Wrestling 2015-16

[ithacat]

Nebraska toying with Cornell early. Sad what injuries seem to have done to Grey the younger.

[mountainred]

It was a tough day in the Garden for the Red. Other than the studs (Garrett, Realbuto, and Dean) and freshman Heavy Sweaney, who scored a big upset of Nebraska's heavyweight, it was forgettable day.

[ugarte]

Good news on Palacio - Koll says that he'll be back for Spring semester. It will be interesting to see what happens then because Dowdy has been a pleasant surprise at 157 and Duke Pickett is already ranked at 165. As for the rest of the squad *tugs collar*

That was a rough day at the Garden. The top guys - Nahshon Garrett, Brian Realbuto and Gabe Dean - all did what they needed to. Dean's dominance of #5 Dudley and Garrett's easy win over #9 Montoya stand out. There were some other pleasant surprises - Jeramy Sweany beating #13 Chris Jensen and Jake Taylor nearly pulling off the upset over #15 Aaron Studebaker - but all of the good stuff came in the Nebraska dual. There is a scenario where we win that dual (flip the Macri and Taylor matches and we get a pleasant surprise) but Nebraska was better and it never really felt otherwise.

The Rutgers dual was a mess. Macri and Galasso lost matches they should have won. Duke Pickett wasn't very competitive against a closely-ranked opponent; Scott kept trying for back points by misjudging his leverage and ended up getting reversed twice and then made a puzzling strategic call that would have probably cost him the match even if it worked. Even Garrett and Realbuto coasted to easy wins but didn't get bonus points where you would have expected them.

And Mark Grey. Oh boy. I assume this trip was a test for him, to see how his rehab is coming along. The answer is "not well". He had an admittedly tough opponent (though Koll gave him the easier of the two matchups) but early in the match he got taken down and came up limping. He spent the rest of the match futilely trying to go on offense but lacked the speed to finish his attacks or the strength to keep from getting countered. He got his ass whipped. It's a damn shame because he's very good at his best but is perpetually injured.

The three stars will be on the podium.  The rest of the team looks like it needs some work. I'm keeping myself calm because we started freshman at 125, 149, 197 and Heavy, so if I look past 2016 it isn't as bleak. But this is going to be a rough tournament past the top 3 if guys don't improve quickly in the Spring.

[mountainred]

I really felt bad for Mark, it clearly wasn't there.  A healthy Mark is the best option at 141, but I wonder if the smartest call isn't just to shut him down for the season and let him fully heal.

[ugarte]

This weekend, Cornell is sending a full slate to Las Vegas for the LV Invitational this weekend and a handful of guys to State College to wrestle "unattached" at the Nittany Lion Open on Sunday.

The LV roster is what the current starting lineup looks like: Macri, Garrett, D. Realbuto, Galasso, Pickett, B. Realbuto, Dean, Taylor, Sweany. Hoping for better results than we saw at MSG. This field will be much tougher than what they saw at the other early season tournaments.

The Nittany Open wrestlers are Koll at 141, Simaz at 157, Artigliere at 165 and Scott at 197. How these guys do will tell us a lot about how deep the bench is.

[ugarte]

This weekend, Cornell is sending a full slate to Las Vegas for the LV Invitational this weekend and a handful of guys to State College to wrestle "unattached" at the Nittany Lion Open on Sunday.

The LV roster is what the current starting lineup looks like: Macri, Garrett, D. Realbuto, Galasso, Pickett, B. Realbuto, Dean, Taylor, Sweany. Hoping for better results than we saw at MSG. This field will be much tougher than what they saw at the other early season tournaments.

The Nittany Open wrestlers are Koll at 141, Simaz at 157, Artigliere at 165 and Scott at 197. How these guys do will tell us a lot about how deep the bench is.

Macri is apparently injured so he didn't go to Vegas.

Garrett is into the QF
Round of 16 is in progress, Galasso, Pickett, B. Realbuto, Dean and Sweany. Realbuto's match was much closer than expected; he was taken down 3 times but won 8-6.
D. Realbuto and Taylor are still alive in the consolation bracket.

[ugarte]

Garrett, BRealbuto and Dean are in the finals. Pickett finished in 5th, Sweany in 8th. DRealbuto, Galasso, Dowdy and Taylor didn't place.

[Al DeFlorio]

Garrett, BRealbuto and Dean are in the finals. Pickett finished in 5th, Sweany in 8th. DRealbuto, Galasso, Dowdy and Taylor didn't place.

Garrett facing the #1-ranked guy nationally at 133.

