. He's a two-time NCAA qualifier and, according to Coach Koll, is finally big enough for the weight class. Two highly recruited greyshirt frosh - Brendan Furman and Seth Janney - will back him up. To be honest, their greyshirt years weren't great so I think Sweany is secure in his spot unless Honis has trouble making weight and ends up challenging Sweany himself.

It's a decent lineup, particularly in the Spring, and especially if Arujau is nationally competitive right out of the gate. Looking forward to another great year. The season unofficially begins on November 11 with a lot of our wrestlers (multiple in a lot of weight classes) going "unattached" to a tournament at Binghamton and then starts for real on November 16 when we officially go to Binghamton for a dual meet.

ugarte
Koll sent out his fall newsletter, so here's the skinny on the lineup.

125: Junior Noah Baughman is back and hopefully after two years of getting snubbed by the committee he'll get himself into NCAAs. He's got a backup this year in frosh Dom LaJoie, who will push for the starting spot.

133: NCAA qualifier and Senior Chas Tucker is back, and he'll be fighting to hold on to his starting spot over greyshirt frosh / elite recruit Vito Arujau, who has been wrestling internationally for age group titles for years.

141: Returning national champ Yianni Diakomihalis is back for his sophomore season. He's still recovering from knee surgery, from an injury he sustained during the quarterfinals of his national title run. He's back on the mats for practice and is expected to return to competition in mid December. A lot of people will fill in while he's out but this is not a contested weight class.

149: The older Koll, Will, is back again for his senior year, and hopefully this is the year he stays healthy and qualifies for NCAAs. He's had a strange career but has shown that he's good enough to get to the national tournament, but for some bad breaks along the way. We've got another brother backing him up - Max Pickett is the brother of former Big Red NCAA qualifier Duke.

157: Fredy Stroker is the favorite to come out of a crowded field, but this is still not one of the stronger weights. Jonathan Furnas, Christian Schoenherr and Hunter Richards are the top competition, with frosh Jake Brindley possibly (but probably not) in the mix.

165: All-American Jon Jay Chavez will take the starting spot when he comes back for spring semester, but in the meantime it will be either Milik Dawkins or, possibly greyshirt frosh and World Junior silver medalist Andrew Berreyesa.

174: Brandon Womack is back at 174 after a disappointing follow-up to his AA frosh campaign at 165. Apparently Berreyesa wants to try to take the 174 starting slot from Womack, so that's the first challenge of the year. If Womack holds on to the starting job, expect the team to try to get Berreyesa to go down to 165 to fill in while Chavez is out.

184: Soph Max Dean returns after finishing on the podium in 8th as a frosh. Jake Taylor will back him up and also back up 197.

197: Returning All-American Ben Darmstadt will be taking the year off to recover from a back injury he suffered during the national semifinals. In his place, senior Ben Honis, a 2017 NCAA qualifier, will take back the starting spot. He had been bulking up to challenge Sweany at heavyweight.

285: Sweany is back for his senior year. He's a two-time NCAA qualifier and, according to Coach Koll, is finally big enough for the weight class. Two highly recruited greyshirt frosh - Brendan Furman and Seth Janney - will back him up. To be honest, their greyshirt years weren't great so I think Sweany is secure in his spot unless Honis has trouble making weight and ends up challenging Sweany himself.

It's a decent lineup, particularly in the Spring, and especially if Arujau is nationally competitive right out of the gate. Looking forward to another great year. The season unofficially begins on November 11 with a lot of our wrestlers (multiple in a lot of weight classes) going "unattached" to a tournament at Binghamton and then starts for real on November 16 when we officially go to Binghamton for a dual meet.

Great summary. Ben's injury may be enough to keep Lehigh atop the EIWA, but it could be really interesting come March. Cornell is again the class of the Ivy, though Princeton could make it close with a perfect dual. What has me interested:

* Can Noah maintain weight at 125? If so, he has the potential not only make nationals but win a few matches there. Dom will let him get the periodic break from making weight, which is nice.
* How long until Arujua takes Tucker's starting spot at 133? I like Tucker, but this feels a lot like 197 last year where Honis was good but Darmstadt was on a different level.
* Is Freddy Stroker ready? He had a couple of big wins last year, and far too many perplexing losses. He has top 20 potential but needs to be consistent.
* Was last season just a bad, illness-plagued season for Bama? If so, he can AA agin. If not, can he hold off Andrew Berreyesa, who looks better and better.
* Did Ben Honis bulk up too much to get back down to 197 and be competitive. If he can make weight reasonably comfortably, Honis is a top 15 guy at this weight.
* Does Cornell finally get a heavyweight to AA? Probably not, but a guy can dream.

mountainred
Great summary. Ben's injury may be enough to keep Lehigh atop the EIWA, but it could be really interesting come March. Cornell is again the class of the Ivy, though Princeton could make it close with a perfect dual. What has me interested:

* Can Noah maintain weight at 125? If so, he has the potential not only make nationals but win a few matches there. Dom will let him get the periodic break from making weight, which is nice.
* How long until Arujua takes Tucker's starting spot at 133? I like Tucker, but this feels a lot like 197 last year where Honis was good but Darmstadt was on a different level.
* Is Freddy Stroker ready? He had a couple of big wins last year, and far too many perplexing losses. He has top 20 potential but needs to be consistent.
* Was last season just a bad, illness-plagued season for Bama? If so, he can AA agin. If not, can he hold off Andrew Berreyesa, who looks better and better.
* Did Ben Honis bulk up too much to get back down to 197 and be competitive. If he can make weight reasonably comfortably, Honis is a top 15 guy at this weight.
* Does Cornell finally get a heavyweight to AA? Probably not, but a guy can dream.

All good questions and I'm looking forward to finding out.

Forgot that the first action of the season was at the NWCA All-Star classic, a one-day exhibition. #8 Max Dean agreed to a rematch with #3 Venz of Nebraska, who beat him in last year's consy quarterfinals and finished in 4th place overall. Same result, with Venz winning 10-5.

Dual season opens tonight at 7pm against Binghamton (on WatchESPN) and tomorrow at 3pm against West Virginia (ESPN+).

Last week, in unofficial action at the Bearcat Open (hosted by Binghamton) there was a mild surprise at 133 when returning NCAA qualifier Chas Tucker beat star recruit Vito Arujau and at least temporarily won Tucker the starting job in the early going. There are rumors that Arujau is going to try to wrestle at 125, and if he can pull it off without losing too much strength that would be very good for our lineup (no offense to Noah Baughman).

We also may have seen the last of senior (and the coach's son) Will Koll, who appeared to have reinjured his elbow in the 149 finals against Hunter Richard, now the likely starter. Also of interest, Honis won at 197 by pinning three straight opponents.

Most of our starters didn't make the trip.

ugarte
Dual season opens tonight at 7pm against Binghamton (on ESPN3)

Cornell didn't send anyone out for 125 and #1 Yianni Diakomihalis took the night off at 141 and we rolled anyway, 36-6. I didn't start watching until the middle of 165, so the early matches are just from the Cornell Wrestling twitter feed.

125: Cornell forfeit. We didn't send anyone to the Bearcat last week, so I wonder what's up with Baughman and LaJoie. [BU 6-0]
133: Because Yianni was scratched, Chas Tucker was bumped to 141 and Vito Arujau got a surprise start. Arujau wins by Tech Fall 22-7. [BU 6-5]
141: Tucker wrestled at 141 but probably weighed in for 133 in order to keep certification* at the weight. He won anyway, 8-2. [CU 8-6]
149: Hunter Richard started against Frankie Garcia, a surprise NCAA qualifier last year. Richard came from behind for a 5-4 win. [CU 11-6]
157: Fredy Stroker had his first match of the season, and started with an 8-0 Major Decision. [CU 15-6]
165: With Jon Jay Chavez taking the first semester off, Milik Dawkins takes over as the starter. He won a back-and-forth match, 7-5. [CU 18-6]
174: Brandon Womack struggled at times at 174 last year, but won comfortably today, 4-1. [CU 21-6]
184: Returning All-American Max Dean was supposed to face Binghamton's best wrestler but Binghamton sent out their backup. Dean destroyed him, 17-0 Tech Fall. [CU 26-6]
197: Ben Honis keeps the streak alive; he's now 4-0 with 4 pins. [CU 32-6]
285: Jeramy Sweany is out today (and may also be taking the semester off, I don't recall.) Freshman Brendan Furman got the start and was winning comfortably but was trying to safely release his opponent and get another takedown, but got sloppy and was taken down himself. He had a big enough lead, though, so he was able to deal with the takedown, the riding time point and two points for stalling and still win 7-6. [CU 36-6]

In matches where Cornell sent a guy to wrestle, we went 9-0. Not a bad start but also not unexpected.

* Weight cutting rules in college are really strict, so you have to "certify" at a weight. If you miss weight, there are rules about what the minimum time it will be before you can wrestle at a lower weight class to avoid encouraging unhealthy/dangerous rapid weight cutting.

ugarte

ugarte
Dual season opens tonight at 7pm against Binghamton (on ESPN3)

Cornell didn't send anyone out for 125 and #1 Yianni Diakomihalis took the night off at 141 and we rolled anyway, 36-6. I didn't start watching until the middle of 165, so the early matches are just from the Cornell Wrestling twitter feed.

125: Cornell forfeit. We didn't send anyone to the Bearcat last week, so I wonder what's up with Baughman and LaJoie. [BU 6-0]
133: Because Yianni was scratched, Chas Tucker was bumped to 141 and Vito Arujau got a surprise start. Arujau wins by Tech Fall 22-7. [BU 6-5]
141: Tucker wrestled at 141 but probably weighed in for 133 in order to keep certification* at the weight. He won anyway, 8-2. [CU 8-6]


* Weight cutting rules in college are really strict, so you have to "certify" at a weight. If you miss weight, there are rules about what the minimum time it will be before you can wrestle at a lower weight class to avoid encouraging unhealthy/dangerous rapid weight cutting.

Koll sent out an email blast indicating Lajoie would start v. WVU today, but the WPIE announcers kept saying it would be Noah. They made it sound more like a precautionary thing because the team didn't need the points at 125. We'll see.

Tucker and Arujau were both introduced at 133, which leads me to believe both made that weight. Vito dominated the poor kid from Bingo and Tucker was clearly better than his opponent despite the weight gap.

The match against WVU today was wild. West Virginia has a young team, and in ways I didn't expect they are physically STRONG and really took advantage whenever we got sloppy.

197: Not sure why the match started at 197 but it did. #18 Ben Honis against Noah Adams. Honis seemed to get outmuscled a lot, which I didn't expect at all. He found himself in a significant hole and almost came back, but Adams stayed strong as Honis seemed gassed late, and won 13-7. [WVU 3-0]
285: Brendan Furman faced David Smith. Furman wasn't able to convert takedowns the way he did yesterday but he did do a better job of escaping from bottom. Takedowns are better, though, and he lost 9-5. [WVU 6-0]
125: Frosh Dom Lajoie faced KJ Fenstermacher in Lajoie's first match for Cornell. Lajoie was down early, and almost came back, but ran out of time. A desperation shot at the end was turned against him which makes the score look worse than it was. He was really game after a tough first couple of minutes. Lost 8-3. [WVU 9-0]
133: Once again, Vito Arujau wrestled Caleb Rae at 133 as Tucker bumped to 141. And once again, Arujau dominated his opponent. Ran out of time before he could get the Tech Fall but won 17-3 for a Major Decision. [WVU 9-4]
141: Chas Tucker wrestled at 141 again, and I assume he weighed in at 133 again because his opponent looked significantly bigger. Early in the match it looked like Luke Martin's length would be a problem, but Tucker eventually found his offense and powered through for a 6-2 win. [WVU 9-7]
149: Hunter Richard got the start again, this time against Christian Monserrat. A really close match and it looked like he might pull it out late, but he got in a huge riding time hole early, and while he looked stronger at the end, he ran out of time and lost 8-7. [WVU 12-7]
157: Fredy Stroker was facing Hunter Jones, a wrestler who had a losing record last year. He attacked him without fear and dominated from the opening whistle. Stroker cruised to an 11-1 win. Much better than the tentative wrestling I saw from him most of last season. [WVU 12-11]
165: Milik Dawkins tried to outmuscle his opponent and paid the price, ending up on bottom more than he should have. Down by one, with Cornell favored at the last two weights, he really couldn't afford to give up bonus points to Nick Kiussis. Fortunately, Kiussis couldn't covert a late shot and a 7-1 loss kept the match close. [WVU 15-11]
174: #16 Brandon Womack was facing a solid frosh in Josh Ramirez. Ramirez took an early lead, but Womack eventually converted a strong takedown and was able to control from the top. He couldn't get back points but once he had the lead he didn't give it up, winning 6-4. [WVU 15-14]
184: #9 Max Dean faced Jackson Moomau and flat dominated him. He was up by 14, with a tech fall in hand, but he was able to convert the last turn into a pin before the nearfall points were awarded. All in the first period. [CU 20-15]

It was close, but Cornell pulls it out, with bonus points from Arujau, Stroker and Dean. Not the best dual, but Cornell has backups at a bunch of weights and we still pulled it off.

A few of our guys are going to be wrestling in the NYS championships tomorrow, but we often don't send all of our starters. The quality of competition isn't great - a lot of the field is JuCo and Division III - but there are always a handful of Cornell guys there.

ugarte

A few of our guys are going to be wrestling in the NYS championships tomorrow, but we often don't send all of our starters. The quality of competition isn't great - a lot of the field is JuCo and Division III - but there are always a handful of Cornell guys there.

Emphasis on few. Only a few years ago, most of the NY D1 schools sent their starters. Not anymore. Of interest to Big Red fans:


141: Recruit Ryan Moore cruised into the semi-finals where he lost to a freshman from Army and defaulted out (injury?).
149: Jon Furnas wins this event again, again over Chris Schoenherr. They were miles ahead of the rest of the field.
157: Recruit Colton Yapoujian won this weight for Finger Lakes Prep, even though I think he should be a HS senior. The last two bouts were close, but again, he had to be the youngest person in the field.
174: Freshman Andrew Berreyesa won the weight easily. He beat Soph. Jonah Barley 8-4 in the finals with 2 minutes of ride time. I wouldn't be surprised to see him a few times this year.

mountainred
174: Freshman Andrew Berreyesa won the weight easily. He beat Soph. Jonah Barley 8-4 in the finals with 2 minutes of ride time. I wouldn't be surprised to see him a few times this year.

