Wrestling [2017-18]

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Another Brockport-like tournament this weekend, as the Big Red are sending 33 wrestlers ("unattached", so it doesn't count as the start of the season) to Binghamton for the Jonathan Kaloust Bearcat Open. Finger Lakes Wrestling Club is sending another 14 wrestlers - many (all?) of them Cornell recruits taking a greyshirt year.

Looks like Penn State is sending a contingent to Binghamton, including their stud 141 recruit Nick Lee.  That could lead to quite the showdown with Yianni D.

[ugarte]

Solid day at Binghamton.

125: A surprise as Noah Baughman didn't wrestle at 125, and was instead wrestling at 133. I didn't watch and haven't checked other forums so I don't know how long term this plan is. No matter for Cornell, as soph Mike Russo won the tournament in fairly dominating fashion culminating in a pin in 58 seconds in the finals over a guy from Harvard.

133: Baughman and Chaz Tucker both lost in the consolation semifinal. They might have wrestled each other for 7th but I don't think they did. The real news at this weight is that Vito Arujau, who will be a frosh next year, won the tournament with a pin, a tech, a major decision, a win over Tucker in OT and a win over the guy who beat Baughman in the final. (EDIT: Apparently the scoring in this match was a mess and Arujau actually lost this match.)

141: Yianni Diakomihalis blew through the field, with only Nick Lee - a stud frosh from Penn State in his own right - putting up much of a fight.

149: Jonathan Furnas finished in third, emerging from a crowded weight class for the Big Red. In a surprise (to me) Schoenherr finished the best out of the rest of the guys, ahead of Realbuto, Gillem and Richard.

157: Joey Galasso finished a disappointing 4th, with losses to wrestlers from Brown and Buffalo. (EDIT: Still, that was better than Fredy Stroker, who will be joining the team in the Spring and apparently needs to work on his conditioning according to people who watched.)

165: Here I was thinking that JJ Chavez was done with freestyle and not only does he wrestle at Binghamton, he wins the tournament. Milik Dawkins finished in 4th, losing to a pair of wrestlers who later lost to Chavez. I think most expected Dawkins to be the starter but this is a good start from Chavez.

174: Brandon Womack wins; none of the matches were particularly close and he got a pin.

184: Max Dean wins his first tournament in a Cornell singlet. Rolls into the finals and then wins a close one.

197: Ben Darmstadt finishes in second; Ben Honis finishes in third. This is the most important fight for a starting spot on the roster because it's the only one where the winner is an All-American contender and the other guy is a contender who just loses a year of eligibility. The spots on the podium don't figure to matter because both wrestlers only lost once, and both lost to the same guy. Honis actually wrestled him closer.

Hwt: Still not a good weight for us until Sweany comes back. Neither the guys on the roster or the FLWC greyshirts did well at all.

[ugarte]

Dual meet season starts tonight against University of Northern Iowa - we're a modest underdog here but could pull an upset depending on how the kids perform.

Sunday is the NYS Championships, and we'll run away with that unless we rest most of our starters (we're apparently resting at least some). It is a tournament that, like Binghamton and Brockport, allow multiple entries in a weight class, so our backups and the guys who are basically workout fodder get an opportunity to wrestle in school colors so that's kind of cool. I would really like to see Jacob Lehr win a match...

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I would really like to see Jacob Lehr win a match...

Jacob won two last year in this same event (and by MD and fall too).

[mountainred]

Dual meet season starts tonight against University of Northern Iowa - we're a modest underdog here but could pull an upset depending on how the kids perform.

They performed pretty f'ing well.  Cornell wins 30-10 thanks to three wins by fall:  Tucker (133), Chavez (165) and Darmstadt (197).  Chavez' pin came at 2:00.1 of the second period, but he was leading and looking good.  Max Dean knocks off a top ten guy at 184.  Yianni D gets a regular decision over a top 15 guy, but was in control.  

The only disappointments were Bama dropping a close one in a battle of top 10 ranked wrestlers, and Joey Galasso looking, to be blunt, meh.

Huge, huge win.

[ugarte]

Dual meet season starts tonight against University of Northern Iowa - we're a modest underdog here but could pull an upset depending on how the kids perform.