Edit: Against the defending national champ, Garrett fell behind 7-3 on a 6-point move, then came back for a 14-9 win.

[ugarte]

Garrett, BRealbuto and Dean are in the finals. Pickett finished in 5th, Sweany in 8th. DRealbuto, Galasso, Dowdy and Taylor didn't place.

Garrett facing the #1-ranked guy nationally at 133.

Edit: Against the defending national champ, Garrett fell behind 7-3 on a 6-point move, then came back for a 14-9 win.

Great evening for the Red.
Nahshon Garrett, as Al noted, beat the defending national champ and current #1 - and it was apparently a thorough, decisive whipping.
Brian Realbuto, facing the #15 wrestler, won by MD 11-1.
Gabe Dean, facing the #12 wrestler, won by MD 15-6.

Those three champs bumped Cornell to second place for the tournament despite not sending a wrestler at 125. We also had the most individual titles.

[mountainred]

Garrett, BRealbuto and Dean are in the finals. Pickett finished in 5th, Sweany in 8th. DRealbuto, Galasso, Dowdy and Taylor didn't place.

Garrett facing the #1-ranked guy nationally at 133.

Edit: Against the defending national champ, Garrett fell behind 7-3 on a 6-point move, then came back for a 14-9 win.

Great evening for the Red.
Nahshon Garrett, as Al noted, beat the defending national champ and current #1 - and it was apparently a thorough, decisive whipping.
Brian Realbuto, facing the #15 wrestler, won by MD 11-1.
Gabe Dean, facing the #12 wrestler, won by MD 15-6.

Those three champs bumped Cornell to second place for the tournament despite not sending a wrestler at 125. We also had the most individual titles.

All three champs were impressive, but Nahshon looks like he's on a mission.  Brewer caught Garrett for a six point move on a great counter, but Nahshon was clearly the better wrestler yesterday.  He was constantly attacking and lost a takedown that came half a second after horn in the first period.

Freshman Heavy Jeramy Sweaney also had nice tournament, a couple of solid wins and a very respectable 6-4 loss to the #2 guy in the nation.  He seemed to hit a wall in the second day, but there's a lot to like here.

[ugarte]

Garrett, BRealbuto and Dean are in the finals. Pickett finished in 5th, Sweany in 8th. DRealbuto, Galasso, Dowdy and Taylor didn't place.

Garrett facing the #1-ranked guy nationally at 133.

Edit: Against the defending national champ, Garrett fell behind 7-3 on a 6-point move, then came back for a 14-9 win.

Great evening for the Red.
Nahshon Garrett, as Al noted, beat the defending national champ and current #1 - and it was apparently a thorough, decisive whipping.
Brian Realbuto, facing the #15 wrestler, won by MD 11-1.
Gabe Dean, facing the #12 wrestler, won by MD 15-6.

Those three champs bumped Cornell to second place for the tournament despite not sending a wrestler at 125. We also had the most individual titles.

All three champs were impressive, but Nahshon looks like he's on a mission.  Brewer caught Garrett for a six point move on a great counter, but Nahshon was clearly the better wrestler yesterday.  He was constantly attacking and lost a takedown that came half a second after horn in the first period.

Freshman Heavy Jeramy Sweaney also had nice tournament, a couple of solid wins and a very respectable 6-4 loss to the #2 guy in the nation.  He seemed to hit a wall in the second day, but there's a lot to like here.

As expected, by beating the defending champ, Garrett moved from #4 to #1 in (at least one of) the latest rankings.
EDIT: WIN only moved him up to #2.

[George64]

Kyle Dake beats David Taylor again to capture Senior National Freestyle Championship.

[Al DeFlorio]

Kyle Dake beats David Taylor again to capture Senior National Freestyle Championship.

And Taylor crushed Ed Ruth with a 13-0 tech fall on the way to the finals.

[dag14]

Cornell is in 3rd place behind Penn State and Oklahoma State after the first day of the Southern Scuffle.  I believe that 16 guys ended up being entered -- Grey and Palacio were not among them.  Don't know why.

Going into tomorrow's quarterfinals and consy rounds, we have five wrestlers in the championship bracket (seeding follows name) [Garrett (1), Pickett (3), Brian Realbuto (1), Dean (1) and Sweany (10)] and six still alive in the wrestle-backs [Macri (9), Dylan Realbuto, Galasso, Dowdy, Taylor and Richards].

Quarters start at 9 a.m., semis at 1:30 and finals at 7:00 p.m. with wrestle-backs interspersed.

[ugarte]

I'm pretty sure Palacio is out until classes start.