Wrestling [2016-2017]

[mountainred]

I had trouble with the video feed -- not sure if it was me or them because I could stream the women's hockey game.  When I final got a feed, Cornell was down 17-3 and Palacio was wrestling at 165.  He won his match, Realbuto earned an unorthodox pin against a very competent opponent, Gabe was Gabe [although we had to wait until the second period for the pin] and suddenly Cornell had the lead 18-17 with 2 matches to go.  Honis won and Sweany lost in OT to give Cornell the win 21-20.

others seemed to have the same issue, but it worked fine for me (crappy audio and way delayed graphics aside).

[ugarte]

I hope it's archived since I'll probably miss a lot of it but I don't see an archive link.

If it's archived, fast forward to the intermission.  Trust me.

I was following on Twitter and when Realbuto stuck Preisch (the only match I really, really want to see) I thought "we can do this as long as Sweany doesn't get pinned. I was really worried we were going to have another 2015-16 Mizzou. And lo... Sweany stays off his back and Cornell pulls it out. Amazing.

If Palacio can't make the cut, he can't make the cut and there's not a lot to get mad about but damn, Palacio/Womack is so much stronger than Simaz/Palacio. Disappointing all the same.

I think the bubble may have burst on Baughman. After a great WBF against Piccininni he's been ... not good. Pinned, teched three times and majored. Woof.

I'm also very worried about 149. The fall off from Galasso is dramatic - and Galasso wasn't even having a great year.

Honis has been a very pleasant surprise at 197. I feel bad for Owen Scott that he doesn't get to wrestle out his senior year but Honis took his job fair and square. Not even a Wally Pipp situation, since Koll said he won the wrestle-off. I don't know that this is settled for good though.

And Sweany didn't get pinned!

[mountainred]

Ugarte (and anyone else that's curious), flo has the BReal highlights in front of their paywall:  http://www.flowrestling.org/video/1079030-174-lbs-ryan-preisch-lehigh-vs-brian-realbuto-cornell#.WIS6jFMrKM8

Can't disagree with your summary.  Palacio/Womack is the better line-up, but if Dylan can't make 157, you have to go with Plan B.

[mountainred]

Cornell finishes the weekend with a 31-15 win over Lock Haven.  16 point wins are nice, but it was kind of a mixed bag.

The good stuff.  Dean and BRreal took care of business with first period pins.  Baughman got a needed win by fall at 125; Koll overwhelmed his opponent 12-0 at 151; Simaz won by DQ when his opponent was hit for 5 stalls (it was bad and deserved); and Womack won by a solid 8-2 score.  That's five bonus point wins.

The not so good.  Honis lost 8-6 to a talented Loch Haven wrestler largely because he was ridden out in the second period.  Sweany was pinned by the #15 heavy after taking an early lead.  

The just plain bad:  Grey looked awful getting ridden out in the second and third periods.  And Furnas filled in for Galasso at 149 and lost handily (7-2).  The talent drop off at 149 after Joey G is every bit as troubling as ugarte says.

[ugarte]

Ugarte (and anyone else that's curious), flo has the BReal highlights in front of their paywall:  http://www.flowrestling.org/video/1079030-174-lbs-ryan-preisch-lehigh-vs-brian-realbuto-cornell#.WIS6jFMrKM8

Thanks!

[ugarte]

The not so good.  Honis lost 8-6 to a talented Loch Haven wrestler largely because he was ridden out in the second period.  Sweany was pinned by the #15 heavy after taking an early lead.  

The just plain bad:  Grey looked awful getting ridden out in the second and third periods.  And Furnas filled in for Galasso at 149 and lost handily (7-2).  The talent drop off at 149 after Joey G is every bit as troubling as ugarte says.

This team has a lot of trouble on bottom. I don't get it! It's plagued us all year at all weights. Except Dean, but how do we even know? He hasn't been taken down all year and he's only made it to the second period a handful of times! (He did get up quickly when he chose bottom.)

At 285, I think the answer is that Sweany just isn't strong enough for heavy. His technique is OK and he can get takedowns but as soon as he's on bottom he's on his back. It's a downer since I thought maybe we might have a heavy to compete with. Now I don't even really expect him to make the tourney. Neither does the Committee - in the first rankings we don't have anyone in the top 33 at 125 or 285.

[mountainred]

The not so good.  Honis lost 8-6 to a talented Loch Haven wrestler largely because he was ridden out in the second period.  Sweany was pinned by the #15 heavy after taking an early lead.  

