Wrestling [2017-18]

[ugarte]

EIWA tournament preview off the cuff:

125: Noah Baughman is back for the Big Red. Last year, in a two-bid conference, Baughman finished third and though he had a decent profile for a wildcard bid, he didn't get one. This year he has no chance at a wildcard because he was out for half the season, it is a one bid conference and that bid is going to go to Lehigh's Darian Cruz, who is the returning NCAA champion. Every time Baughman faces Cruz it ends badly. The closest Baughman has come has been a 9 point loss last month. Next year, as a junior, if he stays healthy, he is a good enough wrestler to earn his way to the tournament. This year it is incredibly unlikely.

133: Chas Tucker was finally healthy enough to wrestle and he's had a pretty good season, despite not trying to score nearly enough. He's the fourth ranked wrestler in a three-bid weight. It's a tough road to finish ahead of any of the three ahead of him - all are All-American contenders - but he finished right on the cusp of earning a fourth bid for the conference himself, so if he can finish in fourth he stands a good chance of getting a wildcard unless there are a lot of upsets in other conferences. The favorite for the title is Drexel's great freshman DeSanto. Tucker battled him almost to a draw but that was mostly because Tucker spent the match blocking and stalling and didn't try to score. Lehigh's Parker and American's Terao are the other guys in his way for an automatic bid.

141: Yianni Diakomihalis, #3 in the country is the prohibitive favorite to win this weight class. Even if he screws up the conference has four bids, though this would be bad for his NCAA seeding. The closest competition is Bucknell's Tyler Smith, who sits just outside of the top 10.

149: Will Koll has a tough but not impossible path. The good news is that the conference has four bids; the bad news is that one of them is sure to go to Princeton's Matt Kolodzik. The other bad news is that half the weight class is in the top 30, so it's hypercompetitive for the other three slots. Koll's as good as any of them, though, so if he has a good night's sleep and a good draw he has as good a chance as anyone else of making a run to at least the semifinals, which would put him one win away from an automatic bid. He also spent a semester in dry dock, so I don't think he can get a wildcard. The tournament is his only way in. I think he can do it.

157: Fredy Stroker joined the team in January after transferring in from Minnesota. He was a very highly regarded high school wrestler who has had an up and down semester but finished the season with a solid come-from-behind win over a top 20 wrestler for his second top 20 win of the year. He's also got the benefit of being in a weight class with a whopping *six* bids on the table. Another wrestler without enough matches for a wildcard, Fredy is going to have to punch his ticket at the tournament. Again, I think he can but there are no guarantees - he is 1-3 against the other contenders, including losses to Columbia's Markus Scheidel and Princeton's Michael D'Angelo and Brown's Justin Staudenmeyer.

165: John Jay Chavez is finally getting recognition, breaking into the top 20, and he also finally has enough matches to qualify for a wildcard if necessary. It probably won't be necessary, though, as he is one of the favorites at another six-bid weight for the conference. It's another weight class with a cluster of guys in the bottom half of the top 30 without a standout wrestler, and Chavez beat the only one he faced. A lot would have to go wrong for Chavez to finish out of the top 6.

174: Brandon Womack has had a very, very strange year. After taking 8th place and earning All-American status as a freshman last year at 165, Womack started the season ranked in the top 10. It has not been a top 10 season and he's no longer ranked in the majority of the polls. Some of that is the adjustment to his new weight and some of it is the lingering effects of mono. Whatever it is, he's 14-8, has had some horrible losses and after a year when he racked up pins and won with muscle, he has had a lot of trouble scoring. He's had a couple of close losses to top 10 wrestlers so I guess that's ... not terrible? The conference has five bids, and that should be enough, but he hasn't been the same wrestler this year and the chances of missing the NCAA tournament after a season that ended on the podium are surprisingly high. The likely winner here is Lehigh's #4 Jordan Kutler, but that was one of Womack's close losses, so who knows.