He's blocked at 165 by Chavez and 174 by Womack but definitely is going to make it tough for Koll to keep him on the bench.

Whispers that Arujau is cutting to 125 and if he can do it and maintain strength holy cow that would be insanely good.

I just saw on USA Today website that Cornell has 3 of the top 25 high school wrestlers committed to them. The future looks quite bright for the program.

[usatodayhss.com]

Cop at Lynah
I just saw on USA Today website that Cornell has 4 of the top 25 high school wrestlers committed to them. The future looks quite bright for the program.

[usatodayhss.com]

Thanks for this.

As for the current team, we sent a somewhat depleted squad out to Las Vegas for the Cliff Keen Invitational, probably the toughest tournament outside of NCAAs (or the Big Ten, I suppose.) It's gone about as expected.

125: Dom LaJoie went 1-2.
133: #15 Chas Tucker went to the QF, with a win over #18 Thornton (Purdue) in the round of 16. He lost in the QF to #5 Pletcher (tOSU) 4-3, and apparently ran out of time to convert a takedown at the buzzer for the win. He's still alive for a shot at the podium, with his next match against #7 Duncan (Illinois).
141: Mike Venosa went 0-2. I guess he got the start because of his performance at the Bearcat Open in Binghamton? Yianni is supposed to come back for the dual meet against Northern Iowa in a couple of weeks.
149: Hunter Richard went 1-2.
157: Jakob Brindley went 2-2. Both losses to ranked wrestlers. No idea why Fredy Stroker sat this out.
165: Milik Dawkins went 2-2. Inexcusable loss to Harvard! But the two wins in the consolation were good to see. Flo Wrestling wrote that they don't expect Chavez to come back for Spring semester. If true, that would be a huge blow to the team. (If Berreyesa drops down to 165, it would mitigate it a bit.)
174: #16 Brandon Womack barely escaped his first round match, avoiding a second period pin and coming back to win 11-10. He steamrolled his second opponent before losing a wild match to #9 Lujan (N. Iowa) 16-9 in the QF. He's still alive and will face #13 Lydy (Purdue) in the wrestlebacks.
184: #9 Max Dean has been the standout so far. He won his first three matches 16-1, pin, 12-5. In the QF, facing #8 Ness (UNC), who beat him in the 7th place match at NCAAs last year, he rolled to a 10-0 major decision. His reward? #1 Martin (tOSU) in the semifinal.
197: #20 Ben Honis had a very good tournament going. First round tech fall, win over #17 Woodley (Oklahoma) and a lead with 30 seconds left against #3 Moore (tOSU) in his QF match, Unfortunately, he gave up a takedown and then back points to lose 7-2. He also apparently got banged up, because he has already forfeited his wrestleback match and the tournament doesn't start for another hour.
285: #12 Jeramy Sweany had a rough day. He won his opening match then lost on a late takedown to an unseeded wrestler before getting pinned in the first round of his consolation match by another unseeded wrestler.

Not even going to worry about team results with this many starters out (we're in 18th) but getting 3 medalists would be nice. LGR.

ugarte
... 3 medalists would be nice. LGR.

Two will have to do.

Tucker beat Duncan 5-3 before losing to #5 Lizak 7-0. He'll wrestle for 7th.

Womack lost in double ot, 7-5, and apparently was very close to winning in ot.

Dean lost to Martin 17-7, then to #3 Zavatsky 13-6. He'll wrestle Binghamton's DePrez for 5th.

Tucker won by medical forfeit and finished 7th.

Dean lost 5-3 to Deprez and finished 6th.

Team finished in 21st.

No way to sugarcoat it, that was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad tournament. No one beat their seed and only Tucker met it. Even the Friday bright spots of Max Dean and Ben Honis, dimmed on Saturday.

Koll has some interesting decisions to make in the coming months. He needs Vito's ability to get bonus points, but Tucker is wresting well enough that it is hard to say he's lost the starter's gig. Can Arujau get to 125? What does that mean for Noah, since there is clearly no room for him at 133. If Chavez is out of the season, can Berreysa get down to 165 (because Dawkins just doesn't look like a season-long solution)? What's the plan at 149 and 157? Not really a Rob decision, but is Ben really hurt, or was the medical forfeit just a precautionary move because the team needs him down the road.

mountainred
No way to sugarcoat it, that was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad tournament. No one beat their seed and only Tucker met it. Even the Friday bright spots of Max Dean and Ben Honis, dimmed on Saturday.

Koll has some interesting decisions to make in the coming months. He needs Vito's ability to get bonus points, but Tucker is wresting well enough that it is hard to say he's lost the starter's gig. Can Arujau get to 125? What does that mean for Noah, since there is clearly no room for him at 133. If Chavez is out of the season, can Berreysa get down to 165 (because Dawkins just doesn't look like a season-long solution)? What's the plan at 149 and 157? Not really a Rob decision, but is Ben really hurt, or was the medical forfeit just a precautionary move because the team needs him down the road.

I'm trying not to find it too terrible because while it wasn't *good* it also wasn't a nightmare.

The 125/133 question is an interesting one. If we can have Arujau/Tucker that's the best case scenario. At 125 LaJoie doesn't seem ready to be a force at 125. Baughman would be fine but he hasn't even wrestled yet. If Arujau can make the cut, great. If not... he really probably is the answer at 133 even though Tucker is a fringe AA candidate. Tucker has a high floor but a low ceiling - on his feet, he's great. He can defend and take down. He's even strong enough that he can get up when he's taken down. But he's a terrible top wrestler because his height seemingly makes it impossible to get the leverage to ride or turn good opposition. Arujau may have a lower floor - he's young - but the ceiling is so much higher.

The middle weights are a huge problem. Not Yianni, of course. But with Koll done at 149, Stroker in and out of the lineup at 157 and Chavez unavailable until January (at least!)... woof. It was nice that Brindley and Dawkins each won two matches at CKLV but that's still not the performance we need out of that group.

Womack continues to struggle in a way that has become predictable: his defense is not great, so he gets taken down, and his strength advantage at 165 isn't carrying over so when he earns takedowns he gets reversed because he overcommits to turning his opponent. At 165 he seemed to live for being on bottom because he would turn it into a Peterson but, again, the extra 9 pounds of opposition makes a huge difference. Berreyesa is going to push for this spot, I think.

Dean had a great tournament until he lost to Deprez in the 5th place match. The win over Ness was huge; the losses to Martin and ZZ were expected. The loss to Deprez, not so much.

Honis also had a good tournament until he ran into the top seed. He even held his own with him for most of the match; I hope his injury isn't serious. If it is, the lineup really falls apart.

Sweany objectively had a bad tournnament. He lost to two unseeded wrestlers and was bounced early. That said, I think it won't look nearly as bad at the end of the season. The wrestler from Pitt is for real. He is a former NAIA champ who transferred this year and he ended up finishing in 4th place. The wrestler from Wyoming also won a few more matches and took 7th. Still... not a great start to the year.

We need to heal up.

ugarte

mountainred
No way to sugarcoat it, that was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad tournament. No one beat their seed and only Tucker met it. Even the Friday bright spots of Max Dean and Ben Honis, dimmed on Saturday.

I'm trying not to find it too terrible because while it wasn't *good* it also wasn't a nightmare.

We need to heal up.

Boy, your nightmares must be terrifying.

I totally agree with your assessment of Arujau v. Tucker. Tucker's best case is probably the next Chris Villalonga, which isn't bad, but Vito could be the next Nahshon. Then again, maybe not. It just seems weird to take the third or fourth best starter (after YianniD, Dean and maybe Ben) out of the line-up.

As good as Dean looked on Friday, and he really did, his Saturday made it seem that Dean is top 10 but not in the elite tier at 184. The loss to Martin, who is a stud, wasn't close, and the 3rd period to double Z, who is also a stud, was one-sided.

I was only disappointed by Honis' Saturday because of the injury default. He looked good on Friday; he absolutely broke the kid from UNC.

mountainred
Boy, your nightmares must be terrifying.

I'm just saying it wasn't a nightmare because most of the lineup... shouldn't be the lineup in a couple of months. If it is, well then, let the sleep-screaming begin.

Another Kyle Dake video. I'm sure most high school wrestlers see these. Great shots of Cornell and Ithaca area.

After a short break (and before a longer one) Cornell went on the road to face Northern Iowa. Trivia for the non-wrestling fans out there, Coach Rob Koll's dad was a 3x national champion at Northern Iowa, and their facility is named for him.

Big news as the anticipated move of top freshman to 125 was finally possible, and the top of our lineup is now really, really good. When this all shakes out in a few weeks we should have top 20 wrestlers at 125, 133 and 141.

They decided to start the match at 141, where both teams had top 10 wrestlers.

141: #1 Diakomihalis was wrestling in his first dual meet of the season, and facing his first top-flight opponent, #10 Josh Alber. He won 12-2 and gave up only 2 escapes for a major decision. [CU 4-0]

149: Hunter Richard had his hands full with #10 Max Thomsen, and lost a 14-4 major decision. [4-4]

157: Fredy Stroker stayed undefeated on the season with a 12-6 victory over Patrick Schoenfelder. [CU 7-4]

165: In what may be his final match in the starting lineup (more later), Malik Dawkins fell to #12 Bryce Steiert 8-6. [7-7]

174: Another matchup of top 20 wrestlers, this time UNI had the higher ranked wrestler and chalk held. #14 Brandon Womack fell by major decision to #8 Taylor Lujan, 14-5. [UNI 11-7]

184: The second biggest match of the dual, #10 Max Dean - coming off of a rough tournament in Las Vegas - faced #7 Drew Foster. Dean came from behind and apparently the clock ran out right before what would have been a decisive takedown for Foster and won 6-5. [UNI 11-10]

197: With Ben Honis out (and probably in the concussion protocol), Jake Taylor wrestled in his first dual since 2016. He kept it close but fell 3-2 to freshman Tyrell Gordon. [UNI 14-10]

Hwt: Jeramy Sweany also had a rough time out in Las Vegas but returned to action with a 6-2 win over Izaak Schendelheim. [UNI 14-13]

125: Greyshirt freshman Vito Arujau wrestled his first match at 125 since probably his sophomore year of high school or something. He dropped down to face Jay Schwarm, who has spent some time in the top 20 and majored him, 17-7. [CU 17-14]

133: With Arujau dropping down to 125, #14 Chas Tucker can stop looking over his shoulder. Needing a win to secure the dual (I have no idea how the tiebreakers would have worked if he lost a regular decision), Tucker rolled to a 12-2 major decision. [CU 21-14]

Northern Iowa is a top 20 team, and there was definitely a chance we could lose this dual. With Honis out, Chavez still not back, a top 10 opponent at 184 and uncertainty at 125, I certainly wasn't super confident. This was a great win with a roster that is going to be even better soon. In an interview, Koll apparently said that All-American Jon Jay Chavez might be back for the South Beach Duals - a series of dual meets in Ft. Lauderdale over winter break (North Dakota State, Wyoming, Missouri and Indiana). He has to get back to 165, but I feel pretty good about that.

South Beach Duals started today, but later than expected: NDSU got snowed in and had to cancel the early morning matches. We wrestled at 11, but it was a hodge-podge lineup (we even had two matches at 149) against a grab bag of opponents who were around and willing: our wrestlers faced a mix of people from Kent State, Michigan State, Wyoming and Missouri.

At 1, we were up against Wyoming, which has a few ranked guys.

125: Arujau started slow but after a back-and-forth start, wasn't ever in danger and he won 7-4.

133: #13 Tucker faced #12 Bridges. Tucker just missed a takedown in the first period when he couldn't keep his toe in-bounds; there was no other scoring aside from the escapes at the start of the second and third periods. No scoring in SV, so it went to rideouts. Tucker couldn't get off of bottom, so rather than try to match the ride for 30 seconds, he opted to give up the point, let Bridges start on his feet, and win with a takedown. It didn't happen, and he lost 2-1.

141: Yianni had no trouble and won by Major.

149: In the 11am grab bag, Wyoming's sent out Jensen to wrestle Hunter Richard, who won by a point. In the dual, Schoenherr replaced Richard, but Jensen came out again for Wyoming. It was a back and forth match, with Schoenherr again winning by one. Schoenherr gave up a late takedown, but was able to escape with just enough time to get a takedown of his own at the buzzer and win.

157: #18 Stroker had a wild back and forth match with Krueger. He gave up a point late in the third for either an escape or a penalty (the video had no sound, much less an announcer) that left him down 6-5 and in need of a late takedown... which he got immediately. He then had to prevent an escape to keep the match from going to overtime, which he did by holding on to an ankle for dear life, at the expense of a stalling warning, which he had to give. Close win.

165: Jon Jay Chavez is with the team and listed on the roster, but he didn't wrestle in the 11 or 1pm sessions. Instead, Dawkins had to face #9 Ashworth. He kept it under a major but fell 6-0.

174: Like at 149, Wyoming offered the same wrestler for the 11am and 1pm sessions. Cornell won both times, this time with #14 Womack taking the W.

184: #6 Dean gave up a takedown off of the whistle but after that it was all Max. He ran away with this and got a tech fall.

197: Ben Honis wrestled and won in the morning. With the dual locked up, Cornell sent out the backup Jake Taylor who came close but lost 5-3.

Hwt: In part because of a loss to #20 Andrews in Las Vegas, Sweany fell out of the rankings. Andrews took the lead with a late takedown, but a Sweany reversal and riding time gave him a one point revenge victory.

At some point around the Stroker match Cornell was penalized a team point for unknown reasons, so the final score was 23-9.

We face Indiana and #6 Missouri tomorrow.