The just plain bad:  Grey looked awful getting ridden out in the second and third periods.  And Furnas filled in for Galasso at 149 and lost handily (7-2).  The talent drop off at 149 after Joey G is every bit as troubling as ugarte says.

This team has a lot of trouble on bottom. I don't get it! It's plagued us all year at all weights. Except Dean, but how do we even know? He hasn't been taken down all year and he's only made it to the second period a handful of times! (He did get up quickly when he chose bottom.)

At 285, I think the answer is that Sweany just isn't strong enough for heavy. His technique is OK and he can get takedowns but as soon as he's on bottom he's on his back. It's a downer since I thought maybe we might have a heavy to compete with. Now I don't even really expect him to make the tourney. Neither does the Committee - in the first rankings we don't have anyone in the top 33 at 125 or 285.

I don't ever remember a CU team that struggled this much, as a unit, in the bottom position.  And it bites this team in unusual ways; it cost Will Koll yesterday when he chose neutral when he had choice and lost 1-0.  

It feels like Sweany has regressed from last year.  But, he doesn't look strong enough to get NF points or to get out if he's in the slightest problem. Well, two top 20 recruits keep the dream of an AA at this weight alive.

[mountainred]

Cornell runs its Ivy win streak to 75 with wins over Brown (35-8) and Harvard (33-11).  Baughman (125) gets a couple of easy wins, which will have to help his confidence and Furnas fills in at 149, again, and gets a pair of wins.  Nice to see him win as he is wrestling up a weight, at least, to help the team.  All in all, very workmanlike.  The biggest news was that Palacio lost to Brown's guy at 165 by a score of 14-13; that loss will be costly for his national ranking.  Our other big guns looked good and Dean pinned his cousin to avoid an embarrassing family reunion.  

If an Ivy is going to challenge Cornell this year, it will be Princeton.  The Tigers would be favored at two weights (141 and 197), four weights are close enough that they could go either way (125, 149, 157, Hvy), and the Princeton guys who face Realbuto and Dean are good enough that you can't just assume a TF or pin, though Brian and Gabe should win.  If Mark Grey can't go at 133 and things broke badly, the Tigers could win.

[ugarte]

Cornell is wrestling at Columbia, Saturday at 1, for the folks in NYC.

[mountainred]

Cornell beats Penn 27-10, which sets up a dual for the Ivy title tomorrow at 3 versus Princeton.  Cornell will be favored to win their 15th straight league title, which would extend the longest such string for any Ivy team in any sport, but it won't be easy.

[mountainred]

And Cornell beats Princeton 21-12 to capture Ivy title 15 in a row and Ivy dual #78 in a row.  

Instead of the traditional start at 125 pounds, the coaches agreed to a blind draw of weights and Princeton's coach drew 157.  That let Cornell open up an virtually insurmountable 18-0 lead in the first half thanks to solid wins by Simaz and Womack, followed by bonus point wins by Realbuto and Dean, and then Ben Honis upsetting Princeton's All-American at 197.  The second half was mostly Princeton, but Noah Baughman picked up a sudden victory win at 125 to seal the dual.

By winning the Ivy title, Cornell will host a Big Ten school in what is best thought of as a wrestling bowl game.  Then EIWAs.  Then NCAAs.  That's it.

[ugarte]

Coming in, this looked like it might be a tense one - probably the biggest challenge to Cornell in a very long time. Princeton was favored at 4 weights - with top 20 wrestlers at 141 (# Kolodzik), 149 (#17 Laster), 197 (#10 Harner) and Heavyweight (#17 O'Donnell) with a real chance of giving up bonus points at 141, Throw in tossups/modest favorites at 125, 157 and 165. The only clear favorites for Cornell were our powerhouse Realbuto/Dean pair 174/184 and Grey at 133 - but even Grey was coming off of a long injury layoff.

157: Simaz jumped out to an 8-1 lead and made it stick, winning 8-5.

165: Womack faced a guy making his season debut and had a tougher time than you'd expect, winning 5-0 but not really dominating. Too be fair, his opponent had a pretty good freshman year before getting the injury bug.

174: Realbuto, shockingly, was taken down 3 times in the first period, with only one takedown of his own. At the end of the period Schleiffer was up 7-4. After that, though, it was all Realbuto. People watching (I was listening) said that Schleiffer was gassed and Realbuto could tell. Realbuto had 8 more takedowns plus two points for stalling and one more for riding time. Schleiffer only had 6 points from escapes and some of those were because Realbuto let him up. 23-13 major decision.

