Wrestling [2017-18]

[ugarte]

Cornell had a dual against Buffalo last night, which is archived here.

The meet started at 184 (don't know if it was consent or random draw), with Max Dean dominating his opponent but giving up a late takedown when trying for the technical fall and an extra bonus point. He still won by MD.

197: Honis was never really threatened and won 5-1, basically by being the stronger guy.

285: Sweany isn't strong enough to deal with someone this much bigger than him. He also kept giving up his legs. Gunning is surprisingly quick.

125: Russo couldn't get off of bottom and gave up a reversal on a nifty move from Akins. He didn't look bad though; this was a close one. His best shot at a takedown was whistled dead by the ref, probably for a dangerous position that Russo had on Akins' head.

133: Tucker will probably jump into the top 20 with his second win over a ranked wrestler. The score was 1-1 heading into rideouts. Lantry held Tucker down for the full period. Tucker chose to give up the escape point and try to win on his feet, and he did - converting a shot near the end of the period for a well-deserved 3-2 win.

141: This was unfair. Diakomihalis, who may move up to #2 - and possibly #1 - by next week because of the other top 4 guys wrestling each other, was facing a guy with an 0-4 record. It took over two periods to finally get the right position, but Yianni finally got the pin. (Skip to 1:03:00 for the start of the third period to see the set up and fall.)

149: Furnas had all the offense and won easily. Estevez was too timid.

157: Santoro was tired at the end but he was still very effective countering Fasnacht's shots, scoring even though he wasn't trying to generate his own offense. He was also way too tired to try riding, and cut Fasnacht quickly each time. It was enough.

165: Chavez had a 6-0 lead after 1, getting a late TD and back points. In the second, he really let his Greco background come through. Got him in an upper body grip and just bodyslammed him on his back for the fall. Beautiful. Skip to 1:25:35 for the setup.

174: Womack comes back after a couple of bouts where he flagged late and lost by a point. Cruises to a win but, like Dean, gives up a late takedown when trying to secure a bonus point. (I think Cornell has the score wrong and it finished 8-3, where 8-1 wouldn't have scored the bonus.)

Next action is at a series of dual meets in Florda after Christmas, including #4 Missouri and #10 Minnesota (plus NDSU and Kent State).

#13 Cornell 31, Buffalo 6
Dec. 18, 2017 * UB Center for the Arts
184: #11 Max Dean (C) won by major decision over Brett Perry (UB), 14-3
197: Ben Honis (C) won by decision over Joe Ariola (UB), 5-1
285: #20 Jake Gunning (UB) won by decision over Jeramy Sweany (C), 10-4
125: Kyle Akins (UB) won by decision over Mike Russo (C), 3-0
133: Chaz Tucker (C) won by decision over #16 Bryan Lantry (UB), 3-2 (SV2)
141: #3 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by fall over Blake Retell (UB), 5:26
149: Jonathan Furnas (C) won by decision over Jason Estevez (UB), 6-3
157: Adam Santoro (C) won by decision over Eric Fasnacht (UB), 9-7
165: #16 John Jay Chavez (C) won by fall over Noah Grover (UB), 3:40
174: #16 Brandon Womack (C) won by decision over Ryan Kromer (UB), 8-2

[mountainred]

As everyone expected, Cornell opens the South Beach Duals by losing to a good not great North Dakota St. and then beating #10 Minnesota.  Sports are weird.

Yianni D looked dominant.  He had a pin against NDSU and an 18-4 major over a top 10 kid from Minny.  It wasn't that close.  Dean had a solid win in the opener and followed it up with a TF at 184.  Ben Dartmstadt got the start at 197 and had a nice major decision and then a second period win by fall.  Ben Honis wrestled up from 197 to heavy; versus NDSU he gave up a last second TD that decided his match and dual (a TD he really should have avoided) and then scored a last minute TD and rideout to take his match and the dual versus Minnesota.  Will Koll wrestled for the first time this year and scored a nice win versus the Golden Rodents.

JJ Chavez did not wrestle and it hurt at 165.

