Wrestling 2018-19

[mountainred]

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.

Great summary.  Ben's injury may be enough to keep Lehigh atop the EIWA, but it could be really interesting come March.  Cornell is again the class of the Ivy, though Princeton could make it close with a perfect dual.  What has me interested:

*  Can Noah maintain weight at 125?  If so, he has the potential not only make nationals but win a few matches there.  Dom will let him get the periodic break from making weight, which is nice.
*  How long until Arujua takes Tucker's starting spot at 133?  I like Tucker, but this feels a lot like 197 last year where Honis was good but Darmstadt was on a different level.
*  Is Freddy Stroker ready?  He had a couple of big wins last year, and far too many perplexing losses. He has top 20 potential but needs to be consistent.
*  Was last season just a bad, illness-plagued season for Bama?  If so, he can AA agin.  If not, can he hold off Andrew Berreyesa, who looks better and better.
*  Did Ben Honis bulk up too much to get back down to 197 and be competitive.  If he can make weight reasonably comfortably, Honis is a top 15 guy at this weight.
*  Does Cornell finally get a heavyweight to AA?  Probably not, but a guy can dream.

[ugarte]

Great summary.  Ben's injury may be enough to keep Lehigh atop the EIWA, but it could be really interesting come March.  Cornell is again the class of the Ivy, though Princeton could make it close with a perfect dual.  What has me interested:

*  Can Noah maintain weight at 125?  If so, he has the potential not only make nationals but win a few matches there.  Dom will let him get the periodic break from making weight, which is nice.
*  How long until Arujua takes Tucker's starting spot at 133?  I like Tucker, but this feels a lot like 197 last year where Honis was good but Darmstadt was on a different level.
*  Is Freddy Stroker ready?  He had a couple of big wins last year, and far too many perplexing losses. He has top 20 potential but needs to be consistent.
*  Was last season just a bad, illness-plagued season for Bama?  If so, he can AA agin.  If not, can he hold off Andrew Berreyesa, who looks better and better.
*  Did Ben Honis bulk up too much to get back down to 197 and be competitive.  If he can make weight reasonably comfortably, Honis is a top 15 guy at this weight.
*  Does Cornell finally get a heavyweight to AA?  Probably not, but a guy can dream.

All good questions and I'm looking forward to finding out.

[ugarte]

Forgot that the first action of the season was at the NWCA All-Star classic, a one-day exhibition. #8 Max Dean agreed to a rematch with #3 Venz of Nebraska, who beat him in last year's consy quarterfinals and finished in 4th place overall. Same result, with Venz winning 10-5.

[ugarte]

Dual season opens tonight at 7pm against Binghamton (on WatchESPN) and tomorrow at 3pm against West Virginia (ESPN+).

Last week, in unofficial action at the Bearcat Open (hosted by Binghamton) there was a mild surprise at 133 when returning NCAA qualifier Chas Tucker beat star recruit Vito Arujau and at least temporarily won Tucker the starting job in the early going. There are rumors that Arujau is going to try to wrestle at 125, and if he can pull it off without losing too much strength that would be very good for our lineup (no offense to Noah Baughman).

We also may have seen the last of senior (and the coach's son) Will Koll, who appeared to have reinjured his elbow in the 149 finals against Hunter Richard, now the likely starter. Also of interest, Honis won at 197 by pinning three straight opponents.

Most of our starters didn't make the trip.

[ugarte]

Dual season opens tonight at 7pm against Binghamton (on ESPN3)

Cornell didn't send anyone out for 125 and #1 Yianni Diakomihalis took the night off at 141 and we rolled anyway, 36-6. I didn't start watching until the middle of 165, so the early matches are just from the Cornell Wrestling twitter feed.