184: Dean just destroyed another guy. He couldn't flatten him out for the pin - apparently he came close but was only able to get 4NF points before his opponent was able to wriggle to his belly - but he was pretty much able to take him down at will. It took over two periods but Dean won by TF 20-5.

At this point Cornell was up 15-0 but the tricky part was coming up. Of the remaining six weights, Princeton was the favorite in four.

197: Princeton's returning All-American Harner got the first takedown of the match and Honis escaped fairly quickly. Not much scoring but the exchange of escapes had the score at 3-2 Harner early in the third, before he got another takedown, putting Honis in a tough hole. He escaped quickly to make the score 5-3 before getting a takedown of his own to tie the match with (iirc) ~30 seconds to go. Unwilling to risk losing on a late escape, Honis let Harner up - surrendering the lead - to try and win with a late takedown. With around 10 seconds left, BAM. Harner didn't even really try to get up and Honis won 7-6. Huge win for the kid.

Hwt: This was a hairy one. Scott took an accidental poke in the eye; as he took a knee to cover his eye, O'Donnell shot in, catching Scott in the face and giving him a bloody nose that took a long time to stanch. Once Scott got back on the mat - with plugs in both nostrils - O'Donnell took him down. Scott then appeared to get his leg hurt in some way and struggled to the finish but kept it under a major decision.

125: Baughman had a tough one. Both wrestlers had chances to score but both defended well and the match went to OT tied at 4; with time running out in the sudden victory period, Baughman converted a TD. Great win. Like Honis, he wrestled the whole match and pulled out the W. Great performances from the freshmen.

133: With the lead at 21-3, Grey made his return after a few weeks of his overmatched backup. It... did not go well. D'Arcy took him down twice and Grey had his typical problems on bottom and didn't escape after either. Lost 6-0. This close loss still locked up the meet for us, since Princeton needed pins or forfeits in
the last three matches to tie.

141: In a match that looked like Princeton's best chance at bonus points, Koll kept it close, losing 5-3 against a guy who has been tearing through the weight class as a freshman and even forcing him into taking a stalling point.

149: Like Grey, Galasso's missed a lot of the year with injury and had a tough one today, facing a top-20 wrestler. It looked like it was going to end in a major decision loss but he got a takedown of his own late to narrow the gap and lost 9-5.

21-12 win, including solid performances from the future of the team.

[Trotsky]

I appreciate these reviews.  I know less about wrestling than ollamaliztli and hitherto had no interest in it, but your reviews are so piquant I want to watch matches.

[scoop85]

I appreciate these reviews.  I know less about wrestling than ollamaliztli and hitherto had no interest in it, but your reviews are so piquant I want to watch matches.

Agreed -- Ugarte, you do a tremendous job on your analysis.  I watched the Princeton match yesterday, and the Honis and Baughman matches were sublime.

Adding to the good news, Cornell just picked up a stud transfer from Minnesota, Fredy Stroker. He was a top-15 recruit out of HS 2 years ago, and is a redshirt freshman.  He'll be immediately eligible as a sophomore next fall.  Apparently he's been plugged in to the Minnesota lineup at 149 and has been struggling with the weight cut, but is slated to be at 157 at Cornell. Based on what Ive read on the Cornell thread on Wrestlingreport, Stroker is likely to step-in as the starter at 157 next year.

[ugarte]

I appreciate these reviews.  I know less about wrestling than ollamaliztli and hitherto had no interest in it, but your reviews are so piquant I want to watch matches.

Agreed -- Ugarte, you do a tremendous job on your analysis.  I watched the Princeton match yesterday, and the Honis and Baughman matches were sublime.

Adding to the good news, Cornell just picked up a stud transfer from Minnesota, Fredy Stroker. He was a top-15 recruit out of HS 2 years ago, and is a redshirt freshman.  He'll be immediately eligible as a sophomore next fall.  Apparently he's been plugged in to the Minnesota lineup at 149 and has been struggling with the weight cut, but is slated to be at 157 at Cornell. Based on what Ive read on the Cornell thread on Wrestlingreport, Stroker is likely to step-in as the starter at 157 next year.

Thanks Greg and MR. I watch when I can but I have to admit that a lot of it is old-timey radio baseball where the announcer had to make up the action from the play-by-play coming over the wire.

MR: I love Stroker coming in at 157 and still don't have a handle on where Yianni Diomakhilis and Vito Arujau are expected to go. Figure 133 or 141 for Vito and 141 or 149 for Yianni?