Tomorrow it's Kent State and Missouri.  The Missou dual could be the last real test for Yianni before NCAAs as the Tigers have the #5 guy at 141.

[dag14]

Yes; Honis lost his HWT match against NDS but I give him credit for even being competitive when he is significantly outweighed by his opponents.  His quickness gave him takedown points on the edge of the mat that surprised his NDS opponent.  I wish he had wrestled as hard in the last 10 seconds as he did in the first 6:50 seconds but that letup was clearly a teachable moment as he was not going to let it happen again against Minny.

[ugarte]

Cornell rolled through Kent State with only a loss at 133 (and we didn't dress anyone for 125 for reasons unknown). Koll. Womack, Dean and Darmstadt all came back to win in the third period, while Sweany hung on for a win. Based on the 2 point unsportsmanlike deduction against the KSU bench, I suspect they either wanted a stalling call against Sweany in the third while their guy was trying to come back or they didn't get a call at the buzzer that would have tied the match.

Missouri went ... poorly. No wins in the first 7 matches, including Yianni's first loss of the year - on a last second takedown to a cradle that turned a 6-3 lead into a 9-6 loss. Also no shame in Womack losing to Lewis at 174 but LBF in the first period is not good, especially when he couldn't score a takedown against an unranked wrestler from KSU. After a stunning All-American season at 165, Womack has been mediocre at 174 and is not likely to stay ranked after this 2-2 weekend. Bright spot was Darmstadt taking a 9-0 MD from the #2 wrestler in the country. Honis apparently weighed in at 216 for his Hwt matches yesterday and won't even be allowed to qualify at 197 (because of safe weight cutting rules) so I wonder if a decision was made about making Darmstadt the starter at 197.

Cornell 27, Kent State 7
125: Will Bardezbain (Kent State) won by forfeit
133: Anthony Tutolo (Kent State) won by decision over Chaz Tucker (Cor), 6-2
141: #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cor) won by technical fall over Chance Driscoll (Kent State), 25-10
149: Will Koll (Cor) won by decision over Will Monico (Kent State), 4-3
157: Kyle Simaz (Cor) won by major decision over Casey Sparkman (Kent State), 12-3
165: #16 Jon Jay Chavez (Cor) won by decision over Isaac Bast (Kent State), 10-3
174: #16 Brandon Womack (Cor) won by decision over Dylan Barreiro (Kent State), 3-2
184: #11 Max Dean (Cor) won by decision over Colin McCracken (Kent State), 8-5
197: Ben Darmstadt (Cor) won by decision over Kyle Conel (Kent State), 13-6
285: Jeramy Sweany (Cor) won by decision over Devin Nye (Kent State), 10-8
Kent State deducted two team points for unsportsmanlike conduct

#4 Missouri 27, #12 Cornell 11
125: Barlow McGhee (Mizzou) won by forfeit
133: #9 John Erneste (Mizzou) won by decision over Chaz Tucker (Cor), 6-2
141: #5 Jaydin Eierman (Mizzou) won by decision over #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cor), 9-6
149: #16 Grant Leeth (Mizzou) won by decision over Will Koll (Cor), 6-5
157: #4 Joey Lavallee (Mizzou) won by major decision over Adam Santoro (Cor), 16-5
165: Connor Flynn (Mizzou) won by decision over #16 Jon Jay Chavez (Cor), 5-3
174: #4 Daniel Lewis (Mizzou) won by fall over #16 Brandon Womack (Cor), 1:30
184: #11 Max Dean (Cor) won by decision over Canten Marriott (Mizzou), 4-3
197: Ben Darmstadt (Cor) won by major decision over #2 Willie Miklus (Mizzou), 9-0
285: Jeramy Sweany (Cornell) won by major decision over Dante Jiovenetta (Mizzou), 10-2

[ugarte]

As everyone expected, Cornell opens the South Beach Duals by losing to a good not great North Dakota St. and then beating #10 Minnesota.  Sports are weird.

