Wrestling 2018-19

[ugarte]

The season hasn't even started and the first bad news is that returning 197 AA Ben Darmstadt is injured and may take a medical redshirt for the season. No official word from the school but this is unfortunate.

[upprdeck]

how does that work since you cant RS in the ivies.. you just graduate or you dont.

[billhoward]

Rob Pannell did it. An injury I believe is an exception. A military tour of duty might be also. Or maybe being a missionary?

[mountainred]

On the Wrestling team alone, it appears Tucker and Womack have been granted an extra year of eligibility as they are both listed as Juniors but arrived over 3 years ago.  From a possibly outdated Ivy League website:

Waivers of Ivy League Rules

9th or 10th Semester, or 5th Fall or Spring Term Eligibility
Ivy students are expected to use their four seasons of eligibility during the first four years in which they are enrolled. A student who plans to use a season of eligibility beyond his or her first four years of enrollment will need a waiver. This is true even if the student is enrolled in his or her eighth term, but took a semester off, and it is therefore his or her fifth season on campus. A waiver is not required if a student competes within 8 terms but took an entire academic year away from campus and is therefore on campus for a total of four fall and four spring terms. For a waiver to be granted there must be a non-athletic reason for any variation in the studentís enrollment pattern from the traditional four years. If there is a medical reason for the student not competing in four seasons within the first four years, medical documentation must be included that shows that the student was physically unable to compete. If the student competed during that academic year, even in a scrimmage or in the non-traditional season, an NCAA medical hardship waiver must also be requested. See above for information on filing Medical Hardship Waivers. In addition, there must be certification from an academic authority of a clear academic reason for the student to be on campus for the season in question. This could include a letter from the student's advisor, stating why the student will be on campus for a 9th term, or records from the registrar demonstrating that the student needs another term to graduate.

[ugarte]

how does that work since you cant RS in the ivies.. you just graduate or you dont.

Taking five years to graduate isn't unusual (especially for student-athletes with the insane extra-curricular time commitments), are shelved for a year with an injury you can get the year of "athletic eligibility" back. Of course, if you finish the required coursework to graduate, you can't, since the Ivies don't allow graduate students to compete, IIRC, which is why you sometimes see Ivy students go someplace else for their fifth year.

[George64]

All-American Darmstadt to miss 2018-19 with back injury per  Sun article.

[ugarte]

Porting this over from the 2017-18 thread

Cornell wrestlers going to Worlds:

Senior Freestyle Budapest, Hungary (October 20-28)

61kg: Nahshon Garrett '16 Withdrawn with an injury.
79kg: Kyle Dake '13 GOLD MEDAL

Senior Greco-Roman Budapest, Hungary (October 20-28)

72kg: Jon Jay Chavez '19 withdrawn, allegedly an injury

U23 Freestyle Bucharest, Romania (November 12-18)

61kg: Vitali Arujau '22 withdrawn for unspecified reasons
61kg: Chas Tucker '20 (backup) (but not the primary backup, so he's not the starter - NC State grad Sean Fausz takes Arujau's place - and wins silver)
97kg: Ben Honis '19 (backup)

Junior Greco-Roman Trnava, Slovakia (September 17-23)

82kg: Andrew Berreyesa '22 - SILVER MEDAL

Cadet Greco-Roman Zagreb, Croatia (July 1-7)

60kg: Phillip Moomey '22 - Did not place (0-2)

It's also possible that Dylan Palacio '17 is wrestling for Uruguay at Worlds but that's only based on a tweet of his and strangely enough he's not an incredibly reliable source (too weird). (EDIT: Nope.)

[ugarte]

how does that work since you cant RS in the ivies.. you just graduate or you dont.

Taking five years to graduate isn't unusual (especially for student-athletes with the insane extra-curricular time commitments), are shelved for a year with an injury you can get the year of "athletic eligibility" back. Of course, if you finish the required coursework to graduate, you can't, since the Ivies don't allow graduate students to compete, IIRC, which is why you sometimes see Ivy students go someplace else for their fifth year.

Another way some athletes get a "fifth" year is by taking a semester off so they don't graduate in four years. I remember RBs doing this back in the 90's (football only competes in the Fall, so the players take off spring semester to postpone graduation and retain Ivy eligibility for the following Fall). There is a rumor that Jon Jay Chavez is doing this as well, taking off this Fall but returning for the Spring semester, missing the opening matches but returning for EIWA and NCAA tournaments. If true, it would allow him to focus on Greco training for Worlds while also raising the possibility that he could come back to Cornell for '19-'20 as well.

[scoop85]

Kyle Dake is wrestling for a gold medal tomorrow at the world championships. He demolished the #1 seeded Russian in the semifinal, and has outscored opponents 35-0. I'm sure Ugarte can fill us in with more details.

[Al DeFlorio]

Kyle Dake is wrestling for a gold medal tomorrow at the world championships. He demolished the #1 seeded Russian in the semifinal, and has outscored opponents 35-0. I'm sure Ugarte can fill us in with more details.