184: Max Dean steps on to the mat for Cornell after four years of his brother laying waste to the conference at this weight, winning four straight titles. He's had an amazing freshman season, and in a *seven* bid conference is basically a lock. Standing in the way of the title is Lehigh's #3 Ryan Preisch. Preisch went into last year's tournament the 6 seed at 174 and came out with nothing. He was also hurt for most of this year, so if he's still off the title may stay in the Dean family after all.

197: Ben Darmstadt started the season competing with Ben Honis for the starting spot. Now Honis has converted to heavyweight and Darmstadt is ranked either #1 or #2 in the country, depending on the poll you trust, with only a single loss on the year. The conference has six bids and Darmstadt is a lock. His top competition for the title is Princeton's Patrick Brucki, who gave him some trouble a couple of weeks ago, and Penn's Frank Mattiace, who handed him his only loss of the year (though Darmstadt won the rematch earlier this month).

285: Jeramy Sweany has returned to the starting lineup after an injury and some competition from Honis. Sweany made the tournament in 2016 but inconsistent performance cost him his starting spot last year and he wasn't even Cornell's representative at the conference tournament. His return to the lineup has been pretty good - a 16-5 record without a particularly bad loss in the bunch. The conference has five bids and while he actually hasn't faced the top guys in the conference, he has beaten the guys who are in the mix for the last qualifying bids. He's also got a decent chance at a wildcard if he just misses out.

The tournament is this Saturday and Sunday at Hofstra. I'm probably going to the early session on Sunday for the semifinals and some consolation rounds. Say hi if you do too.

[mountainred]

I was thinking of doing a preview, but it sure wouldn't have been this good.  Thanks ugarte.

Based on the pre-seeds (the seeds are subject to change until a coaches meeting tonight), the battle for the team title will be very close. If everyone wrestles to their pre-seed (they won't of course), Cornell appears to have a one point lead over Lehigh before bonus points are factored in.  Teams are awarded 2 bonus points when one of their wrestlers wins by fall, forfeit or DQ; 1.5 points by tech fall; and 1 point for major decision.  Last year Cornell had 10 or so more bonus points than Lehigh, so they could sway a race as tight as this one should be.

Cornell has won the last 11 titles, which is just insane.  The second longest streak would be the six titles Cornell won in the Wilson Administration.  Coming into the season, I didn't think there was much chance of #12, but the Baby Bears have been even better than expected and this weekend is a coin-flip with Lehigh.

[Jim Hyla]

EIWA tournament preview off the cuff:

Hate to think what we'd get if you really tried.:-D

[ugarte]

EIWA tournament preview off the cuff:

Hate to think what we'd get if you really tried.:-D

i confess to doing some research ...

Based on the pre-seeds (the seeds are subject to change until a coaches meeting tonight), the battle for the team title will be very close.

Code Select Expand


               Preseed (AQ slots) Lehigh seed

125: Baughman     6    (1)        1
133: Tucker       4    (3)        2
141: Diakomihalis 1    (4)        3
149: Koll         2    (4)        3
157: Stroker      4    (6)        5
165: Chavez       1    (6)        4
174: Womack       4    (5)        1
184: Dean         1    (7)        2
197: Darmstadt    1    (6)        4
285: Sweany       4    (5)        2

[upprdeck]

Interesting start.. both teams went 10x01 but Lehigh with multiple bonus pts.

[ugarte]

Somehow half of a Day 1 recap got deleted and I am steaming (at myself).

125: Baughman with a pair of wins, including a win over the 3 seed, to get to the semifinal. Still, Since Darian Cruz has not stepped on a rusty nail, qualification seems unlikely. Up next is Army's Chalifoux.

133: Tucker with a pair of wins, including a major decision, to get to the semifinal. No upsets in the bracket, so all three of the tough guys are still around. Up next is the top seed (and #5) DeSanto from Drexel. I still think if he wrestles to seed he gets a wildcard.

141: Diakomilhalis is rolling through, as expected. A first period fall followed by a second period tech fall. Next is Navy's Gil.

149: Koll had a first round win but followed it up with what sounds like a timid second round loss. Then, in his first consolation match, he lost a lead, managed to come back to get to OT but was injured in OT and had to default. He is out of the tournament and unlikely to get a wildcard.