125 Vitali Arujau (Cornell) over Cole Verner (Wyoming) Dec 7-4 [CU 3-0]
133 Montorie Bridges (Wyoming) over Charles Tucker (Cornell) TB-1 2-1 [3-3]
141 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) over Sam Turner (Wyoming) Maj 14-6 [CU 7-3]
149 Chris Schoenherr (Cornell) over Jaron Jensen (Wyoming) Dec 8-7 [CU 10-3]
157 Fredy Stroker (Cornell) over Dewey Krueger (Wyoming) Dec 7-6 [CU 13-3]
165 Branson Ashworth (Wyoming) over Milik Dawkins (Cornell) Dec 6-0 [CU 12-6] ???
174 Brandon Womack (Cornell) over Casey Randles (Wyoming) Dec 6-0 [CU 15-6]
184 Maxwell Dean (Cornell) over Carless Looney (Wyoming) TF 17-2 [CU 20-6]
197 Cale Davidson (Wyoming) over Jacob Taylor (Cornell) Dec 5-3 [CU 20-9]
285 Jeramy Sweany (Cornell) over Brian Andrews (Wyoming) Dec 6-5 [CU 23-9]

Don't have the energy to post a detailed recap of the Indiana dual. We blew them out, with our only losses coming from a backup 157 pounder wrestling up at 165 and a forfeit at 197 when we didn't send a wrestler out to save his energy for the Missouri match and had the dual in hand. Arujau, Diakomihalis, Dean and Sweany all dominated their matches. Richard had a scrappy come-from-behind win at 149.

We lost badly to Minnesota, in a dual that turned out to be more winnable than I expected.

125: Arujau had to go to OT but won in the Sudden Victory period and was never really threatened. [CU 3-0]

133: #3 Tucker lost a close one against #6 Erneste and very nearly won it. It was tied late in the third period when he almost converted a takedown but Erneste was able to roll out before Tucker got control and Ernest finished the scramble on top for the win. [3-3]

141: #1 Diakomihalis beat #3 Eierman 3-1 in the biggest match of the night. Eierman was Yianni's only loss last year, and it came in the South Beach duals. It wasn't exactly a revenge match - that was last year's national semi - but it was still good for any lingering demons to be exorcised. Eierman never really threatened to score and a late takedown from Diakomihalis was all he needed. [CU 6-3]

149: Schoenherr lost 6-1. I haven't watched it yet. [6-6]

157: #13 stroker lost to an unranked wrestler because he was too passive until it was too late. Disappointing loss. He's still not trying to score enough. [Mizzou 9-6]

165: Dawkins lost to a ranked wrestler fairly decisively. Chavez never did come back this weekend. [MIzzou 13-6]

174: #13 Womack lost 5-0 to #4 Lewis. Haven't watched this one yet either. The Track archives are being janky. [Mizzou 16-6]

184: #6 Dean lost to fringe top-20 Wisner 7-6. Bad loss, though in my opinion he got jobbed by the ref and should have gotten credit for a takedown in the last 10 seconds for the winning margin. [Mizzou 19-6]

197: Backup Taylor wrestled again, surprisingly, so I hope we don't find out that Honis is hurt. He seemed to have gotten a concussion a few weeks ago but he wrestled and won early on Saturday so I expected to see him against Missouri. No dice. Taylor lost 7-4. [Mizzou 22-6]

Hwt: Sweany is likely to get back into the top 20 after this weekend. He capped it off with his second win over a top 20 wrestler, beating #13 Elam 3-2. Two top 20 wins and a pin should get him ranked again. [Mizzou 22-9]

Crazy that with a full squad and a better final 10 seconds in the Tucker and Dean matches and this could have been a 21-10 win. Looking forward to seeing Chavez and Honis wrestling for us soon.

The big rivalry dual against Lehigh today and ... bleh. Lehigh has been dealing with a combination of injuries and an insanely brutal out-of-conference schedule and came in 2-7. A lot of their injured guys are back and now we're dealing with some holes in the lineup and well, it wasn't a lot of fun.

157: The day started with Fredy Stroker, recently demoted from the top 20 against true frosh Humphreys, now at #17. Humphreys got an early TD and turned Stroker to his back for what looked like it might be a pin but actually it was worse. Stroker called for injury time and couldn't continue, apparently hurt his shoulder. We'll see how bad it turns out to be. [LU 6-0]

165: Jon Jay Chavez was listed as a possible starter for his first match of the year. It was not to be. Adam Santoro came out for Cornell, replacing Milik Dawkins. He faced Gordon Wolf. Santoro came out firing but Wolf kept turning Santoro's attacks into his own points with brute strength. Then Santoro headbutted Wolf in the face in the middle of a scramble, bloodying his mouth and sending him into the concussion protocol. Wolf was OK(ish), though, and after a long delay came back to finish his 10-6 victory. [LU 9-0]

174: Another change to the roster as #15 Brandon Womack sat in favor of world junior silver medalist and greyshirt frosh Andrew Berreyesa in his first dual meet start against #7 Jordan Kutler. Berreyesa looked slow and tired quickly and looked despondent by the second period. Kutler won an easy 13-4 MD. [LU 13-0]

184: ANOTHER roster change. An expected top 10 matchup between last season's EIWA finalists wasn't to be, as #7 Ryan Preisch sat out against #10 Max Dean. Preisch's backup is no joke - he almost beat Ben Darmstadt at 197 last season in both meetings - but he wasn't strong enough at 184 to handle Dean and seemed to get tired. Dean wins Cornell's first match, 8-4. [LU 13-3]

197: Finally, a starter is back, with #20 Ben Honis facing #15 Jake Jacobsen. Honis wrestled a great match and came out on top, 6-2. [LU 13-6]

Hwt: SUrprisingly, not a top 20 matchup, as Sweany didn't get back into the rankings, but Jordan Wood is at #7. Sweany started strong with a takedown and it also looked like Wood may have hurt his knee, but after a brief injury timeout, Wood came back from being down 5-0 to storm to a 17-10 win. [LU 16-6]

125: #11 Vito Arujau found himself against a backup with a 1-5 record, so it looked like an opportunity for at least 5 points. Not to be. Vito dominated but he never got any back points, much less a fall. He still won an 18-6 MD but it felt disappointing. [LU 16-10]

133: #13 Chas Tucker faced Brandon Paetzell, whose 6-6 record belies some impressive recent wins. Tucker controlled almost the entire match, but gave up a takedown that cost him a major. Wins 8-4. [LU 16-13]

141: With #1 Yianni Diakomihalis facing a backup promoted to starter by injury, it looked like Cornell would have its first lead of the dual. Somehow, no! Yianni was able to score early, but like Vito, wasn't even really trying for back points. In the middle of the second period, Yianni went for a takedown and held on to a bad position too long and ended up giving one up. He never seemed the same after that, limping a little and flexing the knee he injured last year, and never really seeming the same. He held his lead easily, but in a real shocker, never got the last takedown to get bonus points, settling for a 13-7 win to tie the dual. [16-16]

149: The final match of the day saw another new starter for Cornell, with last year's starter Jonathan Furnas replacing Hunter Richard against Cortland Schuyler, an occasional top 20 guy. Furnas came close to a takedown so many times, but Schuyler was able to wriggle out of it each time and the match went to SV tied 1-1. In the extra period, Furnas took a dangerous shot and paid for it, with Schuyler sliding behind for an easy takedown to win the match and the dual for Lehigh. [LU 19-16]

This sucked! And if Yianni is really hurt it REALLY, REALLY sucks. Chavez is still missing, Womack was out, Stroker may be hurt, even our wins were less impressive than they should have been. As I type this I'm watching Princeton battle their asses off against Oklahoma State and for the first time in a long time, I'm sweating the Ivy title. Not great!

I feel like I am stealing ugarte's thunder, but Cornell rested 4 starters and still beat Columbia handily. The snow forced the cancellation of a match at Sacred Heart, which almost certainly would have been a chance for more back-ups to wrestle. Next Saturday should be two more Ivy wins (Brown and Harvard have some good wrestlers, but not much depth) and a chance to worry more if Yianni, Stroker, Chavez and Womack miss the duals.

The Columbia meet was weird. Arujau had an easy time at 125, Dean steamrolled his opponent for a tech fall at 187, Honis was dominating his opponent and pinned him at 197, Sweany was never threatened and coasted at Heavyweight. The other 5 weights were weird.

Columbia didn't put anyone up to face Tucker at 133 and Santoro had a big win over one of Columbia's better wrestlers at 157, which gave Cornell wins at 7 weights.

In Cornell's three losses, we had two guys wrestling light (133 pound Noah Baughman at 141 and 157 pound freshman Jake Brindley at 165). At 174, highly-touted freshman (and world junior silver medalist) Andrew Berreyesa wrestled his second match in a row in place of Brandon Womack and ... looked shockingly bad. Couldn't get off of bottom and a 4-1 lead after two periods turned into a 10-4 loss.

I really want to see everyone healthy soon! There are other matches in between but I want a full lineup for Princeton on 2/9.

ugarte
The Columbia meet was weird. Arujau had an easy time at 125, Dean steamrolled his opponent for a tech fall at 187, Honis was dominating his opponent and pinned him at 197, Sweany was never threatened and coasted at Heavyweight. The other 5 weights were weird.

Columbia didn't put anyone up to face Tucker at 133 and Santoro had a big win over one of Columbia's better wrestlers at 157, which gave Cornell wins at 7 weights.

In Cornell's three losses, we had two guys wrestling light (133 pound Noah Baughman at 141 and 157 pound freshman Jake Brindley at 165). At 174, highly-touted freshman (and world junior silver medalist) Andrew Berreyesa wrestled his second match in a row in place of Brandon Womack and ... looked shockingly bad. Couldn't get off of bottom and a 4-1 lead after two periods turned into a 10-4 loss.

I really want to see everyone healthy soon! There are other matches in between but I want a full lineup for Princeton on 2/9.

After reading Coach Gabe Dean's match report, I was right that Baughman and Brindley were wrestling above their weight classes. What I didn't know is that Berreyesa also weighed in at 165 for his 174 match, so he was also wrestling against a heavier opponent.

I don't know yet what it means that Berreyesa is weighing in at 165 just when it seems Jon Jay Chavez might be ready to return.

Faced Brown in the first dual of the day. As expected, we rolled them.

125: #11 Vito Arujau started a little slow but once he got going, didn't stop. Came just short of a tech, winning 16-3 MD. [CU 4-0]
133: #12 Chas Tucker started fast and cruised, getting the last second points Arujau couldn't for a 20-5 Tech. [CU 9-0]
141: #1 Yianni Diakomihalis came back after his week off and steamrolled the younger brother of former Cornell wrestlers Brian and Dylan Realbuto 22-4. [CU 14-0]
149: Jonathan Furnas appears to be back as the starter at 149. He came out fast and never let up, finishing by fall in the first period. [CU 20-0]
157: Adam Santoro may be the Cornell starter for good, depending on Fredy stroker's injury. He wrestled very well today and won 10-5. [CU 23-0]
165: Andrew Berreyesa wrestled his first match at 165 and it looked a lot like what was happening at 174. He was facing Brown's only ranked wrestler, #18 Jonathan Viruet, so that couldn't have helped, but he again had trouble on bottom and it was compounded by his getting overwhelmed strength-on-strength on his feet. No bueno. He got pinned midway through the third period. [CU 23-6]
174: #15 Brandon Womack got the first takedown and a really nice 6 point move from the bottom and then used those points to coast in the third period for an 8-5 win. [CU 26-6]
184: #10 Max Dean gave up the first takedown and almost gave up another, but as soon as the second period started he dominated, getting a takedown and then eventually the fall against an opponent who has spent some time in the top 20. [CU 32-6]
197: #17 Ben Honis cruised to an easy 14-5 major decision. [CU 36-6]
285: Jeramy Sweany was up comfortably when he inadvertently poked his opponent in the eye, forcing the opponent to medically default. From everyone's body language, it didn't look like there was a risk of long term damage. [CU 42-6]

You can catch the first hour of the Harvard dual on ESPN+ while waiting for the puck drop against Colgate (unless you are, like me, going to Levien to watch us play Columbia in basketball).

Harvard was much worse than Brown

125: Vito dominated but again spent too much time on top without getting back points for a tech. This is a very mild criticism. 20-8 win. [CU 4-0]

133: Tucker had a surprising amount of trouble with a guy who came in with a losing record, and who he majored at an early season tournament. Couldn't get out from underneath the entire second period and even gave up a stalling point that sent the match to OT. He was able to escape in the third period and OT, though, and pulled it together for the TD in SV2 to win 6-4. [CU 7-0]

141: That poor kid was 1-10 coming in and never had a chance against Yianni. Lasted to the second period, which is something. [CU 13-0]

149: Furnas with a gutty win. Had trouble finishing his shots even when he got in on a leg then got trapped on bottom for all of the second period. With about 30 seconds left, he made a beautiful throw to put the guy right on his back. Damn near got a fall out of it but the TD2+2NF was enough to win 4-1. [CU 16-0]

157: Santoro had a great match. Whipped that kid but to be fair, his opponent started the season wrestling at 141 and hasn't won a D-1 match this season. 16-0 tech that took just over a period. [CU 21-0]

165: Berreyesa finally hit the throw he tried three times against Brown and put his opponent right on his back for the fall. [CU 27-0]

174: Womack was on the verge of winning by tech fall when he was able to stick his opponent with 3 seconds left. Sweet. [CU 33-0]

184:Dean had no trouble and was able to beat the first period buzzer for Cornell's third straight pin. [CU 39-0]

197: Honis dominated throughout and the RT point at the end was the difference in getting a 7 minute tech, 21-6. [CU 44-0]

Hwt: Harvard didn't send out their heavy, so Sweany won by forfeit. [CU 50-0]

Cornell rolled #24 Lock Haven team. Mostly looked very good. You can watch the replay here if you have ESPN+.