They performed pretty f'ing well.  Cornell wins 30-10 thanks to three wins by fall:  Tucker (133), Chavez (165) and Darmstadt (197).  Chavez' pin came at 2:00.1 of the second period, but he was leading and looking good.  Max Dean knocks off a top ten guy at 184.  Yianni D gets a regular decision over a top 15 guy, but was in control.  

The only disappointments were Bama dropping a close one in a battle of top 10 ranked wrestlers, and Joey Galasso looking, to be blunt, meh.

Huge, huge win.

And that doesn't even cover that Ben Honis, who had been wrestling at 197, stepped up and handled the heavyweight match, winning 8-4 and Matt Russo continued to surprise at 125, knocking off a top 20 wrestler 10-4!

Jonathan Furnas lost a MD but he was wrestling the #3 wrestler in the country so there's no shame in it.

Bama is going to have to adjust to the new weight I guess but Galasso is going to have to step up if he has any hope of keeping the starting job when Stroker joins the team in the spring.

Really proud of the team for coming out strong.

[mountainred]

Sunday is the NYS Championships, and we'll run away with that unless we rest most of our starters (we're apparently resting at least some). It is a tournament that, like Binghamton and Brockport, allow multiple entries in a weight class, so our backups and the guys who are basically workout fodder get an opportunity to wrestle in school colors so that's kind of cool. I would really like to see Jacob Lehr win a match...

You weren't kidding.  Virtually no D1 rivals sent their starters, so the Big Red won going away while resting four/five starters (depending on who you think is the heavyweight starter).  Of note to me:

Tucker and Baughman met in the 133 final and Tucker won 5-3 with the only offense of the match.  Noah is going to have earn his starting spot back.
The kids (Yianni, Dean and Darmstadt) dominated.  3 titles, 6 pins, 4 techs.  Only Dean was tested, as he beat a really good Bingo freshman in the finals.
Adam Santoro won at 157 to enter his name into the drawing of the starter at that weight.  (Fredy Stroker looked good for two bouts, and not so good for his last two.)
Recruit Andrew Berreyesa crushed it.  5-0 with 4 wins by fall.

[ugarte]

Sunday is the NYS Championships, and we'll run away with that unless we rest most of our starters (we're apparently resting at least some). It is a tournament that, like Binghamton and Brockport, allow multiple entries in a weight class, so our backups and the guys who are basically workout fodder get an opportunity to wrestle in school colors so that's kind of cool. I would really like to see Jacob Lehr win a match...

You weren't kidding.  Virtually no D1 rivals sent their starters, so the Big Red won going away while resting four/five starters (depending on who you think is the heavyweight starter).  Of note to me:

Tucker and Baughman met in the 133 final and Tucker won 5-3 with the only offense of the match.  Noah is going to have earn his starting spot back.
The kids (Yianni, Dean and Darmstadt) dominated.  3 titles, 6 pins, 4 techs.  Only Dean was tested, as he beat a really good Bingo freshman in the finals.
Adam Santoro won at 157 to enter his name into the drawing of the starter at that weight.  (Fredy Stroker looked good for two bouts, and not so good for his last two.)
Recruit Andrew Berreyesa crushed it.  5-0 with 4 wins by fall.

We're going to have some trouble weights. Galasso hasn't looked good at 157 and Stroker - who was supposed to challenge for the starting spot - is either not in game shape or not too good. After losing to Simaz, he lost in the consolation bracket to RIT. (!) ... and then Simaz lost in the semis to someone from IC (!!) and then NYU (!!!).

Glad Tucker is asserting himself at 133 but Brockport wasn't great. Glad he turned it around with a win against UNI.

Russo may be a surprise at 125, Furnas is game but not a great 149, Honis is going to have trouble with better heavyweights if that's really the answer and Sweany has been very uneven regardless of his injury (and frustratingly the greyshirts are still having trouble).

Our good weights are 141 (Yianni!), 165 (Chavez), 174 (Womack), 184 (Dean) and 197 (Darmstadt) and hopefully some more will solidify as the year goes on.

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I may be more optimistic about than you about Tucker.  He's shaking off two years of rust and is 8-2.  Those losses were to Vito and a Penn State Kid (backup, but Penn State) both in OT.  Maybe I'm kidding myself, but Chaz can qualify for the NCAA's.