157: Stroker had a close first round win but lost in the second round. He was then pinned in the first period of his first consolation match. He is out of the tournament and unlikely to get a wildcard.

165: Chavez won his first round by fall and his second round comfortably. Since 165 is a six-bid weight for the conference, Chavez has already qualified for the NCAA tournament. Congrats to Chavez on his first NCAA bid. Up next he'll face 5 seed Daniels (Navy), who upset the 4 seed from Lehigh.

174: Womack won his first round match by major decision and then his second round match with controversy. With a 2 point lead and ~30 seconds on the clock, Tyrel White went in for a shot, got both of Womack's legs and sat him down. Womack wrapped his hands around White's waist, however, and White was never quite able to break his grip and the ref didn't award a takedown until about a half-second after the period expired. Columbia challenged (and tbh I think they should have won the challenge) but the challenge was rejected. Someone on the wrestling forum said that Womack was in a boot of some kind during Koll's consolation match, so I guess we'll see if he can wrestle tomorrow. 174 gets only 5 bids, so he'll have to win at least one match tomorrow - whether his semi or a consolation bout - to get an AQ. He may still get a wildcard, though, because he was #18 in the pre-tournament coaches' rankings. He'll face top seed (and #4) Kutler from Lehigh in the semifinal.

184: Dean won his first round match by tech and his second 4-0. He rolls into the semifinals, which means Dean has already qualified for the NCAA tournament. Congrats to Dean on his first NCAA bid. His semifinal will be against the 6 seed, Coleman from Navy.

197: Darmstadt is something else. Two matches, two pins, total match time 2:01. With his trip to the semifinals, Darmstadt has already qualified for the NCAA tournament. Congrats to Darmstadt on his first NCAA bid. Up next is Lehigh's Weller.

Hwt; Sweany got a first round bye and then a major decision in the second round to move into the semifinals. Sweany needs one more win tomorrow - semifinal or consy - to punch his ticket. Up next is the 1 seed (and #10) Hughes from Hofstra.

[mountainred]

Agree with you on Bama and very disappointing about Will Koll (both the timid loss and, even more so, the injury).

Cornell needs a legendary semi-final round to win the team title, but that is mainly because Lehigh is wrestling very well.  Eight in the semi-finals will normally be a first place performance.

[mountainred]

149: Koll had a first round win but followed it up with what sounds like a timid second round loss. Then, in his first consolation match, he lost a lead, managed to come back to get to OT but was injured in OT and had to default. He is out of the tournament and unlikely to get a wildcard.

The guy who beat Koll in the second round is now the finals, so that loss doesn't look quite so bad.  And the word is that Koll broke his elbow, which is what led to the injury default.

[dag14]

Koll's injury did not look minor -- from the way they worked on him I thought they were popping in a dislocated shoulder but they may have been realigning his elbow....

[Al DeFlorio]

Koll's injury did not look minor -- from the way they worked on him I thought they were popping in a dislocated shoulder but they may have been realigning his elbow....

Broken elbow, I've read.

[ugarte]

Hell of a day 2 for the Big Red with a lot of positives even though the team came up short in its quest for a 12th straight title.

I went to the first session of the day but not the finals; I still haven't watched most of the finals yet, so I'm mostly going off the scoresheet.

125: Noah Baughman entered the tournament as a 6 seed and, facing the 2 seed in the semifinals, cruised to a 7-3 win. In the finals, he faced undefeated, defending champ #1 Darian Cruz of Lehigh and ... lost 1-0. It was not a very exciting match but he did take a couple of shots and came very close to converting one. He also was saved by the bell on what could have been a very ugly takedown to his back. Now we have to wait and see if he just barely misses the tournament for the second year in a row.