Yianni D looked dominant.  He had a pin against NDSU and an 18-4 major over a top 10 kid from Minny.  It wasn't that close.  Dean had a solid win in the opener and followed it up with a TF at 184.  Ben Dartmstadt got the start at 197 and had a nice major decision and then a second period win by fall.  Ben Honis wrestled up from 197 to heavy; versus NDSU he gave up a last second TD that decided his match and dual (a TD he really should have avoided) and then scored a last minute TD and rideout to take his match and the dual versus Minnesota.  Will Koll wrestled for the first time this year and scored a nice win versus the Golden Rodents.

JJ Chavez did not wrestle and it hurt at 165.

Not only did Chavez not make weight on Friday, but his backup missed weight as well. We ended up sending our weighed-in 157s out to wrestle at 165 and it went about as well as you'd expect. Honestly, avoiding techs at both weights was a minor success. In a post-match interview Koll called them "a couple of knuckleheads" but seemed more bemused than really angry.

North Dakota State University defeated Cornell 20-16
125 - Paul Bianchi (North Dakota State University) over Michael Russo (Cornell) Dec 13-9
133 - Cam Sykora (North Dakota State University) over Charles Tucker (Cornell) Dec 4-3
141 - Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) over Sam Hampton (North Dakota State University) Fall 4:11
149 - Kyle Gliva (North Dakota State University) over Hunter Richard (Cornell) Dec 9-6
157 - Clayton Ream (North Dakota State University) over Adam Santoro (Cornell) Maj 14-6
165 - Andrew Fogarty (North Dakota State University) over Kyle Simaz (Cornell) Maj 19-5
174 - Brandon Womack (Cornell) over Charley Popp (North Dakota State University) Dec 9-5
184 - Maxwell Dean (Cornell) over Tyler McNutt (North Dakota State University) Dec 11-5
197 - Ben Darmstadt (Cornell) over Cordell Eaton (North Dakota State University) Maj 13-4
HWT - Daniel Stibral (North Dakota State University) over Benjamin Honis (Cornell) Dec 8-7

Cornell defeated Minnesota 22-19
125 - Ethan Lizak (Minnesota) over Michael Russo (Cornell) TF 16-0
133 - Mitchell McKee (Minnesota) over Charles Tucker (Cornell) Maj 11-2
141 - Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) over Thomas Thorn (Minnesota) Maj 18-4
149 - William Koll (Cornell) over Hunter Marko (Minnesota) Maj 10-2
157 - Jake Short (Minnesota) over Kyle Simaz (Cornell) Dec 3-2
165 - Nick Wanzek (Minnesota) over Adam Santoro (Cornell) Maj 17-6
174 - Chris Pfarr (Minnesota) over Brandon Womack (Cornell) TB-1 6-4
184 - Maxwell Dean (Cornell) over Owen Webster (Minnesota) TF 16-1
197 - Ben Darmstadt (Cornell) over Bobby Steveson (Minnesota) Fall 4:43
HWT - Benjamin Honis (Cornell) over Rylee Streifel (Minnesota) Dec 4-3

[mountainred]

Cornell beat their main EIWA rival, Lehigh, 23-14.  Before I crow too much, the Hawkineers were down two of their best starters.  Had they wrestled, the score is more likely something like 19-17 Cornell with the Big Red needing a mild upset at 184 to win the dual.  But they didn't wrestle.

125: #3 Darian Cruz (L) won by major decision over Noah Baughman (C), 17-8
133: Chaz Tucker (C) won by decision over Nick Farro (L), 3-1 (sv1)
141: #4 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by major decision over #13 Luke Karam (L), 8-0
149: Will Koll (C) won by decision over #19 Cortlandt Schuyler (L), 4-1
157: Ian Brown (L) won by major decision over Adam Santoro (C), 10-1
165: Jon Jay Chavez (C) won by decision over #18 Gordon Wolf (L), 12-6
174: #5 Jordan Kutler (L) won by decision over #17 Brandon Womack (C), 4-1
184: #11 Max Dean (C) won by major decision over Andrew Price (L), 10-1
197: #6 Ben Darmstadt (C) won by fall over Jake Jakobsen (L), 2:35
285: #11 Jordan Wood (L) won by decision over Ben Honis (C), 8-3

My takeaways for whatever they are worth:  It was nice to Baughman making weight at 125.  There's no shame in losing the defending national champ and this should help the team at Easterns.  Koll seems to have emerged as the starter at 149; he's only 3-1 but that was a nice win.  Adam Santoro has a solid future at Cornell, but my guess is Fredy Stroker takes over at 157 when the spring term starts next week.