174: Womack with a workmanlike but comfortable win. Gave up a late stalling point to avoid any real danger (though there really was some danger as Siegrist got more aggressive late in the match). [CU 3-0]

184: Dean-Hazel was the only match between closely ranked wrestlers, and a rematch of a close Dean win last year. Second verse, same as the first. Hazel is strong and made Dean work but he came back from down 4-1 to win 7-5. [CU 6-0]

197: Honis had no trouble and lost a race with the clock for a tech fall. [CU 10-0]

285: Sweany got into two funky scrambes against Haines and nearly got pinned during the first and did get pinned the second time. [CU 10-6]

125: Arujau was never threatened. [CU 13-6]

133: Tucker with his second consecutive OT win against a wrestler who shouldn't get him to OT, and he benefited from a weird stalling call late in the match, but it only mattered because he was dinged with a weird stalling call earlier. In SV, he took his opponent straight to his back and nearly got a pin in SV. [CU 16-6]

141: Last year, Yianni beat Shoop 16-1. This one was all Yianni again but he was able to square him up for the fall. Also, significant, this was Yianni's first match without a knee brace since his surgery following the national championship. [CU 22-6]

149: Hell of a win for Furnas, who has looked very good since taking over 149. Got the late TD he needed for the MD. Will Koll, surprisingly, came back and wrestled a couple of matches at the Edinboro Open this weekend. I don't think anyone expected to see him again this season. I wonder if a wrestle-off is coming to see who represents Cornell at EIWA. [CU 26-6]

157: Santoro was down 5-0 when he took an upper body hold and literally cartwheeled himself into a takedown and put Klucker straight his back for the fall. It was amazing. If you can, go to 1:26:50 in the link above. I've watched it a dozen times. [CU 32-6]

165: Berreyesa kept it under a major against #5 Marsteller but wasn't competitive. Getting him adjusted to college rules and improving his raw strength is going to be one of the most important coaching jobs this team will do in the offseason. [CU 32-9]

174: #15 Brandon Womack (Cor) won by decision over Jared Siegrist (LHU), 4-3
184: #10 Max Dean (Cor) won by decision over #18 Cory Hazel (LHU), 7-5
197: #17 Ben Honis won by major decision over Parker McClellan (LHU), 15-2
285: #9 Thomas Haines (LHU) won by fall over Jeramy Sweany (Cor), 1:39
125: #11 Vitali Arujau (Cor) won by decision over Luke Werner (LHU), 11-4
133: #13 Chas Tucker (Cor) won by decision over DJ Fehlman (LHU), 9-5 (sv1)
141: #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cor) won by fall over #20 Kyle Shoop (LHU), 4:42
149: Jonathan Furnas (Cor) won by major decision over Jonathan Ross (LHU), 10-2
157: Adam Santoro (Cor) won by fall over Adam Klucker (LHU), 3:46
165: #5 Chance Marsteller (LHU) won by decision over Andrew Berreyesa (Cor), 9-2

ugarte
Cornell rolled #24 Lock Haven team. Mostly looked very good. You can watch the replay here if you have ESPN+.

174: Womack with a workmanlike but comfortable win. Gave up a late stalling point to avoid any real danger (though there really was some danger as Siegrist got more aggressive late in the match). [CU 3-0]

184: Dean-Hazel was the only match between closely ranked wrestlers, and a rematch of a close Dean win last year. Second verse, same as the first. Hazel is strong and made Dean work but he came back from down 4-1 to win 7-5. [CU 6-0]

197: Honis had no trouble and lost a race with the clock for a tech fall. [CU 10-0]

285: Sweany got into two funky scrambes against Haines and nearly got pinned during the first and did get pinned the second time. [CU 10-6]

125: Arujau was never threatened. [CU 13-6]

133: Tucker with his second consecutive OT win against a wrestler who shouldn't get him to OT, and he benefited from a weird stalling call late in the match, but it only mattered because he was dinged with a weird stalling call earlier. In SV, he took his opponent straight to his back and nearly got a pin in SV. [CU 16-6]

141: Last year, Yianni beat Shoop 16-1. This one was all Yianni again but he was able to square him up for the fall. Also, significant, this was Yianni's first match without a knee brace since his surgery following the national championship. [CU 22-6]

149: Hell of a win for Furnas, who has looked very good since taking over 149. Got the late TD he needed for the MD. Will Koll, surprisingly, came back and wrestled a couple of matches at the Edinboro Open this weekend. I don't think anyone expected to see him again this season. I wonder if a wrestle-off is coming to see who represents Cornell at EIWA. [CU 26-6]

157: Santoro was down 5-0 when he took an upper body hold and literally cartwheeled himself into a takedown and put Klucker straight his back for the fall. It was amazing. If you can, go to 1:26:50 in the link above. I've watched it a dozen times. [CU 32-6]

165: Berreyesa kept it under a major against #5 Marsteller but wasn't competitive. Getting him adjusted to college rules and improving his raw strength is going to be one of the most important coaching jobs this team will do in the offseason. [CU 32-9]

174: #15 Brandon Womack (Cor) won by decision over Jared Siegrist (LHU), 4-3
184: #10 Max Dean (Cor) won by decision over #18 Cory Hazel (LHU), 7-5
197: #17 Ben Honis won by major decision over Parker McClellan (LHU), 15-2
285: #9 Thomas Haines (LHU) won by fall over Jeramy Sweany (Cor), 1:39
125: #11 Vitali Arujau (Cor) won by decision over Luke Werner (LHU), 11-4
133: #13 Chas Tucker (Cor) won by decision over DJ Fehlman (LHU), 9-5 (sv1)
141: #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cor) won by fall over #20 Kyle Shoop (LHU), 4:42
149: Jonathan Furnas (Cor) won by major decision over Jonathan Ross (LHU), 10-2
157: Adam Santoro (Cor) won by fall over Adam Klucker (LHU), 3:46
165: #5 Chance Marsteller (LHU) won by decision over Andrew Berreyesa (Cor), 9-2

Great summary as always, although I wouldn’t characterize Womack’s win as “comfortable”

scoop85
Great summary as always, although I wouldn’t characterize Womack’s win as “comfortable”

It could have been more comfortable.

ugarte

scoop85
Great summary as always, although I wouldn’t characterize Womack’s win as “comfortable”

It could have been more comfortable.

Ok, I’ll go with “marginally comfortable”

Cornell hosts Penn and Princeton on Saturday. Princeton match is basically for the Ivy title. The Penn match will likely be a blowout. Cornell is a heavy favorite over Princeton too but the Tigers have a handful of ranked guys, including top 5 wrestlers at 149 and 197 and the matchup at 125 is between two freshmen ranked just outside of the top 10.

ugarte
Cornell hosts Penn and Princeton on Saturday. Princeton match is basically for the Ivy title. The Penn match will likely be a blowout. Cornell is a heavy favorite over Princeton too but the Tigers have a handful of ranked guys, including top 5 wrestlers at 149 and 197 and the matchup at 125 is between two freshmen ranked just outside of the top 10.

Penn was a blowout as expected, 40-3. I'm awfully nervous about a match for Cornell to be a heavy favorite. It would be nice if Vito could get things started with a win at 125.

mountainred

ugarte
Cornell hosts Penn and Princeton on Saturday. Princeton match is basically for the Ivy title. The Penn match will likely be a blowout. Cornell is a heavy favorite over Princeton too but the Tigers have a handful of ranked guys, including top 5 wrestlers at 149 and 197 and the matchup at 125 is between two freshmen ranked just outside of the top 10.

Penn was a blowout as expected, 40-3. I'm awfully nervous about a match for Cornell to be a heavy favorite. It would be nice if Vito could get things started with a win at 125.

The middle weights, where we're technically weakest, are not great for Princeton either (with the exception of 149, obvs). I may be overconfident but I don't think i'm crazy.

As for Penn, I watched the first half and we damn near swept. Vito won by tech (with the help of RT), Yianni won by tech (in under 2 minutes) and Santoro won by pin. Tucker is back to his razor's edge ways and won by a point and Furnas came so close to getting a takedown in SV for a huge upset win before getting taken down himself.

Didn't see the second half but Womack won by fall and Honis also won by tech. Berreyesa won close, as did Sweany. Dean took the night off and Taylor came in and won with a major, which is pretty cool (unless it means Dean is hurt, but I suspect they were giving Taylor a start as a Senior on the last home weekend since tomorrow's senior night dual may be closer than I think and we may need Dean to wrestle Parker.)

ugarte

mountainred

ugarte
Cornell hosts Penn and Princeton on Saturday. Princeton match is basically for the Ivy title. The Penn match will likely be a blowout. Cornell is a heavy favorite over Princeton too but the Tigers have a handful of ranked guys, including top 5 wrestlers at 149 and 197 and the matchup at 125 is between two freshmen ranked just outside of the top 10.

Penn was a blowout as expected, 40-3. I'm awfully nervous about a match for Cornell to be a heavy favorite. It would be nice if Vito could get things started with a win at 125.

The middle weights, where we're technically weakest, are not great for Princeton either (with the exception of 149, obvs). I may be overconfident but I don't think i'm crazy.

As for Penn, I watched the first half and we damn near swept. Vito won by tech (with the help of RT), Yianni won by tech (in under 2 minutes) and Santoro won by pin. Tucker is back to his razor's edge ways and won by a point and Furnas came so close to getting a takedown in SV for a huge upset win before getting taken down himself.

Didn't see the second half but Womack won by fall and Honis also won by tech. Berreyesa won close, as did Sweany. Dean took the night off and Taylor came in and won with a major, which is pretty cool (unless it means Dean is hurt, but I suspect they were giving Taylor a start as a Senior on the last home weekend since tomorrow's senior night dual may be closer than I think and we may need Dean to wrestle Parker.)

Can't vouch for his opponent, but Womack was dominant. The announcer really made it sound like Taylor wrestled in honor of his senior status and that Dean will go today.

And you aren't crazy about today, but there is a path for Princeton. Ayers has really done a great job at that program.

After 165 through 285, it's 21-0 Cornell. Honis nips #3 Brucki with a late takedown after riding him out in the 2nd period.

ugarte, you clearly weren't crazy. 34-7 final. Of course, if you had just told me Berreyesa was going to start things off with a pin, I would have been a lot less nervous.

And Vito dominated Pat Glory at 125. Huge performance.

An amazing, amazing performance against Princeton through the whole lineup.

165: Berreyesa won the silver medal at World Juniors in Greco and it really shows in how he wrestles. Really tries almost exclusively for throws, which you almost never see in college because the scoring system doesn't reward it... but when it works, OH BABY! Berreyesa's first attempt at a throw backfired and he ended up taken down himself, but the second was a perfect hold and toss and he put his man right on his back and held him for the pin. [CU 6-0]

174: #14 Womack was facing a talented freshman and I suspect Princeton was eyeing an upset here. Coming off of the Berreyesa pin, Womack almost made it back-to-back falls. Stefanek went right for Womack's leg and got it, but Womack defended, caught Stefanek's head and cradled him to his back for a quick 6 points. No idea how Stefanek avoided the pin. After that, Stefanek was the more aggressive wrestler and nearly caught up, but Womack held on to win 7-5. [CU 9-0]

184: #12 Dean beat Parker 16-0 last year, and things weren't much different today - Dean wins by tech fall 16-1. [CU 14-0]

197: In one of the two feature matches of the day, #14 Honis was facing Princeton's #3, Brucki. Brucki started strong, with a pair of takedowns in the first period, and the period ended with him up 4-2. In the second period, Honis was dominant, starting on top and riding for the entire two minutes. The third period was wild. Honis escaped for 1, and quickly enough that he kept riding time over a minute. Brucki got another takedown, to make the score 6-3, but again Honis got out quickly and preserved his riding time advantage. With around 30 seconds left, Honis took a shot and got Brucki's leg; Brucki defended but after a scramble, Honis finished on top to tie the match with 20 seconds left. Brucki was able to grab Honis' foot, and worked for the escape or reversal, and almost had it, but Honis barely held on until the end of the match, and the riding time point gave him a huge upset win, 7-6. [CU 17-0]

285: Sweany was wrestling against Elfstrum, who was competing at 184 earlier in the year. That's way too much weight to give up. Sweany won by major decision, 10-2. [CU 21-0]

125: In the second feature bout, #11 Arujau was facing #10 Glory, in a matchup of the two top freshmen 125s in the country. It was all Vito from the opening whistle, and he cradled Glory to get the fall in the second period. Glory is known to be a really tough top wrestler, but I don't think he ever got a chance to be on to be on top. [CU 27-0]

133: #13 Tucker is still doing his high-wire act. He scored a takedown in the first period but the rest of the scoring came from escapes for both guys. He was never really in danger of being taken down and won 3-2. [CU 30-0]

141: #1 Diakomihalis had a weird match where the ref was calling everything against him - two stalls, an illegal hold, a takedown off a scramble that seemed a little dubious - and he still won 14-6 for a major decision. [CU 34-0]

149: Furnas was facing #2 Kolodzik - a two-time All-American - and he battled tough. For his third straight match against a ranked wrestler, Furnas kept it close but gave up a takedown in the closing seconds or OT to lose by 2 points, falling 3-1 each time. [CU 34-3]

157: Santoro lost to Monday 16-5 but the match was closer than the score would indicate. Santoro nearly hit a couple of big moves, but missing them was catastrophic as Monday was able to turn the whiffs into points of his own. Still, Santoro kept battling until the end. [CU 34-7]

With the win, Cornell goes 5-0 in the Ivy League for the 17th straight season, winning our 17th straight Ivy title. It is the longest Ivy title streak in any sport for any school, ever.

Cornell closes the pre-tournament schedule with three tough matches - Virginia Tech, North Carolina and Ohio State. Looking forward to it.

ugarte

With the win, Cornell goes 5-0 in the Ivy League for the 17th straight season, winning our 17th straight Ivy title. It is the longest Ivy title streak in any sport for any school, ever.

Over at WrestlingReport the poster klehner said: "Cornell lost only 7 matches, giving up 26 team points in their five [Ivy] matches. You have to go back to the 2010-11 season to find
a Cornell team that dominated more: the team including Grey, Dake, Simaz, and Bozak lost 6 matches and 21 points that year."

Sure, it's a down year across the IL (except for Princeton), but that's an incredible season.

Started the weekend with a 17-16 win over VT on the road. Got a huge upset from Dean over the #3 wrestler in the country and got the last team point on tiebreaker criteria. Exciting stuff. More later.

Cornell went to ACC country for a pair of duals - first to Blacksburg to face Virginia Tech, then to Chapel Hill. Coach Koll was a 4x All-American at UNC and won the national title at 158 his senior year.