133: Chas Tucker got a semifinal rematch against the 1 seed, #5 Austin DeSanto. DeSanto is a wild scoring machine and wrestling Tucker - a pure defense machine - must be torture. At the Drexel dual last month, DeSanto won 2-1 when all of Tucker's backing up led to the winning stall point. Today was more of the same, but this time Tucker took one shot, converted it and won 4-2 after DeSanto was penalized for twisting Tucker's knee in a desperate attempt to get a late TD. He also took Tucker down after the whistle but that also seemed more desperate than malicious and he offered a hand and helped Tucker up. In the final, Tucker faced the 2 seed, #10 Scotty Parker of Lehigh. In what was probably another snoozer, Parker won 2-1 on a conceded escape in rideouts. On the other hand, the win over DeSamto got Tucker an AQ and he's going to his first NCAA tournament. After two years dealing with injuries Tucker finally got to wrestle and it's great that he got himself to the show.

141: Yianni Diakomihalis won his EIWA first title, of course, knocking off two top 20 wrestlers and neither match was close. In the final he won by major decision, 17-9, after conducting a takedown clinic.

165: John Jay Chavez won his first EIWA title. He won comfortably in both matches and would have had a major in the final but for giving up a takedown with 19 seconds left while comfortably ahead.

174: Brandon Womack started the day with a 9-2 loss to #3 (and eventual EIWA champ) Jordan Kutler. That put him into the consolation bracket needing to win one match to qualify for NCAAs. In the consolation semis Womack beat Josef Johnson of Harvard 4-0, avenging a loss from the dual meet last month and punching his ticket for a return trip to NCAAs. Then, in the consolation final, he turned a second period reversal into a pin to take 3rd place.

184: Max Dean had a wild come from behind win over #18 Coleman from Navy to move into the finals. After a rough first period in which he gave up two takedowns and back points that were almost a fall, the work he did to get back into and then win the match was impressive. Alas, that win got him a meeting with a buzzsaw, #3  Ryan Preisch, who won with a second period fall in a dominating performance to take the tournament.

197: Ben Darmstadt had a rough start to his semifinal match against Lehigh's Weller. I was sitting in the first row and could hear Preisch and one of his teammates getting cocky, with one guy saying to Preisch "see? he hasn't beat anyone." Kind of a strange commentary on the #1 wrestler in the country but whatever. With a little over a minute left in the match Darmstadt got a reversal, earned a stalling point then put Weller on his back for 4 NF points in a 10-6 victory. In the final Darmstadt faced the guy who gave him his only loss on the year, and much like the first rematch, Darmstadt dominated, this time with a 10-0 win.

285: Sweany had a tough matchup to start the day, falling to #10 Hughes of Hofstra. In his first consy match, Sweany won a very close (but very boring, but for the tension 4-1 win over Pelusi of F&M. The score was 2-1 until a meaningless takedown with 1 second left on what was basically a missed desperation shot by Pelusi. The winning point came on a stalling call against Pelusi. With the win Sweany earns his second trip to the NCAA tournament, but after a year off when he lost his spot in the starting lineup. After his qualifying win Sweany followed it up with a 5-4 win in the consolation final over #15 Ryan to take third.

Hell of a tournament: 3 champs, 7 NCAA qualifiers, and an outside chance at an 8th. Alas, it wasn't enough as Lehigh went 5 for 5 on championship matches to take the team title and break Cornell's stranglehold. We'll get 'em next year.

NCAA tournament is going to be fun.

[mountainred]

A lot of good things for the Big Red.  Yianni and Ben were the studs they've been all season (Of course, Ben still hasn't beaten anyone  ::rolleyes:.  Bama looked like Bama for the first time all season.  Noah looked great and Chaz' win over DeSanto was awesome, even if DeSanto took it rather, umm, poorly.  I think JJ looked at the scoreboard and forgot to add his riding time point in the finals, he took a shot of the "have to get bonus points variety" and it backfired.  Love the effort though.  Preisch was on a mission, but Dean still has a helluva future.

Lehigh had to be brilliant to win the tournament and unfortunately for the good guys they were.  Tip your hat and move on; it only happens once every 12 years.  Looking forward to NCAAs and next year.

[ugarte]

Neither Noah Baughman or Fredy Stroker were given wildcards and with Will Koll's broken elbow I doubt he was even considered.