Dake is now world champion.  Don't know score.

[Bahnstorm]

2-0 Dake. He goes unscored upon during the tournament. 37-0.

[CU77]

Post-match Dake interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTDjzaaYTKk

[KenP]

Video:
https://www.nbcsports.com/video/kyle-dake-wins-79kg-world-wrestling-championships-title/

[ugarte]

I don't subscribe to TrackWrestling, so I didn't get to watch, but I can still fill in a little. Dake dominated the tournament, winning 11-0, 11-0 and 13-0 before the final. The semi was against the top-ranked wrestler, who had beaten Dake at the Yarygin tournament finals in Russia. Dake whipped him, throwing him twice and frustrating him so much that he got a one point penalty for an intentional head-butt. Real Dake-heads will remember that Taylor was the guy he beat in the NCAA finals his senior year at 165 and that Cox is the guy who beat him in the Olympic wrestling qualifying tournament in 2016 at 86kg. The World Championships added a weight at 79 this year, and Cox moved up, so all three guys were able to find a spot on the team in addition to Burroughs (who beat Dake in qualifying at 74kg in 2014 and 2015 IIRC. Unfortunately, 74 and 92 aren't Olympic weights, so the guys are going to have some decisions to make before Rio in 2020 unless the Olympics add more weight classes. (My guess is that Dake drops down to 74 and Cox goes back to 86.)

Overall, an insanely good tournament for the Americans. In 10 weight classes we have three golds (Dake at 79kg, Taylor at 86kg and Cox at 92kg), three bronze (Colon at 61kg, Burroughs at 74kg and Gwiazdowski at 125kg) and one silver (Snyder at 97kg). Unfortunately, it isn't going to be enough to catch the Russians. Who have 4 golds, 1 silver, 2 bronze and more victory points from wrestlers who didn't medal than we earned.

Meanwhile, Dylan Palacio didn't wrestle on behalf of Uruguay but he did do this: https://twitter.com/greentoepalacio/status/1051616522492411905

[ugarte]

Koll sent out his fall newsletter, so here's the skinny on the lineup.

125: Junior Noah Baughman is back and hopefully after two years of getting snubbed by the committee he'll get himself into NCAAs. He's got a backup this year in frosh Dom LaJoie, who will push for the starting spot.

133: NCAA qualifier and Senior Chas Tucker is back, and he'll be fighting to hold on to his starting spot over greyshirt frosh / elite recruit Vito Arujau, who has been wrestling internationally for age group titles for years.

141: Returning national champ Yianni Diakomihalis is back for his sophomore season. He's still recovering from knee surgery, from an injury he sustained during the quarterfinals of his national title run. He's back on the mats for practice and is expected to return to competition in mid December. A lot of people will fill in while he's out but this is not a contested weight class.

149: The older Koll, Will, is back again for his senior year, and hopefully this is the year he stays healthy and qualifies for NCAAs. He's had a strange career but has shown that he's good enough to get to the national tournament, but for some bad breaks along the way. We've got another brother backing him up - Max Pickett is the brother of former Big Red NCAA qualifier Duke.

157: Fredy Stroker is the favorite to come out of a crowded field, but this is still not one of the stronger weights. Jonathan Furnas, Christian Schoenherr and Hunter Richards are the top competition, with frosh Jake Brindley possibly (but probably not) in the mix.

165: All-American Jon Jay Chavez will take the starting spot when he comes back for spring semester, but in the meantime it will be either Milik Dawkins or, possibly greyshirt frosh and World Junior silver medalist Andrew Berreyesa.

174: Brandon Womack is back at 174 after a disappointing follow-up to his AA frosh campaign at 165. Apparently Berreyesa wants to try to take the 174 starting slot from Womack, so that's the first challenge of the year. If Womack holds on to the starting job, expect the team to try to get Berreyesa to go down to 165 to fill in while Chavez is out.

184: Soph Max Dean returns after finishing on the podium in 8th as a frosh. Jake Taylor will back him up and also back up 197.

197: Returning All-American Ben Darmstadt will be taking the year off to recover from a back injury he suffered during the national semifinals. In his place, senior Ben Honis, a 2017 NCAA qualifier, will take back the starting spot. He had been bulking up to challenge Sweany at heavyweight.

285: Sweany is back for his senior year. He's a two-time NCAA qualifier and, according to Coach Koll, is finally big enough for the weight class. Two highly recruited greyshirt frosh - Brendan Furman and Seth Janney - will back him up. To be honest, their greyshirt years weren't great so I think Sweany is secure in his spot unless Honis has trouble making weight and ends up challenging Sweany himself.

It's a decent lineup, particularly in the Spring, and especially if Arujau is nationally competitive right out of the gate. Looking forward to another great year. The season unofficially begins on November 11 with a lot of our wrestlers (multiple in a lot of weight classes) going "unattached" to a tournament at Binghamton and then starts for real on November 16 when we officially go to Binghamton for a dual meet.