Cornell's big three freshmen, Yianni D, Dean and Darmstadt, are a combined 57-4 with 18 WBF, 9 TFs, and 15 MDs.

[ugarte]

Big win for the Big Red last night as we knocked off our chief rival (now that Penn and Harvard aren't as competitive) #7 Lehigh. (NB that Princeton is rising as a rival.)

There are caveats and countercaveats about how big this win is, naturally. Lehigh's has a pair of top 10 wrestlers (Parker at 133 and Preisch at 184) who didn't wrestle and we won both of those matches, including an MD at 184. Of course, Preisch has been out all year so he isn't formally ranked and until he gets on the mat it's weird to consider him their starter. Similarly, Cornell's transfer from Minnesota, Fredy Stroker can't officially wrestle for us until classes start this week, and he is the presumptive starter at 157. Stroker was a very highly regarded recruit and his first action in the Cornell singlet - wrestling "unattached" at at a small tournament last week - included a win over a top 20 guy from Rutgers.

Baughman kept himself off his back against the defending national champion, Cruz, which was nice. It was also good - even in a loss - to see him back at 125. He just barely missed qualifying for NCAAs last year and seems like a better candidate to qualify than Russo, despite Russo's surprising success. (Meanwhile, Dalton Macri - the guy who we expected to start last year, ended up transferring to North Carolina. He started the year ranked in the top 10 before going 2-4 and defaulting out of his 7th match with an injury.)

Tucker and especially Koll pulled out wins in low-scoring matches with late takedowns (Tucker's in SV). Tucker is a cautious, low-action guy but he's been pulling out a lot of wins like this. He'll probably spend the season on the fringes of the top 20. Meanwhile, Koll has come back from injury and may have taken the starting job from Furnas. He lost a close match to the #15ish guy from Missouri around Christmas and beat a top 20 guy in Schuyler yesterday.

Womack is still struggling at 174. Kutler is a top 5 guy so there isn't anything bad about a loss here, but he was so successful at 165 last year it is not easy to get used to seeing all the Ls by his name. Similarly, with Honis' shift to Heavyweight, Wood is a fringe top 10 wrestler, so this was a tall order and no shock on the outcome.

Our hammers did their hammering. Yianni cruised to an 8-0 win, with one red flag being his inability to get out from bottom in the third period. His technique and balance are great, but he's not a pure strength guy yet and has had some trouble being ridden. Max Dean handled the Lehigh backup easily. Chavez was facing Wolf - like him a fringe top 20 guy - and won handily.

Finally, Ben Darmstadt has - as many expected - taken over the starting spot at 197 and has been dominant. His biggest challenge, it seems, has always been beating Honis in wrestle-offs. This season coming into the Lehigh match he was 18-1 with 11 pins (10 in the first period), two TF and two MD. His wins included a 9-0 whitewash of then-#2 Miklus of Missouri and a win over #10 Rasheed of Penn State. His only loss was to #8 Mattiace of Penn in the first tournament of the year. The dominant win over Miklus jumped him into the top 10. Wearing his new ranking he went out and added another first period pin to his stat sheet.

No. 12 Cornell 23, No. 7 Lehigh 14
All rankings from Intermat
125 – #3 Darian Cruz (Lehigh) MD Noah Baughman (Cornell) 19-6 (4-0 Lehigh)
133 – Chaz Tucker (Cornell) W Nick Farro (Lehigh) 3-1, sv (4-3 Lehigh)
141 – #4 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) MD #13 Luke Karam (Lehigh) 8-0 (7-4 Cornell)
149 – Will Koll (Cornell) W #19 Cortlandt Schuyler (Lehigh) 4-1 (10-4 Cornell)
157 – Ian Brown (Lehigh) major dec. Adam Santoro (Cornell) 10-1 (10-8 Cornell)
165 – Jon Jay Chavez (Cornell) W #18 Gordon Wolf (Lehigh) 12-6 (13-8 Cornell)
174 – #5 Jordan Kutler (Lehigh) dec. #17 Brandon Womack (Cornell) 4-1 (13-11 Cornell)
184 – #11 Max Dean (Cornell) MD Andrew Price (Lehigh) 10-1 (17-11 Cornell)
197 – #6 Ben Darmstadt (Cornell) Fall Jake Jakobsen (Lehigh) 2:35 (23-11 Cornell)
285 – #11 Jordan Wood (Lehigh) dec. Ben Honis (Cornell) 8-3 (23-14 Cornell)