EDIT:  Koll's newsletter is out.  It looks like Adam Santoro is headed to Vegas as the next man up at 157 and Ben Honis may be going as our heavyweight at least until Sweany is healthy.  Ben apparently weighed in at 203 Friday night, 40+ pounds below his opponent.  He won anyway.

[ugarte]

Ben Honis may be going as our heavyweight at least until Sweany is healthy.  Ben apparently weighed in at 203 Friday night, 40+ pounds below his opponent.  He won anyway.

Koll also said that 197 was a tough cut for Honis, so he may have grown out of 197 and has to adjust to a new reality. Beating a ranked wrestler while giving up so much beef is a good start.

[ugarte]

The early success has gotten the team some pop in the rankings. Womack, understandably took a slight fall for losing to a guy just below him in the rankings but Russo, Chavez and Darmstadt are starting to show up, while Yianni and Dean are climbing the rankings. WIN hasn't received the memo about Honis and still has him ranked ahead of Darmstadt at 197. The various rankings are not in any particular order other than "the order I thought of them in." I hope that in the coming weeks I can add (in order of likelihood) Honis (as a Hwt), Tucker, Santoro and Furnas to the chart.

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                   [u]Flo    IM      TOM     AWN     WIN[/u]

125: Russo          U      U      15(20)  20(U)    U
141: Diakomihalis  11(20) 12(13)   8(20)  11(18)   9(10)
165: Chavez         U     18(U)   15(20)   U       U
174: Womack         8(7)   9(6)   10(6)    9(8)    9(6)
184: Dean          13(17) 10(17)   5(15)  10(17)  14(U)
197: Darmstadt      U     19(U)    U      16(15)  17(UR)
197: Honis                                        14(15)

EDIT: I've been told that someone already does this for the whole EIWA, so ... here you go. http://static.psbin.com/f/4/3g9wbjvk0bhavs/20171121_EIWA_Wrestlers_Rankings.pdf

[ugarte]

An interesting weekend as Cornell took a team out to Las Vegas to compete in the Cliff Keen Open. It is a tournament that draws a lot of the top teams and the competition is steep.

125: Russo (unseeded) started his tournament by knocking off the 7 seed (#15) guy. He followed it up with a MD before falling in a revenge match to the 10 seed, who he knocked out of the top 20 last week.* He then got pinned to end his tournament. Kind of up-and-down, and he fell far short of the podium, but he showed he's not a pushover and he's putting together a resume.

* He'll be back in the rankings after finishing in 5th.

133: Tucker started his day by beating a 2017 NCAA qualifier before losing a close match to the 5 seed (#7). In the consolation bracket he beat the #16 wrestler before falling to #12 by a single point. Again, he established himself as someone who can hang with the second tier and it's something to build on.

141: Yianni Diakomihalis, superstar recruit, planted his flag. He entered the tournament as the 5 seed, ranked #12 before he blazed through the tournament. He didn't rack up points but he also didn't allow a single offensive point to be scored against him, He had 2 MDs against unranked wrestlers before facing #3 Bryce Meredith of Wyoming - a former national finalist and two-time All-American. After a takedown that would have given him the win in regulation was waved off, he finally got the points he needed early in the Sudden Victory OT period. The final was a dominant 8-2 win over #13 Alber to take the title. Great start. He's undefeated to start the year and I'd be shocked if he were any lower than #4 in the next poll (and probably #3).

149: Jonathan Furnas had a tough start against the #9 wrestler, passively scored the team some points when he won a match by MFF and then dropped a close match to a wrestler from Binghamton that he should expect to see again. He's a grinder who will be more competitive in Ivy play than at major national events.

157: Adam Santoro opened the tournament with a quick Tech Fall before falling to the #18 wrestler. He had the misfortune to immediately meet up with the #15 guy in the consolation bracket. That said, he was absolutely dominated by #15 earlier this year and kept the match closer this weekend.

165: Jon Jay Chavez came into the tournament #18 and opened with 2 pins in his firsst three matches before falling in the QF to the #5 wrestler 6-2. In the consolation bracket he won his first match to get on the podium before losing 6-5 to #11 and 16-7 to #8. I think his readjustment back to freestyle is going pretty well.