Virginia Tech

184: By random draw the dual started at 184, with #13 Dean taking on #3 Zavatsky, who had beaten him in their first two matches. This one was all Dean - he scored early and kept up the pace, never letting Zavatsky get to his feet once he was taken down. Dominant 9-0 win. Huge upset. [CU 4-0]

197: #7 Honis was facing an unranked wrestler. He was a little sloppy but never in danger. [CU 7-0]

Hwt: Tough matchup for Sweany against #18 Miller. He kept it close but a late takedown that he couldn't escape from was the difference. [CU 7-3]

125: #8 Arujau looked to have an early takedown and instead was launched airborne and to his back. He wriggled out before giving up back points but it put him in a 2-0 hole. No matter, Arujau wasn't really threatened the rest of the match, though there wasn't much scoring. Not as close as the score, imo. [CU 10-3]

133: #13 Tucker was facing #14 Meyers. After a couple of weeks of close wins against much less scary competition, I was glad to see Tucker come out firing in this one. He scored early and kept up the pace, cruising to an 8-3 win. [CU 13-3]

141: #1 Diakomihalis was facing an unranked wrestler, but the computer at WrestleStat loves the guy, ranking him #5. He was strong and flexible but not fast enough to defend Yianni's shots or to score his own. The computer was right to keep this one close and give Yianni the win. [CU 16-3]

There was an intermission after the first five, and it was like night and day.

149: Furnas was apparently dinged up last week, so in a huge surprise, Will Koll came back to the lineup for Cornell. His injury early this year seemed like it would be career-ending, but he got one last weekend on the mat. He scored first, but tired late and lost. [CU 16-6]

157: Santoro tried for a throw and ended up on his own back. Never recovered from the deficit. [CU 16-9]

165: Facing #8 Lewis, Berreyesa was never in this one. He kept it under a tech, which didn't seem likely early in the third. [CU 16-13]

174: The bookends to the dual were the feature matches. #14 Womack facing #7 McFadden. Womack had a good reversal and kept it close, but had trouble escaping and lost a close match, bringing the dual to a tie and sending it to criteria. [16-16]

TB: (1) Wins: 5-5; (2) Falls 0-0; (3) Total points, with Cornell 63 - VT 57. [CU 17-16]

On to North Carolina.

149: Koll had a much tougher test, against #4 O'Connor. This one wasn't close and Koll did well to stay off of his back, losing by tech. [UNC 5-0]

157: Santoro faced #20 McClure. After a wild first period scramble where both coaches challenged the same scramble - each saying that they're own wrestler deserved a takedown, the refs said nobody got points and so nobody had any challenges left for the rest of the night. Santoro got the only takedown of the match and barely hung on as the clock was expiring to win 3-2. [UNC 5-3]

165: Again, Cornell got the only takedown of the match and Berreyesa held off his opponent 3-2. [CU 6-5]

174: #14 Womack in another defensive battle. Again, Cornell got the only takedown, but this time Womack also had a really strong ride and didn't let his opponent escape from bottom and won 4-1. [CU 9-5]

184: #13 Dean faced #14 Ness for the 5th time in the last two years. Dean won earlier this year, but Ness won the 7th place match at the NCAA tournament. The refs were active in this match, calling Dean for stalling 3 times, giving Ness his only two points. Koll was mad at the third call but I have to admit that the first two seemed legit. In any event, Dean got the only two takedowns and won 5-2. [CU 12-5]

197: #7 Honis dominated wire to wire and got a last second takedown to push the margin to 8 for the major decision. [CU 16-5]

285: Facing #20 Daniel, Sweany had his second chance to notch a quality win. His counter-moves and strength were the difference here, as a late takedown was the difference in a 6-4 win. [CU 19-5]

125: #8 Arujau was amazing from the opening whistle and needed only a few more seconds to get the tech. [CU 23-5]

133: #13 Tucker faced #20 Harding. Tucker again came out firing and took an early lead that he never gave up. He did give up a rare late takedown, but there wasn't enough time for Harding to threaten again. [CU 26-5]

141: #1 Diakomihalis faced Headlee last year and barely held on for a 7-6 win. He seemed determined to get bonus points this year to make up for it. He came as close as you possibly can, with the ref awarding Headlee an escape with one second left in the match to hold the margin to 7. Yianni did not like the call. [CU 26-6]

Next weekend the team faces Ohio State in Ithaca with the feature match at 141, where Yianni will face #2 McKenna, a two-time All-American who he didn't have to wrestle last year.

Friday 2/15
#9 Cornell 17, #14 Virginia Tech 16
184: #13 Max Dean (C) won by major decision over #3 Zack Zavatsky (VT), 9-0
197: #7 Ben Honis (C) won by decision over Brooks Wilding (VT), 11-5
285: Billy Miller (VT) won by decision over Jeramy Sweany (C), 5-3
125: #8 Vitali Arujau (C) won by decision over Joey Prata (VT), 4-2
133: #13 Chas Tucker (C) won by decision over #14 Korbin Myers (VT), 8-3
141: #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by decision over Mitch Moore (VT), 6-1
149: Ryan Blees (VT) won by decision over Will Koll (C), 9-6
157: B.C. LaPrade (VT) won by decision over Adam Santoro (C), 10-5
165: #8 Mekhi Lewis (VT) won by major decision over Andrew Berreyesa (C), 14-5
174: #7 David McFadden (VT) won by decision over #14 Brandon Womack (C), 8-6

Saturday 2/16
#9 Cornell 296, #13 North Carolina 5
149: #4 Austin O'Connor (UNC) won by technical fall over Will Koll (C), 23-8
157: Adam Santoro (C) won by decision over #20 Josh McClure (UNC), 3-2
165: Andrew Berreyesa (C) won by decision over Sawyer Davidson (UNC), 3-2
174: #14 Brandon Womack (C) won by decision over Devin Kane (UNC), 4-1
184: #13 Max Dean (C) won by decision over #14 Chip Ness (UNC), 5-2
197: #7 Ben Honis (C) won by decision over Brandon Whitman (UNC), 13-5
285: Jeramy Sweany (C) won by decision over #20 Cory Daniel (UNC), 6-4
125: #8 Vitali Arujau (C) won by major decision over Joe Heilman (UNC), 17-4
133: #13 Chas Tucker (C) won by decision over #20 Gary Wayne Harding (UNC), 6-4
141: #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by decision over A.C. Headlee (UNC), 9-2

ugarte
Cornell went to ACC country for a pair of duals - first to Blacksburg to face Virginia Tech, then to Chapel Hill. Coach Koll was a 4x All-American at UNC and won the national title at 158 his senior year.

Virginia Tech

184: By random draw the dual started at 184, with #13 Dean taking on #3 Zavatsky, who had beaten him in their first two matches. This one was all Dean - he scored early and kept up the pace, never letting Zavatsky get to his feet once he was taken down. Dominant 9-0 win. Huge upset. [CU 4-0]

197: #7 Honis was facing an unranked wrestler. He was a little sloppy but never in danger. [CU 7-0]

Hwt: Tough matchup for Sweany against #18 Miller. He kept it close but a late takedown that he couldn't escape from was the difference. [CU 7-3]

125: #8 Arujau looked to have an early takedown and instead was launched airborne and to his back. He wriggled out before giving up back points but it put him in a 2-0 hole. No matter, Arujau wasn't really threatened the rest of the match, though there wasn't much scoring. Not as close as the score, imo. [CU 10-3]

133: #13 Tucker was facing #14 Meyers. After a couple of weeks of close wins against much less scary competition, I was glad to see Tucker come out firing in this one. He scored early and kept up the pace, cruising to an 8-3 win. [CU 13-3]

141: #1 Diakomihalis was facing an unranked wrestler, but the computer at WrestleStat loves the guy, ranking him #5. He was strong and flexible but not fast enough to defend Yianni's shots or to score his own. The computer was right to keep this one close and give Yianni the win. [CU 16-3]

There was an intermission after the first five, and it was like night and day.

149: Furnas was apparently dinged up last week, so in a huge surprise, Will Koll came back to the lineup for Cornell. His injury early this year seemed like it would be career-ending, but he got one last weekend on the mat. He scored first, but tired late and lost. [CU 16-6]

157: Santoro tried for a throw and ended up on his own back. Never recovered from the deficit. [CU 16-9]

165: Facing #8 Lewis, Berreyesa was never in this one. He kept it under a tech, which didn't seem likely early in the third. [CU 16-13]

174: The bookends to the dual were the feature matches. #14 Womack facing #7 McFadden. Womack had a good reversal and kept it close, but had trouble escaping and lost a close match, bringing the dual to a tie and sending it to criteria. [16-16]

TB: (1) Wins: 5-5; (2) Falls 0-0; (3) Total points, with Cornell 63 - VT 57. [CU 17-16]

On to North Carolina.

149: Koll had a much tougher test, against #4 O'Connor. This one wasn't close and Koll did well to stay off of his back, losing by tech. [UNC 5-0]

157: Santoro faced #20 McClure. After a wild first period scramble where both coaches challenged the same scramble - each saying that they're own wrestler deserved a takedown, the refs said nobody got points and so nobody had any challenges left for the rest of the night. Santoro got the only takedown of the match and barely hung on as the clock was expiring to win 3-2. [UNC 5-3]

165: Again, Cornell got the only takedown of the match and Berreyesa held off his opponent 3-2. [CU 6-5]

174: #14 Womack in another defensive battle. Again, Cornell got the only takedown, but this time Womack also had a really strong ride and didn't let his opponent escape from bottom and won 4-1. [CU 9-5]

184: #13 Dean faced #14 Ness for the 5th time in the last two years. Dean won earlier this year, but Ness won the 7th place match at the NCAA tournament. The refs were active in this match, calling Dean for stalling 3 times, giving Ness his only two points. Koll was mad at the third call but I have to admit that the first two seemed legit. In any event, Dean got the only two takedowns and won 5-2. [CU 12-5]

197: #7 Honis dominated wire to wire and got a last second takedown to push the margin to 8 for the major decision. [CU 16-5]

285: Facing #20 Daniel, Sweany had his second chance to notch a quality win. His counter-moves and strength were the difference here, as a late takedown was the difference in a 6-4 win. [CU 19-5]

125: #8 Arujau was amazing from the opening whistle and needed only a few more seconds to get the tech. [CU 23-5]

133: #13 Tucker faced #20 Harding. Tucker again came out firing and took an early lead that he never gave up. He did give up a rare late takedown, but there wasn't enough time for Harding to threaten again. [CU 26-5]

141: #1 Diakomihalis faced Headlee last year and barely held on for a 7-6 win. He seemed determined to get bonus points this year to make up for it. He came as close as you possibly can, with the ref awarding Headlee an escape with one second left in the match to hold the margin to 7. Yianni did not like the call. [CU 26-6]

Next weekend the team faces Ohio State in Ithaca with the feature match at 141, where Yianni will face #2 McKenna, a two-time All-American who he didn't have to wrestle last year.

Friday 2/15
#9 Cornell 17, #14 Virginia Tech 16
184: #13 Max Dean (C) won by major decision over #3 Zack Zavatsky (VT), 9-0
197: #7 Ben Honis (C) won by decision over Brooks Wilding (VT), 11-5
285: Billy Miller (VT) won by decision over Jeramy Sweany (C), 5-3
125: #8 Vitali Arujau (C) won by decision over Joey Prata (VT), 4-2
133: #13 Chas Tucker (C) won by decision over #14 Korbin Myers (VT), 8-3
141: #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by decision over Mitch Moore (VT), 6-1
149: Ryan Blees (VT) won by decision over Will Koll (C), 9-6
157: B.C. LaPrade (VT) won by decision over Adam Santoro (C), 10-5
165: #8 Mekhi Lewis (VT) won by major decision over Andrew Berreyesa (C), 14-5
174: #7 David McFadden (VT) won by decision over #14 Brandon Womack (C), 8-6

Saturday 2/16
#9 Cornell 296, #13 North Carolina 5
149: #4 Austin O'Connor (UNC) won by technical fall over Will Koll (C), 23-8
157: Adam Santoro (C) won by decision over #20 Josh McClure (UNC), 3-2
165: Andrew Berreyesa (C) won by decision over Sawyer Davidson (UNC), 3-2
174: #14 Brandon Womack (C) won by decision over Devin Kane (UNC), 4-1
184: #13 Max Dean (C) won by decision over #14 Chip Ness (UNC), 5-2
197: #7 Ben Honis (C) won by decision over Brandon Whitman (UNC), 13-5
285: Jeramy Sweany (C) won by decision over #20 Cory Daniel (UNC), 6-4
125: #8 Vitali Arujau (C) won by major decision over Joe Heilman (UNC), 17-4
133: #13 Chas Tucker (C) won by decision over #20 Gary Wayne Harding (UNC), 6-4
141: #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by decision over A.C. Headlee (UNC), 9-2

That Saturday score must be an all-time record, no?

Jim Hyla

ugarte
#9 Cornell 296, #13 North Carolina 5

That Saturday score must be an all-time record, no?

ha. I noticed the typo on the cornell athletics site but forgot to fix it.

coach koll's national championship match:
[mobile.twitter.com]

Regular season closes tonight with a dual against #5 Ohio State. Chalk says the Buckeyes are the favorites at seven of ten weights but surprisingly the computer at WrestleStat.com (which ranks wrestlers ELO-style but compares them one-on-one inscrutably) is picking the Big Red (with upsets at 133, 165 and 197). A lot of great matches here, particularly 141 and 197.

125: #8 Arujau vs. #17 Heinselman
133: #13 Tucker vs. #6 Pletcher
141: #1 Diakomihalis vs. #3 McKenna
149: Furnas vs. #3 Jordan
157: Santoro vs. #6 Hayes
165: Berreyesa vs. #12 Campbell
174: #14 Womack vs. #19 Smith
184: #7 Dean vs. #1 Martin
197: #7 Honis vs. #2 Moore
285: Sweany vs. #11 Singletary

6:30 on ESPN+.

ugarte
Regular season closes tonight with a dual against #5 Ohio State. Chalk says the Buckeyes are the favorites at seven of ten weights but surprisingly the computer at WrestleStat.com (which ranks wrestlers ELO-style but compares them one-on-one inscrutably) is picking the Big Red (with upsets at 133, 165 and 197). A lot of great matches here, particularly 141 and 197.