EDIT: lol I spent so much time noodling around with this mountainred got there first.

[mountainred]

EDIT: lol I spent so much time noodling around with this mountainred got there first.

I was wondering where your update was!

[ugarte]

EDIT: lol I spent so much time noodling around with this mountainred got there first.

I was wondering where your update was!

well, i haven't watched yet. Waiting for ILN to post the archived dual.

[Al DeFlorio]

EDIT: lol I spent so much time noodling around with this mountainred got there first.

I was wondering where your update was!

well, i haven't watched yet. Waiting for ILN to post the archived dual.

Just go to the ILN schedule, go back (left arrow) in the schedule, and watch.

[ugarte]

EDIT: lol I spent so much time noodling around with this mountainred got there first.

I was wondering where your update was!

well, i haven't watched yet. Waiting for ILN to post the archived dual.

Just go to the ILN schedule, go back (left arrow) in the schedule, and watch.

cool thanks for the tip. i assumed i had to wait for it to show up in the archive.

[ugarte]

Cornell rolls over Brown (27-9) and Harvard (35-3) as the Ivy season gets underway.

125: Good to see Baughman back and seemingly comfortable at 125. His win against Harvard was wild - down 1-0 late, with his opponent seemingly with a second RT point in the bank, Baughman gets a takedown to a cradle and gets 4 nearfall points and rides out to take away the RT point also.

133: Tucker continues to wrestle agonizingly close matches against people that he should be blasting. He's content to let his defense do most of the work and only scoring when it's absolutely necessary. He didn't lose today but one false move and he would have. He's very short for the weight, which may explain his strategy, because a bad shot leaves him very vulnerable, I guess.

141: Diakomihalis didn't have any competition today. Pinned Brown easily and took Harvard down at will, though never with good enough leverage to roll him over for the fall.

149: Koll with a pair of workmanlike wins. Looked like the better wrestler in both matches and would have won the Harvard match in regulation were it not for some strange calls on the mat.

157: Stroker faced the best guy in the Brown lineup and was mostly fine, though he had trouble finishing his shots because he couldn't get in deep enough. Then he got caught at the end of the second period and ended up giving up a big 6 point move and wasn't able to recover. He had a better match against Harvard but didn't look great. I expected a little more from him after his tournament win last week, including a win over a ranked wrestler.

165: No Chavez for some reason and Santoro stepped up, now that he's lost his starting spot at 157. He had a wild match against Brown, taking an 11-2 lead with an amazing takedown and a pair of 4 point nearfalls, but he gave all of it back and more when his opponent basically put the exact same move on him. It was a wild match but even though Santoro took the big early lead it almost seemed fluky that he got that advantage and the better wrestler won out. His match against Harvard went much better, and he won by fall with a great finish.

174: Womack is not long for the ranked world. He beat Brown but then lost to Harvard and didn't even look like the better wrestler for most of the match. He's had to wrestle through some illness all year and hopefully he's fully healthy by EIwAs. He hasn't looked good this year at 174 after an amazing All-American year at 165.

184: Dean had no problems in either match.

197: Darmstadt had even less trouble, getting a dominant 18-0 TF against Brown and then another first period pin against Harvard. He almost pinned the Harvard guy in the first 10 seconds but couldn't quite pull it off.

285: Honis threw away the Brown match, leading 3-2 with time running out, he took a bad shot and ended up giving up a takedown without enough time to escape before the final buzzer. He didn't make the same mistake against Harvard and held on for the win.