174: #9 Brandon Womack had a tough tournament. From people who watched he was plagued by a combination of sloppy leg defense on his feet (something that kind of served him well as a counterattacking guy at 165) and a penchant for looking for high-scoring reversal moves from the bottom rather than just escaping, running out the clock on himself and allowing his opponents to pile up riding time. After winning his first match, he lost 9-8 to #16 despite having a 7-1 lead halfway through the match (with a RT point to his opponent the decisive point). He followed that up with a 7-6 loss that again came down to allowing a RT point to an opponent who shouldn't have been able to keep him down. Hopefully this is a learning experience at a new weight after he was so much stronger than most of his opponents at 165 last year.

184: #10 Max Dean won his first match in a 17-0 TF, and then a second match over #17 before falling to #6 Zavatsky* in the QF. An unfortunate draw had him facing #7 Foster for a spot on the podium. While Dean beat Foster in the UNI dual, he couldn't repeat the performance. Dean is positioning himself as a potential All-American in his freshman year. Very nice.

* Probably nice for Zavatsky, who was handed a vicious 19-4 TF by Max's brother Gabe in the finals of this tournament last year.

197: Kind of a surprise to see Honis here over Darmstadt; either he won the job in a wrestle-off or Koll is trying to keep two 197s in shape with the return of Sweany as our starting Heavy. In any event, Honis won his first match before dropping a close 5-3 decision to the #1 wrestler in the country. In the consolation bracket, Honis decisively beat the #15 guy before falling in rideouts to a guy from Army that he split a pair of 4-3 decisions with last year. Some good matches but he's gotta figure out how to beat this guy!

285: Jeramy Sweany came back for his first matches of the year. He started with a tough draw, facing #6 right off the bat but he kept it close and lost without allowing any offensive points. He then won 5 straight matches - including to MDs and a pin - to get into the medal rounds. In the medal rounds he dropped a pair to the #8 guy and VT's heavyweight to finish in 8th. No wins over ranked guys but some admirably close losses and a great start to his season.

The team finished in 8th overall with a title for Yianni! and a pair of 8th place finishes for Chavez and Sweany. Not *great* but a solid performance and our odds of preserving our EIWA title streak are looking better than I'd expected.

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Cornell has been going to this Vegas tournament for years, but this was the deepest I've ever seen the field. Tucker's draw was insane; three guys ranked in the top 16 plus someone who was 2-2 at last year's NCAAs.

It will be interesting to see if Santoro did enough to hang on to the starting gig at 157.  And how 197 plays out; Ben D. will be heard from before this season ends.

This is the last big tournament for the guys until Easterns.  Rob has changed his New Year's event from the Southern Scuffle to four dual matches in Florida.

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A few of Cornell's reserves and pretty much all of the Finger Lakes Club spent Saturday in Cleveland at the CSU Open.  There were nearly 300 wrestlers there, mainly younger reserves from D1 schools in the NE and mid-west.  By and large, it was a good day for the good guys.

Ben Darmstadt headed home(-ish) and destroyed the competition at 197.  He had four first period pins and won the final 13-2 with over six minutes of riding time.  Matches only last 7 minutes.  His potential is outstanding.

Vito Arujua won at 133.  He wasn't quite as dominant as Ben, but he won his four matches comfortably, including a 11-5 win in the finals over a three time PA HS champ.  Noah finished fourth.

Fredy Stroker (coming to Cornell next semester, maybe) won at 157.  He seems to be rounding into shape after some tough tournaments to start the season.  Kyle Simaz finished 3rd at 157 and his only loss was to Fredy.

Andrew Berreyesa (Finger Lakes) finished 3rd at 174.  His only loss was in sudden victory to a top 30 recruit from tOSU.  He won his 3rd place match by tech fall 17-2.  Foster Karmon started well (a 39 second WBF) and made the quarters where he lost to the eventual champ by a single point.  He defaulted out of wrestlebacks though.

Brendan Furman (Finger Lakes) took 6th at Heavy after putting together a nice run in the wrestlebacks.

Edit:  Scoop is right about Fredy.

[scoop85]

I'm pretty certain I'd seen Stroker tweet recently about his official acceptance to Cornell