125: #8 Arujau vs. #17 Heinselman
133: #13 Tucker vs. #6 Pletcher
141: #1 Diakomihalis vs. #3 McKenna
149: Furnas Koll vs. #3 Jordan
157: Santoro vs. #6 Hayes
165: Berreyesa vs. #12 Campbell
174: #14 Womack vs. #19 Smith
184: #7 Dean vs. #1 Martin
197: #7 Honis vs. #2 Moore
285: Sweany vs. #11 Singletary

6:30 on ESPN+.

Rough night for the good guys. I only watched scattered matches (life, you know?) so some of this is just off of the score.

149: They started at 149 so the feature match could close it out. Furnas still out, so Koll stepped in. Facing the #3 wrestler in the country when you're not in game shape is a tall order and the outcome was as expected: tech fall. [OSU 5-0]

157: Santoro a bit out of his depth. Loses a major. [OSU 12-0]

165: Got to watch this one. Berreyesa did a good job tying up Campbell with his Greco underhooks. It kept Campbell from attacking and forced him into two stall calls, giving Berreyesa a 1-0 lead. After an escape in the second he led 2-0. Campbell escaped as expected to start the third, but Berreyesa was doing a good job frustrating Campbell and then ... took a halfearted shot and Campbell fired back and took Berreyesa down straight to his back and Berreyesa was lucky to avoid the pin. Still, that takedown and rideout was worth seven points, and a close win turned into a not so close loss. [OSU 15-0]

174: Saw this one too. Womack kept giving up his ankle way too easily. He never really took a good shot of his own, and was working exclusively to get points off of a counter. It never worked. He nearly converted one counterattack, but only scored off of two escapes and some stalling points, losing 5-4. [OSU 18-0]

184: Martin is #1, undefeated, and Dean did well to avoid the major decision. [OSU 21-0]

197: Some people saw this as a potential upset for Honis and the Big Red but it wasn't to be. Moore wins going away for a major decision. [OSU 25-0]

285: Sweany had the lead for a lot of this one but couldn't hold it, and Cornell lost it's 7th in a row. Oof. [OSU 28-0]

125: Arujau gets the takedowns he needs and rides hard, and Cornell gets on the board with a shutout win. [OSU 28-3]

133: Finally got to start watching again. Tucker and Pletcher have both spent this season in low scoring defensive dogfights. Earlier this year, Pletcher won 4-3 when Tucker just missed getting a takedown at the buzzer to win. This time there was no offensive scoring in regulation, sending the match to OT tied 1-1. No offense in SV either, so it went to rideouts. Tucker went on top first, and rode for the full 30 seconds, but not without some controversy. The refs awarded an escape with 9 seconds left, but Cornell challenged, saying the wrestlers were already out of bounds. Cornell won the challenge and the point came off the board. Then, while Tucker was trying to hold on to Pletcher and return him, Ohio State challenged, claiming that Tucker locked his hands, an illegal move that would have cost him a point. Refs looked at that too, but upheld the call on the mat. Tucker escaped in his rideout and was able to avoid being taken down, for a huge resume-builder win against a top 10 opponent. [OSU 28-6]

141: All Yianni. He got two takedowns from his feet and did an incredible job defending when McKenna was able to get in on one of his legs. Not only did he never give up a takedown, but he countered one move with a really creative ankle pick to get his own points. He did give up a reversal on an awkward scramble, but he showed that he still has the incredible flexibility he had before his injury. Great finish to a rough night. [OSU 28-9]

Rough finish to the regular season but no real surprises in the results of this one. The computer predicatron is going to have to lick its wounds. The team is looking strong and healthy heading into EIWAs and really starting to get some buzz for nationals and another top 10 finish. Conference tournament is March 8th in Binghamton.

Future Cornellian, Greg Diakomihalis, wins NY state wrestling title. Rochester D and C

George64
Future Cornellian, Greg Diakomihalis, wins NY state wrestling title. Rochester D and C

Runs away with it, going pin, pin, 16-3 tech, pin. All of the pins came in the first period and maybe the tech did too. Fourth state title and he's only a junior.

Also at National Preps, the two finalists at 170 were both Cornell recruits, Julian Ramirez and Mason Reiniche.


In other wrestling news, there are certain minimum criteria that wrestlers have to meet for postseason qualifications. First, there is the pre-allocation of bids to each conference in each weight class. They are assigned by a combination of a conference's wrestlers' Top 30 Coaches Ranking, Top 30 RPI (minimum 17 matches) and > .700 Win% (minimum 8 matches), but on an upward-sliding scale so that a max of 29 bids are allocated. For a wrestler to earn a bid for the conference, he needs two of three of those criteria, but the criteria will be slightly different for each weight class. Because the last day to wrestle a qualifying match was yesterday, Cornell sent three wrestlers to Lock Haven to compete in a small tournament for a little resume polishing (which, I am pretty sure is the point of the tournament, so props to Lock Haven for hosting it):

149: Jonathan Furnas went 2-0 to get his winning percentage to exactly .700. His RPI the last time it was released was 16, so even though he is unlikely to be ranked, he may still earn the conference a bid, depending on where the winning percentage slider lands.

157: Adam Santoro went 2-0 to boost his winning percentage to .737. I assume he wrestled in the hope of getting a ranking or an RPI boost? At 12-5 he was already over .700 and his last match - against a guy who is 2-11 - may have hurt his RPI more than it helped? We'll see. He was on the fringes of the top 30 in WrestleStat's unofficial calculation.

285: Jeramy Sweany went 1-0 to get his season total to 17 matches so he qualifies for an RPI. He will be high enough in the top 30 for both RPI and CR that his .647 winning percentage shouldn't hurt him earning an allocation.

All of them quit the tournament as soon as they achieved their goals since an upset loss would have hurt much more than a win would have helped, and forfeiting a match doesn't count against your record for the purposes of these calculations. Similarly, a forfeit win doesn't help, which is why Sweany needed the match yesterday - Harvard didn't send out a heavyweight as a sacrificial lamb so the "win" helped the team but left a hole in his resume.

I'll let ugarte correct my math, but it looks like Furnas and Santoro earned the league automatic berths -- of course that is only part of the test as both have to win at the EIWA (Furnas needs to finish 5th, Santoro needs 6th). Only Berreyesa will have to "steal" a spot by finishing at least 4th next weekend.

In other news, another blue-chip recruit is headed to Ithaca: Josh Saunders

mountainred
I'll let ugarte correct my math, but it looks like Furnas and Santoro earned the league automatic berths -- of course that is only part of the test as both have to win at the EIWA (Furnas needs to finish 5th, Santoro needs 6th). Only Berreyesa will have to "steal" a spot by finishing at least 4th next weekend.

Apparently Furnas fell just short of earning the conference a spot, according to Seton Hall Pirate (who I think is the SID for the Eastern Wrestling League). Furnas had a qualifying RPI but no CR and his winning percentage probably fell short of the minimum once they set the sliding scale - mildly disappointing because they only allocated 28 of 29 potential autobids, but it's possible there was no other configuration that would allow exactly one more qualifier. You can see how many qualifiers each conference got at each weight in the attached image.

Wt.  CR  RPI
125   7   10 Arujau - i thought his undefeated record would get him a much higher RPI
133  12    5 Tucker - amazing season especially when the consensus was that arujau was going to take his starting spot
141   1    2 Diakomihalis - also undefeated, beat #1 and #3 in RPI
149  NA   22 Furnas - the extra two matches almost paid off; i was hoping he'd sneak into the CR as well - i think he'll steal the bid.
157  32   25 Santoro - qualifying for RPI made the difference because you need to be top 30 to get earn a conference AQ spot
165  NA   NA Berreyesa - 4-4 record not going to cut it but finishing top four is not a longshot
174  15   12 Womack - got to be more careful on defense - he rarely loses when he shouldn't but he also hasn't pulled an upset in ages
184   8   10 Dean - two losses he needs to avenge - Lehigh's Preisch (pinned him at EIWA finals last year) and Binghamton's Deprez
197   9   10 Honis - may even get the top seed because of his win over Princeton's Brucki
285  22   24 Sweany - I want to see him back at NCAAs a third time

In other news, another blue-chip recruit is headed to Ithaca: Josh Saunders

We have such a good pipeline. He's the second top-flight junior commitment that I know of (Yianni's brother is the other). The seniors we have coming in are also insanely good. Right now we have three highly-ranked recruits blowing through the NJ State tournament.

Does each conference also get a few wildcard entries to distribute as they see fit?

nshapiro
Does each conference also get a few wildcard entries to distribute as they see fit?

No. The conferences each get "pre-allocated bids" based on the expected entrants at the respective conference tournaments. At the conference tournaments, each school gets to enter one wrestler in each weight class. If the wrestler who earned the pre-allocated bid isn't the school's entry, the conference loses the bid unless the backup also would have met the qualifying criteria (based on Coaches' Ranking, RPI and winning percentage). The top X finishers in each weight class, based on the number of allocated bids (the table from my prior post less any replacement entries), get Automatic Qualification for NCAAs.

At NCAA's, there are 33 wrestlers for each weight. That means that there are at least 4 at-large entries in each weight, but they are not given to the conferences to distribute. The NCAA selects the at-large entrants from among wrestlers who meet certain post-tournament criteria.

A wrestler is eligible for an at-large bid if he meets at least two of the following criteria:

a) .700 Win% against D-I at weight
b) Top 33 RPI (post-tournament)
c) Top 33 CR (post-tournament)
d) One win over an NCAA automatic qualifier.
e) Finishing one spot out of AQ position at the conference tournament.
f) .700 Win% overall (presumably all college, any weight)

How they choose among the potential at-large candidates is not entirely clear but I think it is more complicated than "most criteria."

Also, you have to have been entered into your conference tournament. So if a starter gets injured and fails to earn an automatic bid, an otherwise-qualified backup will not be considered for an at-large bid.

ugarte

nshapiro
Does each conference also get a few wildcard entries to distribute as they see fit?

No. The conferences each get "pre-allocated bids" based on the expected entrants at the respective conference tournaments. At the conference tournaments, each school gets to enter one wrestler in each weight class. If the wrestler who earned the pre-allocated bid isn't the school's entry, the conference loses the bid unless the backup also would have met the qualifying criteria (based on Coaches' Ranking, RPI and winning percentage). The top X finishers in each weight class, based on the number of allocated bids (the table from my prior post less any replacement entries), get Automatic Qualification for NCAAs.

At NCAA's, there are 33 wrestlers for each weight. That means that there are at least 4 at-large entries in each weight, but they are not given to the conferences to distribute. The NCAA selects the at-large entrants from among wrestlers who meet certain post-tournament criteria.

A wrestler is eligible for an at-large bid if he meets at least two of the following criteria:

a) .700 Win% against D-I at weight
b) Top 33 RPI (post-tournament)
c) Top 33 CR (post-tournament)
d) One win over an NCAA automatic qualifier.
e) Finishing one spot out of AQ position at the conference tournament.
f) .700 Win% overall (presumably all college, any weight)

How they choose among the potential at-large candidates is not entirely clear but I think it is more complicated than "most criteria."

Also, you have to have been entered into your conference tournament. So if a starter gets injured and fails to earn an automatic bid, an otherwise-qualified backup will not be considered for an at-large bid.

With all respect to the great wrestling fans on this forum and thread, this is almost as confusing as actually watching a wrestling match.

Seriously, thanks to ugarles, mountainred, and the other contributors here. I don't totally understand or follow the sport that well, but your amazing write-ups on this forum help me keep up in great detail how these athletes are doing, and sometimes I learn things like how scoring works.

RichH

With all respect to the great wrestling fans on this forum and thread, this is almost as confusing as actually watching a wrestling match.

Seriously, thanks to ugarles, mountainred, and the other contributors...

lol you're welcome

think of it this way - instead of a conference champ getting a bid, a conference's entire body of work earns the number of automatic qualifier spots for roughly every top 29 guy they have. then, at the conference tournament, everyone else tries to steal those bids. after the tournament, the at-large bids are like saving throws for the 4ish best guys who honked their conference tournament.

Here is a great guide to help understand scoring at the EIWA Tournament.

This is NOT my work, but the work of a wrestling poster, JDALU75, who is well-connected at the EIWA. All credit to him. His summary:

Here's an easy way to keep up with the live scoring --

In the championship bracket a win in the preliminary round is worth 1.0 point. Wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals are each worth 7.0 points. Wins in the finals are worth 4.0 points. Add any bonus points earned in each round.

In the consolation bracket a win in the first prelim round is worth 0.5 point. Wins in the second prelim round, quarterfinals, and semifinals are each worth 3.5 points. Wins in all consi final (placement) bouts are worth 1.0 point. Add any bonus points earned in each round.

Bonus points are: 2.0 for wins by fall, forfeit (including med forfeits), default, and disqualification; 1.5 for wins by technical fall; 1.0 for wins by major decision. No bonus points are awarded for an advancement by bye.

mountainred
Wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals are each worth 7.0 points. Wins in the finals are worth 4.0 points.

If this seems strange, remember:

A win in the QF means that you place no worse than 6th, so the wrestler is given the points for placing 6th (6 points, plus 1 for advancing = 7).
A win in the SF earns the placement points for 2nd (12 points, plus 1 for advancing, but that includes the six already credited for at least getting to 6th last round = 7).
The difference between 2nd and 1st is 4 additional placement points but there is no "advancement" point because the Final is considered a medal round, like the consolation bouts for 3d, 5th and 7th.

The way wrestling placement points work is that there is a one point bump for the difference between 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8 but a 4 point difference between 1/2. (16/12, 10/9, 7/6. 4/3).

"Pre-seeding" for the conference tournament is released tonight, then there is a coaches conference where they get to complain about the decisions the EIWA made and there may be minor changes on Thursday. Seedings are finalized at weigh-in on Friday morning, with any pre-seed who fails to show or make weight dropped out of the seeding before the brackets are drawn and locked. Each weight is seeded at least 8 and up to 10 deep with 16 member schools.