#11 Cornell 28, Brown 9
125: Noah Baughman (C) won by major decision over Trey Keeley (B), 14-3 [4-0 CU]
133: Chaz Tucker (C) won by decision over Hunter Kosco (B), 3-2 [7-0 CU]
141: #4 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by fall over Zeke Salvo (B), 2:47 [13-0 CU]
149: Will Koll (C) won by decision over Zach Krause (B), 3-1 [16-0 CU]
157: Justin Staudenmayer (B) won by decision over Fredy Stroker (C), 11-4 [16-3 CU]
165: Christian LaBrie (B) won by decision over Adam Santoro (C), 20-13 [16-6 CU]
174: #17 Brandon Womack (C) won by decision over Bryce Rogers (B), 8-2 [19-6 CU]
184: #11 Max Dean (C) won by decision over CJ LaFragola (B), 5-0 [22-6 CU]
197: #6 Ben Darmstadt (C) won by technical fall over Tucker Ziegler (B), 18-0 [28-6 CU]
285: Ian Butterbrodt (B) won by decision over Ben Honis (C), 4-3 [28-9 CU]

#11 Cornell 35, Harvard 3
125: Noah Baughman (C) won by decision over Nolan Hellickson (H), 6-1 [3-0 CU]
133: Chaz Tucker (C) won by decision over Ryan Friedman (H), 3-2 [6-0 CU]
141: #4 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by technical fall over Trevor Tarsi (H), 23-8 [11-0 CU]
149: Will Koll (C) won by decision over Hunter Ladnier (H), 8-6 (sv1) [14-0 CU]
157: Fredy Stroker (C) won by decision over Brock Wilson (H), 6-3 [17-0 CU]
165: Adam Santoro (C) won by fall over Tyler Tarsi (H), 4:04 [23-0 CU]
174: Josef Johnson (H) won by decision over #17 Brandon Womack (C), 6-3 [23-3 CU]
184: #11 Max Dean (C) won by decision over Kanon Dean (H), 3-0 [26-3 CU]
197: #6 Ben Darmstadt (C) won by fall over Logan Kirby (H), 0:56 [32-3 CU]
285: Ben Honis (C) won by decision over Angus Cowell (H), 7-3 [35-3 CU]

[mountainred]

Perhaps I expected too much, but on a day where the Big Red opened the soft underbelly of their dual slate by winning 16 of 20, I hoped to see more.

The "Baby Bears" of Yianni D, Dean and Dartmstadt looked great.  Max didn't score much, but he was in control of both matches.  His Brown opponent was #18 on the Coaches Poll (i.e. the only one that matters), so that was a nice win.  But all of that was expected.

Noah looked pretty good and I agree Koll was workmanlike.  I re-watched his match with Ladiner and the calls that went against him were just weird awful, but he fought through.  The key for both guys is to earn a #2 or 3 seed for EIWAs and avoid the top dog at each weight (Lehigh's Cruz at 125, Princeton's Kolodzik at 149) until the final.  They both stayed on track for that.

The bad was the Stroker's Cornell dual debut could have been better.  The Brown loss will hurt come EIWA seeding-time, but at least he has a chance to beat a number of key contenders over the next few weeks.  Bama doesn't have that chance and would seem to be capped at no better than a #4 seed since he's lost to Kutler and Johnson and doesn't get to face Bernstein of Navy.  At this point, I just want Womack to rest so we see his best wrestling in March.

Not sure what to make of Chavez.  Maybe he was sick.  Maybe he missed weight.  Maybe Koll knew Brown's starter at 165 was out and he decided to give JJ the day off.  Maybe Koll's newsletter will give us an idea.  (Edit:  It did.  According to Koll's newsletter, JJ was sick.)

[ugarte]

165: No Chavez for some reason ...

reportedly just sick, not injured or failed to make weight. good news.

[George64]

Cornell takes a squeaker from Lock Haven 20-18.  Darmstadt's pin at 1:07 of first period at 197 was decisive.  Diakomihalis won by technical fall in second period before he could pin his opponent.