Second year in row for Baughman to finish one spot short of qualification. This year he didn't get "snubbed" exactly because he didn't meet the qualifications for a wildcard bid - there are a number of factors, you need to meet at least two and he only met one. It's a real bummer because one of them is "top 33 in the Coaches' Rankings" and I assume he just missed the cutoff. The guy he beat in the QF got a wildcard. And, frustratingly, the way I read the rules, if he had medically forfeited the final instead of wrestling and losing, he'd have finished with a record of 7-3 instead of 7-4... and one of the criteria for a wildcard is ".700 win %".

Honestly it looks like just about anyone who qualified for a WC got one; there probably weren't many upsets at 125.

Looking over the list of wildcards, it looks like there were a lot of upsets so he never really had a chance. At 8-6 he wasn't getting a wildcard. He needed to win at EIWAs and he lost back-to-back matches against guys that he beat during the regular season. Really disappointing showing.

[mountainred]

Noah couldn't have even been considered because, as you say, the kid he beat in the QF received a wildcard ticket and head-to-head is the #`1 criteria.  Gage really doesn't have a quality win (at least the VaTech kid with the losing record knocked off one top 20-ish guy). Sadly, I think your earlier statement that he had no chance for a wild card because he only wrestled part of the season was 100% correct; Russo probably had a better case because of his two top 20 wins.  You need those early season tournaments to build the resume.  I have little doubt that he would finish in the top 32 if you wrestled every 125 pounder against each other, but they didn't ask me.

Still, two legit national title contenders (Yianni and Ben), two strong contenders for AA (Chavez and Dean), Tucker being impossible to take down, and Bama looking as good as he has all season means the NCAAs will still be entertaining. I have no idea what to expect from Jeramy.

[ugarte]

Noah couldn't have even been considered because, as you say, the kid he beat in the QF received a wildcard ticket and head-to-head is the #`1 criteria.  Gage really doesn't have a quality win (at least the VaTech kid with the losing record knocked off one top 20-ish guy). Sadly, I think your earlier statement that he had no chance for a wild card because he only wrestled part of the season was 100% correct; Russo probably had a better case because of his two top 20 wins.  You need those early season tournaments to build the resume.  I have little doubt that he would finish in the top 32 if you wrestled every 125 pounder against each other, but they didn't ask me.

For a quick primer for the non-wrestling fans, to be considered for a wildcard, you need to meet at least 2 of the following criteria:
- .700 Win %
- Top 33 RPI
- Top 33 CR
- .700 winning percentage against all competition
- One win against a wrestler receiving automatic qualification via an earned position (preallocated)
- Qualifying event placement one below automatic qualification

Like you, I have no idea what the difference between the first and fourth criteria is.

Baughman finished unranked in either RPI or CR and a record of 7-4, so his win% was under .700. He did finish one slot below qualification (second place in a one-bid weight.)

He had no wins of note.

Meanwhile, the more controversial choices that did get wildcards both have better resumes than Baughman. Sure, Baughman beat American's Curry in the QF, but Curry (Bronze-qualifying RPI of 28) has 22 wins, including 2 over NCAA qualifiers - Oliver (Indiana) and Bunduka (George Mason). Virginia Tech's Norstrem has a losing record, but he has the rankings qualifications (RPI of 21, CR of 31) and he beat automatic qualifiers McGee (ODU) and Allen (Chattanooga) - and if you want to point out that Baughman beat Curry ... Norstrem beat Curry too.

In the end I don't think there was any injustice here.  He had a good tournament run but during the regular season he had two losses to two 125s who didn't make the tournament (an inexplicable tech fall to Werner from Lock Haven and a shutout loss to Fuentes of Drexel). Baughman is probably a top-33 125 in the abstract, but his resume isn't good enough to even fret that the criteria blocked him off in favor of lesser wrestlers. Like you, I expect a better year in 2018-19 if he can make weight for a full season.

Still, two legit national title contenders (Yianni and Ben), two strong contenders for AA (Chavez and Dean), Tucker being impossible to take down, and Bama looking as good as he has all season means the NCAAs will still be entertaining. I have no idea what to expect from Jeramy.

This sums it up. I can't wait.