Came across this video. Two current Big Red wrestlers facing each other in high school

[www.youtube.com]

The pre-seeds are out for EIWAs. You can find the full conference list here.

For us, all of our wrestlers are seeded. The first column is the seed, followed by the number of AQ bids in parens.

125: Arujau    1 (4)
133: Tucker    1 (4)
141: Yianni    1 (3)
149: Furnas    7 (5)
157: Santoro   6 (6)
165: Berreyesa 7 (4)
174: Womack    2 (5)
184: Dean      1 (6)
197: Honis     2 (6)
285: Sweany    3 (4)

I was knocking around Seton Hall Pirate's pre-allocation page, and noticed that he included the sliding scales for each weight.

I was looking because I wanted to look closer at Cornell's final-weekend strategy to get extra allocated bids. Here's what I figured out:

Going 1-0 was perfect for Sweany, since he qualified for RPI and ended up with top 25 CR and RPI and the scale was 30/30/.700

Going 2-0 was perfect for Santoro because he ended up with NA/25/.737 when he needed 29/29/.710 - and by forfeiting to American's Khizan Clarke instead of beating him,* *Clarke* was able to keep his RPI at 26 and apparently push his winning percentage high enough for the pre-allocation.

Furnas, though.. he's the reason I was looking at this in the first place. He went 2-0 to get to exactly .700, which made him technically eligible but it wasn't enough. The scale at 149 was 29/29/.710... but if he'd wrestled and beat West Virginia's Hornfeck* (who he beat in South Beach) he'd have bumped to .714 and earned the pre-allocation. If he lost, he would (in retrospect) have been no worse off.

Anyway, this is what I do with my time while I'm waiting for the tournament on Friday.

* not saying he'd have definitely won

RichH

With all respect to the great wrestling fans on this forum and thread, this is almost as confusing as actually watching a wrestling match.

If you want to read something wild, check this out from John Aadland, the SID for the conference about the many meanings of "winning percentage," which corrects me on a mistake I made on that forum about American's 157, believing that his winning percentage was below the reported minimum of .710:

John Aadland
If you look at things until your eyes glaze over you'll see that Clarke's WP is .720. Don't count non-Div I bouts nor his 149 results. Pirate's pretty reliable on this stuff.

ugarte
I don't doubt that Pirate takes it seriously but I keep looking at Clarke's record - I double-checked WrestleStat against the American stats page and I get 17-7 (.708) at 157, discounting all of 149, a loss against Nebraska-Kearney and the MFF over Santoro at Lock Haven. You only get to .720 (18-7) if you count the Santoro MFF. And if you count the Santoro MFF, it would drop Santoro from 14-5 (.737) to 14-6 (.700).

John Aadland
Ah! But if you go far enough down the rabbit hole you'll see that you're looking at the wrong winning percentage. Med forfeit losses never count against a wrestler. Med forfeit wins don't count in the winning percentage used to determine RPI, but they do count in the stand-alone winning percentage used as one leg of determining AQs. Clarke's RPI winning percentage is .708, but his stand-alone WP is .720. Both are different from his full winning percentage of .692 (includes a loss to a D2 wrestler at 157), which would only factor in his earning bronze status if he fails to finish high enough at EIWAs. No sane man would come up with a system using three different winning percentages, but the NCAA did.

(Eyes glazing over)

ugarte

Going 2-0 was perfect for Santoro because he ended up with NA/25/.737 when he needed 29/29/.710 - and by forfeiting to American's Khizan Clarke instead of beating him,* *Clarke* was able to keep his RPI at 26 and apparently push his winning percentage high enough for the pre-allocation.

Furnas, though.. he's the reason I was looking at this in the first place. He went 2-0 to get to exactly .700, which made him technically eligible but it wasn't enough. The scale at 149 was 29/29/.710... but if he'd wrestled and beat West Virginia's Hornfeck* (who he beat in South Beach) he'd have bumped to .714 and earned the pre-allocation. If he lost, he would (in retrospect) have been no worse off.

Anyway, this is what I do with my time while I'm waiting for the tournament on Friday.

* not saying he'd have definitely won

Interesting stuff, if a bit in the weeds. I can't imagine that if Santoro had beaten Khizan Clarke it would have hurt his RPI (Clarke's RPI is top 30). A loss on the other hand.... Absolutely the right call to send Adam to the showers after 2-0.

I'd like to think Jon would have beaten the WVU wrestler, but after two weeks off, I can see the coaching staff taking the 2 wins and hoping for the best. It almost worked. 5 AQ's give him a fair shot, but he's facing a tough QF (assuming he wins his first).

I would not be the least surprised to see Dean moved off the top seed line by the coaches. I bet Lehigh lobbies for it hard.

ugarte

RichH

With all respect to the great wrestling fans on this forum and thread, this is almost as confusing as actually watching a wrestling match.

If you want to read something wild, check this out from John Aadland, the SID for the conference about the many meanings of "winning percentage," which corrects me on a mistake I made on that forum about American's 157, believing that his winning percentage was below the reported minimum of .710:

John Aadland
If you look at things until your eyes glaze over you'll see that Clarke's WP is .720. Don't count non-Div I bouts nor his 149 results. Pirate's pretty reliable on this stuff.

ugarte
I don't doubt that Pirate takes it seriously but I keep looking at Clarke's record - I double-checked WrestleStat against the American stats page and I get 17-7 (.708) at 157, discounting all of 149, a loss against Nebraska-Kearney and the MFF over Santoro at Lock Haven. You only get to .720 (18-7) if you count the Santoro MFF. And if you count the Santoro MFF, it would drop Santoro from 14-5 (.737) to 14-6 (.700).

John Aadland
Ah! But if you go far enough down the rabbit hole you'll see that you're looking at the wrong winning percentage. Med forfeit losses never count against a wrestler. Med forfeit wins don't count in the winning percentage used to determine RPI, but they do count in the stand-alone winning percentage used as one leg of determining AQs. Clarke's RPI winning percentage is .708, but his stand-alone WP is .720. Both are different from his full winning percentage of .692 (includes a loss to a D2 wrestler at 157), which would only factor in his earning bronze status if he fails to finish high enough at EIWAs. No sane man would come up with a system using three different winning percentages, but the NCAA did.

(Eyes glazing over)

Nope, too many weeds there!

mountainred
Interesting stuff, if a bit in the weeds. I can't imagine that if Santoro had beaten Khizan Clarke it would have hurt his RPI (Clarke's RPI is top 30). A loss on the other hand.... Absolutely the right call to send Adam to the showers after 2-0.

Oh, that's not what I meant. I meant that Clarke may have taken an RPI hit from the loss but definitely would have taken a critical winning percentage hit. As it turns out, Clarke gets credit for the MFF win *and* went on to win the final while Santoro doesn't get penalized for forfeiting out after winning his first two.

So a win by Santoro over Clarke would have hurt the conference, a MFF helped Clarke without hurting Santoro, and the extra AQ slot for the conference benefits them both.

The coaches' meeting tweaked the pre-seeds a little. Santoro bumped down from 6 to 7 and Berreyesa was dropped from 7 to 9. Wrestling starts tomorrow at 11 EST.

Let's Go Red!

ugarte
The first column is the seed, followed by the number of AQ bids in parens.

125: Arujau    1 (4)
133: Tucker    1 (4)
141: Yianni    1 (3)
149: Furnas    7 (5)
157: Santoro   7 (6)
165: Berreyesa 9 (4)
174: Womack    2 (5)
184: Dean      1 (6)
197: Honis     2 (6)
285: Sweany    3 (4)

First round was almost perfect

125: (7) Arujau W 7-4 next: v Campbell (Bucknell)
133: (10) Tucker WBF 6:49 next v Zapf (Harvard)
141: (1) Yianni WBF 1:42 next v Gil (F&M)
149: Furnas WMD 10-2 next v (14) Artalona (Penn) rematch from the dual; Artalona won 3-1 in SV
157: Santoro L 8-7 next v Mauriello (Hofstra) (consolation)
165: Berreyesa W 10-6 next v (16) Jarrell (Drexel)
174: (16)Womack WBF 1:27 next v McLaughlin (Drexel)
184: (7) Dean WBF 4:17 next v Inlander (Bucknell)
197: (7) Honis WBF 2:12 next v Jakobsen (Lehigh) renatch from the dual; Honis won 6-2
285: Sweany WTF 17-2 (5:19) next v Butterbrodt (Brown)

consy:
157: Santoro WMD 13-3

After Session 1, Cornell and Lehigh both go 9-1 and win the consy to keep everyone alive. Army goes 10-0 but not much bonus. Princeton goes 7-3 and keeps everyone alive, racking up bonus in the wrestlebacks with three straight pins.

After the morning session:

                Champ/Consy
Lehigh    24.5  9/1
Princeton 23.5  7/3
Cornell   23    9/1
Army      18   10/0
American  14.5  6/2

Sacred Heart went 0-20 and can head home before the evening session. Yikes. Looked like maybe a stunner at 184 over Princeton's Parker - SHU got an early takedown and rode out the first period for 2:45 of RT but took bottom for the second period and got pinned in 42 seconds.

Session 2 is at 6pm.

Second session was mostly fine but a few real disappointments.

QF
125: Arujau WTF 19-1 next vs. Chalifoux (Army) - right where he should be
131: Tucker W 5-2 next vs. Peters (Army) - right where he should be
141: Yianni WTF 18-3 next vs. Sparacio (Binghamton) - right where he should be
149: Furnas L 3-1 SV - same score as the regular season matchup against #14 Artalona
165: Berreyesa LMD 10-0 - not a surprise against the 1 seed/#16
174: Womack WBF 3:45 next vs Stefanek (Princeton) - Womack won 7-5 when they met at the dual meet
184: Dean WBF 1:10 next vs LaFragiola (Brown) - WBF when they met at the dual this year, 5-0 last year Qualified for NCAA.
197: Honis W 5-1 next vs Phipps (Bucknell) - by seed, Honis catches a break but Phipps has been hot Qualified for NCAA
285: Sweany L 6-4 - terrible loss ugh

Consy 1
157: Santoro WMD 13-3

Consy 2
149: Furnas L 4-1 to F&M - so disappointing. really thought he had a shot at going to the tournament his senior year
157: Santoro L 8-5 to American - also disappointing but i guess an obviously good thing that he didn't wrestle Clarke at Lock Haven
165: Berreyesa WBF 4:04 - up next Wolf (Lehigh) - would be really big for the team title to stuff Lehigh here. needs two more wins to steal a bid.
285: Sweany WMD 8-0 - up next #18 Goodhart (Drexel) - this was supposed to be the SF. tough road from here and he needs two wins.

I really thought we had a shot of qualifying 10 but that was rose-colored glasses. Should have had 7 easy, but Sweany losing before the semi really hurts. Semis start at 10am.

  
After Session 2:        
Lehigh    85 6/3
Cornell   82 6/2
Princeton 82 6/2
Army      78 6/4

Sweany was in on two shots in the last minute of his quarter loss, but couldn't finish either. Then he gave up the late takedown. Sadly, that's kind of been the story of his career. I think you and I both thought Honis would have been the heavy this season if Ben hadn't been needed at 197.

Jon just didn't look like himself in the wrestleback loss. Did he take a single shot? Maybe he wasn't fully healthy after all?

Still, Cornell can get six into the finals and all six looked good. My biggest fear is Vito first thing this morning. His first bout yesterday was very low energy (especially for him.) EDIT: I shouldn't have worried, Vito won easily (13-1).

Six in the finals with Berreyesa and Sweaney wrestling for 7th

dag14
Six in the finals with Berreyesa and Sweaney wrestling for 7th

Berreyesa takes 8th, Sweany 7th.

We have 6 finalists, Lehigh has 4. Lehigh has 5 more in other placement rounds while we have none. We trail Lehigh by 9 heading into the medal round and go head to head at 174 and 184. We're the underdog in both, despite Dean's higher seed. We're also the underdog at 197, but won head to head earlier this year.

Tough path to first.

125: Arujau dropped a heartbreaker to Glory, 10-8.

133: Tucker wins his first EIWA championship. Amazing.

141: Yianni wins his second EIWA championship.

174: Womack kept it close but lost to Kutler.

184: Dean gets revenge for getting pinned in last year's final and beats Preisch 3-0 for his first EIWA title.

197: Honis keeps it close but can't get the takedown he needed at the end and loses top Brucki. Just as at 125, Princeton wins the rematch.

All told, Lehigh won the team title comfortably for the second year in a row and we placed second. More later maybe.

ugarte
Sweany 7th.

Sweany survives and gets to go to NCAAs for the third time by earning an at-large bid. Congrats. Cornell sends 7 to Pittsburgh.

ugarte

ugarte
Sweany 7th.

Sweany survives and gets to go to NCAAs for the third time by earning an at-large bid. Congrats. Cornell sends 7 to Pittsburgh.

Not-so-minor miracle, I'd say.

Al DeFlorio

ugarte

ugarte
Sweany 7th.

Sweany survives and gets to go to NCAAs for the third time by earning an at-large bid. Congrats. Cornell sends 7 to Pittsburgh.

Not-so-minor miracle, I'd say.

Hard to say how many people he was competing with. He had two wins against AQs and probably kept his top 30 RPI and CR. Still can't believe he lost to Butterbrodt.

NCAA brackets are out: [arena.flowrestling.org]

125: #8 Arujau vs #25 Montoya (Northern Colorado) - NoCo is coached by Cornell's 4x AA and national champ Troy Nickerson.
133: #9 Tucker vs #24 Fehlman (Lock Haven) - Tucker won 7-5 in SV in the CU - LHU dual.
141: #1 Diakomihalis vs the winner of a pigtial match between the last two in, Lipari (Rutgers) and Sandoval (Northern Colorado).
174: #16 Womack vs #17 Richards (VMI) - Richards is 28-4 and on a very long winning streak but against a very soft schedule.
184: #5 Dean vs #28 Stewart (Army) - an EIWA matchup that didn't happen during the tournament. Dean beat Stewart two years ago during his greyshirt year.
197: #9 Honis vs #24 Jakobsen (Lehigh) - another EIWA matchup. Honis beat Jakobsen at the Lehigh dual 6-2 then again at the tournament 5-1.
285: #24 Sweany vs #9 Stencel (Central Michigan) - two years ago, Sweany won by fall but Stencel has had a far better year

Annoyingly, everyone who isn't #1 ended up on the side of the bracket with the #1 wrestler. Womack would face him in the second round, Arujau, Tucker, Honis and Sweany in the QF and Dean in the SF. A fluke path-clearing loss to advance is a lot less likely. The tournament is the tournament, though, and you face whoever is on the mat. The tournament starts on March 21.

Finally got around to looking at how the double-elimination paths to placing work out and posted it on the wrestling forum so I may as well cross post a modified version here.

125: #8 Arujau should get to quarters and obviously #1 Rivera's a tough matchup (that's why he's #1). The nightmare scenario is #3 Lee (and returning champ) getting upset and falling into his path on the bottom. Otherwise #14 Fausz (and World Junior team member) is the dangerous guy in the blood round.

133: #9 Tucker has a rematch with #8 Erneste (who beat him earlier this year) in the second round, which is not great, and he'd then probably immediately have the loser of #6 Lizak (who beat him) /and #11 Wilson (3d place last year) which is also not great! Even if he beats Erneste, it looks to me like the bracket still sends him the loser of Lizak or Wilson, but later in the consolation bracket. Tough road.

141: #1 Yianni has to face whoever. Bottom of the bracket doesn't matter. If he's there something has already gone awry.

174: I like #16 Womack over VMI but the 16 seed is a very tough place to be. He's going to lose in the second round to #1 Hall. He could make the blood round but probably has to go through Lydy or McFadden, both of whom beat him this year, to get back to All-American. Both matches were close, so I could definitely see him pulling off another big tournament win.

184: If #5 Dean gets through #4 Parker, everything else is gravy. If he doesn't, I still don't think there's anyone interesting he'd have to face before he earns a place on the podium.

197: If #9 Honis beats #8 Traxler to get to the QF his blood round looks good unless #2 Moore somehow loses without getting hurt. If he loses to Traxler, the loser of #3 Weigel /#6 Miklus is a really tough hurdle.

285: There was a dropout at heavy, so #23 Sweany is now facing #10 Hemida. Likely loss, and also likely ... rematch with Brown's Butterbrodt in the first round of the consolation bracket to avenge his inexplicable loss at EIWA! The path for anyone who loses in the first round is going to be incredibly hard and he'd end up facing the loser of #8 / #9 and #9 pinned him earlier this year.

This could be a lot worse.

Session I was ... not great. 4-3 record, with two of our guys losing in upsets and a couple of the wins were uninspired.

125:#8 Arujau MD 12-2 #25 Heinselman (tOSU). Vito was in control most of the match but gave up a third period takedown which looked like it might make things interesting. Heinselman let Vito up because he needed to score a lot but he lost focus and rather than take the escape, Arujau fired back and got a reversal plus a cradle for 4NF points, which made the difference in getting a major decision. Up next: #9 Foley (Michigan State).

133: #9 Tucker L 2-7 #24 Fehlman (LHU). Tucker was up 2-1 after the first but Fehlman chose top to start the second period and was dominant from the position. He rode for the entire two minutes plus got a 4 point nearfall. He played defense the entire third period and protected the lead. Up next #25 Spann (Buffalo).

141: #1 Yianni W 10-5 #33 Lipari (Rutgers). A somewhat lackluster win over a wrestler who came into the tournament with a losing record. Up next is returning AA #16 Red (Nebraska).

174: #16 Womack W 11-10 TB-1 #17 Richards (VMI). This match should not have been close but Womack was very careless on defense and gave up multiple takedowns in the first and third periods, including one with under 10 seconds left to send the match to OT when he had two stalls to give and could have made Richards chase him. He had more gas in the tank at the end and won in the rideouts. Up next, #1 Hall (PSU).

184: #5 Dean MD 13-2 Stewart (Army). Comfortable win. Never in any danger. Up next, #12 Wilcke (Iowa).

197: #9 Honis L 5-8 #24 Jakobsen (Lehigh). With a 3-0 lead and a hold of a leg, Honis looked in control, but he duffed finishing the takedown and ended up on bottom after a scramble. Jakobsen was then able to get a cradle for 4 NF points and was mostly able to defend Honis until the clock ran out in the third period. Up next is Bulsak (Clarion).

285: #23 Sweany L 1-7 Hemida (Maryland). Sweany couldn't do anything against Hemida all match. He gets a rematch against #26 Butterbrodt, who beat him at EIWA.

All in all, a bummer of an early session. Only Dean looked great start to finish. Tucker and Honis both fell flat. Yianni has a really tough second round match against a returning All-American holding an inexplicably low 16 seed. Womack went to OT against a wrestler he should not have to worry about. Arujau got a MD with his brains but should have been able to score more with his strength. Hoping for a better and cleaner evening.

Session II much better.

Second Round:

125: #8 Arujau MD 12-2 #9 Foley (Michigan State). Really great work. Dominant the whole way through. Big match vs #1 Rivera (Northwestern). Gets AA if he wins it.

141: #1 Diakomiahlis W 7-3 #16 Red (Nebraska) Weird match to call as two guys wearing red, one on a team called the Big Red and a guy named Red. Workmanlike win but he was never really threatened by a guy much better than his seed. Up next in the QF is #9 Demas (Oklahoma).

174: #16 Womack L 2-8 #1 Hall (Penn State). Never in doubt but a good effort t keep it under a major. He'll face #18 Morgan (Campbell) to stay alive.

184: #5 Dean W 6-4 SV #12 Wilcke (Iowa). Weird match. Dean gave up an escape, then the first TD, he escaped to make it 3-1 Wilcke, escaped again at the start of the third to make it 3-2 and then the scoring got weird. Wilcke got hit with his second stalling call (3-3) then Dean got a technical violation for hands to the face (4-3) and then Wilcke got dinged for stalling again (4-4) and the match went to overtime. In sudden victory, Dean pulled it out with a great takedown on the edge of the mat. Up next is #13 Bonaccorsi (Pitt), who knocked off the #4 wrestler.

Consolation Round 1:

133: #9 Tucker W 5-3 #25 Spann (Buffalo). Tucker made it interesting because he wasn't finishing his shots late and spent a lot of time in awkward defensive positions but he kept holding on. Up next is #10 Bravo-Young (PSU), which is going to be a really tough match.

197: #9 Honis W 8-6 #25 Bulsak (Clarion). Even more interesting - Honis had to come from behind with the benefit of a technical violation against Bulsak for locked hands to tie it up and then came out on top of a scramble with 4 seconds left for the win. Up next, #7 Aiello (Virginia) to stay alive.

285: #25 Sweany L 7-12 #26 Butterbrodt (Brown). 0-2 and out. Tough end to the season and career. Sweany was a three time national qualifier and had a few big wins but could never quite get over the hump.

After Day 1, Cornell is in 15th place with 11 points, a half point behind Lehigh and 4.5 out of the top 10. 3 wrestlers still alive in the championship bracket and 3 alive in the consolation bracket.

Session III was solid.

QF:

125: #8 Arujau L 2-6 #1 Rivera (Northwestern). Rivera is #1 for a reason. Great job countering everything that Vito threw at him. Arujau is still alive and one win from All-American.

141: #1 Diakomihalis W 5-1 #9 Demas (Oklahoma). Yianni is an insane scrambler. No matter what Demas tried, Yianni ended up on top.Yianni is Cornell's first All-American of 2019.


184: #5 Dean W 6-0 #13 Bonaccorsi (Pitt). Monster strength. Countered for points and was a beast on top. Max is Cornell's second All-American of 2019.

Consolation 3:

133: #9 Tucker L 2-6 #10 Bravo-Young (PSU). Bravo-Young is crazy fast and did an incredible job of countering and scoring when Tucker took his chances. Disappointing for Tucker. Losing in the first round put him in a very difficult spot and RBY at #10 is a very tough draw. He'll be back.

174: #16 Womack W 9-5 #18 Morgan (Campbell) Crazy match. Up by one with RT locked for a 2 point lead and on top for a restart, Coach Koll gave him ONE instruction: "NO REVERSAL!" Morgan got a reversal almost immediately, but from bottom, Womack was able to get his own reversal and back points just before time expired for the win.

197: #9 Honis W 9-7 SV #7 Aiello (Virginia). Incredible back and forth match. Honis with a TD with 32 seconds left to take the lead, Aiello with an escape with 15 seconds left to go to overtime. In SV, Honis scored with 6 seconds left to move on.

Consolation 4:

174: #16 Womack L 7-11 #8 Skatzka (Minnesota) Skatzka was too strong. Match wasn't as close as the score, really. A solid tournament for Womack. Didn't lose to anyone he should have beaten. Wrestled exactly to seed. He's got one more year at Cornell as well.

197: #9 Honis W 10-5 #32 Laird (Rider) Laird scored the first two takedowns but the rest of the match was all Honis. Three takedowns of his own and he was a monster on top for riding time. One match away from All-American.

TONIGHT:

SF:

141: #1 Diakomihalis v #5 Eierman (Missouri) - Rematch of last year's semi. Yianni is 2-1 against Eierman in college.

184: #5 Dean v #1 Martin (tOSU) - Martin is insane. But I want to believe.

Blood Round: (winner gets on the podium)

125: #8 Arujau v #12 Fausz (NC State) - two guys with great international junior competition resumes. incredible matchup.

197: #9 Honis #21 Lane (Cal Poly) - seeding favors Honis but Lane has been wrestling out of his mind. Knocked off #12 and #5 before a one point loss to the #4.

Heading in to Session IV, Cornell is tied for 10th place.

Vito wins. Yianni wins. more later.

DEAN!!!

that was an awesome finish

KenP
DEAN!!!

so psyched.

Also Vito won again so he's in the consolation semi - win and he wrestles for third, lose and he wrestles for fifth. Facing #2 piccinini (Ok. St.).

Ben Honis wins one to become an All-American and loses the second, so he'll wrestle for 7th.

KenP
DEAN!!!

Dean's match starts a few seconds before 2:07:
[www.espn.com]
If the link doesn't work, it's the Mat 1 video.

CU77

KenP
DEAN!!!

Dean's match starts a few seconds before 2:07:
[www.espn.com]
If the link doesn't work, it's the Mat 1 video.

Yianni is also in the Mat 1 video starting at around 36:00, and it's also an amazing white-knuckle ride.

So, it's the morning after and I'm still floating on air. What an incredible session.

SF:

141: #1 Diakomihalis W 6-5 #5 Eierman (Missouri) - Facing Eierman, the only wrestler to beat Yianni in college, Yianni got the first takedown then gave up a quick escape. Eierman got the second takedown and held on a little longer but Yianni escaped to tie the score at the end of 1 period. Yianni started the second period on bottm and Eierman held on long enough to get Riding Time over 1 minute, then Yianni escaped. He went into the final period up 1. In the third period, he held down Eierman long enough to get RT under a minute and with a little under 30 seconds left, Yianni struck - snatched an ankle and converted the takedown and held on (despite a pair of stalling calls) to win 6-5. Yianni is going to his second straight title match.

184: #5 Dean W 4-3 #1 Martin (tOSU) - Nobody thought that Martin was going to lose this year. He'd given up only a single takedown all season. He won the national title as a freshman and never finished lower than third. With Nickal bumping up to 197, 184 was considered his property. Dean and Martin had wrestled multiple times and lost 17-7 and 13-6. Last night, Martin again scored first but Dean escaped quickly. Dean escaped to tie the score to start the second period. In the third, Martin reversed to take a 4-2 lead but, again, Dean escaped quickly. With around 40 seconds left, Dean defended a shot from Martin and they got into a scramble, and with 10 seconds left, Dean came out on top to take a 1 point lead. Martin stood up to escape but Dean picked him up and slammed him back to the mat and ran the last seconds off the clock. Amazing. Dean is in his first national title match.

Blood Round:

125: #8 Arujau MD 11-3 #13 Fausz (NC State) Three takedowns, a two-point tilt, riding time... a dominant match (that I haven't watched yet). Arujau earns his first All-American in his first year.

197: #9 Honis W 8-5 #32 Lane (Cal Poly) - Honis scored twice in the first period and scored a reversal early in the second period to take a 6-1 lead and rode it to the finish. Honis spent the summer expecting to wrestle heavyweight and bulking up to 235 before Darmstadt got hurt and Coach Koll told him he'd have to cut back to 197. He had an incredible senior year and finishes it on the podium. Honis is an All-American.

Placement Round:

125: #8 Arujau W 8-5 #4 Bresser (Oregon State) Vito combined a strong ride with a 4 point takedown with a minute left to move into the consolation semifinal. Incredible.

197: #9 Honis L 5-7 #6 Miklus (Iowa State) Honis falls into the 7th place match with a tough loss to Miklus. Still an amazing run.

Session IV was incredible. Going 5-1 moved Cornell into 6th place in the team standings and a legit chance to move up to 5th.

Session V is in the morning and will have the 3/5/7 place matches after the consy semis set the 3rd and 5th place matches. Finals at night.

Session V 11am:

125: #8 Arujau vs #2 Piccinini (Oklahoma State) - The other consy semi is #1 Rivera (Northwestern) v #7 Glory (Princeton). Winners wrestle for third, losers wrestle for 5th. Either way Arujau gets a chance to avenge a loss. Rivera beat him in the QF and Glory beat him in the EIWA final. Vito pinned Glory when they wrestled at the Princeton dual.

197: #9 Honis vs #5 Warner (Iowa) - 7th place match

Session VI - FINALS 7pm

141: #1 Diakomihalis v #2 McKenna (tOSU) - Yianni won when the met a month ago and though the score was close, it was a pretty convincing win. This one matters more.

184: #5 Dean v #6 Foster (Northern Iowa) - Dean is 3-1 against Foster, including 2-0 this season.

This is going to be a wild day.

Great start: Vito knocks off Piccininni 5-2* and will get a rematch with Rivera for 3rd place.

Maybe 5-1? I thought Arujau got a second stalling at the buzzer but maybe not.