125: Cornell forfeit. We didn't send anyone to the Bearcat last week, so I wonder what's up with Baughman and LaJoie. [BU 6-0]
133: Because Yianni was scratched, Chas Tucker was bumped to 141 and Vito Arujau got a surprise start. Arujau wins by Tech Fall 22-7. [BU 6-5]
141: Tucker wrestled at 141 but probably weighed in for 133 in order to keep certification* at the weight. He won anyway, 8-2. [CU 8-6]
149: Hunter Richard started against Frankie Garcia, a surprise NCAA qualifier last year. Richard came from behind for a 5-4 win. [CU 11-6]
157: Fredy Stroker had his first match of the season, and started with an 8-0 Major Decision. [CU 15-6]
165: With Jon Jay Chavez taking the first semester off, Milik Dawkins takes over as the starter. He won a back-and-forth match, 7-5. [CU 18-6]
174: Brandon Womack struggled at times at 174 last year, but won comfortably today, 4-1. [CU 21-6]
184: Returning All-American Max Dean was supposed to face Binghamton's best wrestler but Binghamton sent out their backup. Dean destroyed him, 17-0 Tech Fall. [CU 26-6]
197: Ben Honis keeps the streak alive; he's now 4-0 with 4 pins. [CU 32-6]
285: Jeramy Sweany is out today (and may also be taking the semester off, I don't recall.) Freshman Brendan Furman got the start and was winning comfortably but was trying to safely release his opponent and get another takedown, but got sloppy and was taken down himself. He had a big enough lead, though, so he was able to deal with the takedown, the riding time point and two points for stalling and still win 7-6. [CU 36-6]

In matches where Cornell sent a guy to wrestle, we went 9-0. Not a bad start but also not unexpected.

* Weight cutting rules in college are really strict, so you have to "certify" at a weight. If you miss weight, there are rules about what the minimum time it will be before you can wrestle at a lower weight class to avoid encouraging unhealthy/dangerous rapid weight cutting.

[mountainred]

Dual season opens tonight at 7pm against Binghamton (on ESPN3)

Cornell didn't send anyone out for 125 and #1 Yianni Diakomihalis took the night off at 141 and we rolled anyway, 36-6. I didn't start watching until the middle of 165, so the early matches are just from the Cornell Wrestling twitter feed.

125: Cornell forfeit. We didn't send anyone to the Bearcat last week, so I wonder what's up with Baughman and LaJoie. [BU 6-0]
133: Because Yianni was scratched, Chas Tucker was bumped to 141 and Vito Arujau got a surprise start. Arujau wins by Tech Fall 22-7. [BU 6-5]
141: Tucker wrestled at 141 but probably weighed in for 133 in order to keep certification* at the weight. He won anyway, 8-2. [CU 8-6]


* Weight cutting rules in college are really strict, so you have to "certify" at a weight. If you miss weight, there are rules about what the minimum time it will be before you can wrestle at a lower weight class to avoid encouraging unhealthy/dangerous rapid weight cutting.

Koll sent out an email blast indicating Lajoie would start v. WVU today, but the WPIE announcers kept saying it would be Noah.  They made it sound more like a precautionary thing because the team didn't need the points at 125.  We'll see.

Tucker and Arujau were both introduced at 133, which leads me to believe both made that weight.  Vito dominated the poor kid from Bingo and Tucker was clearly better than his opponent despite the weight gap.

[ugarte]

The match against WVU today was wild. West Virginia has a young team, and in ways I didn't expect they are physically STRONG and really took advantage whenever we got sloppy.

197: Not sure why the match started at 197 but it did. #18 Ben Honis against Noah Adams. Honis seemed to get outmuscled a lot, which I didn't expect at all. He found himself in a significant hole and almost came back, but Adams stayed strong as Honis seemed gassed late, and won 13-7. [WVU 3-0]
285: Brendan Furman faced David Smith. Furman wasn't able to convert takedowns the way he did yesterday but he did do a better job of escaping from bottom. Takedowns are better, though, and he lost 9-5. [WVU 6-0]
125: Frosh Dom Lajoie faced KJ Fenstermacher in Lajoie's first match for Cornell. Lajoie was down early, and almost came back, but ran out of time. A desperation shot at the end was turned against him which makes the score look worse than it was. He was really game after a tough first couple of minutes. Lost 8-3. [WVU 9-0]
133: Once again, Vito Arujau wrestled Caleb Rae at 133 as Tucker bumped to 141. And once again, Arujau dominated his opponent. Ran out of time before he could get the Tech Fall but won 17-3 for a Major Decision. [WVU 9-4]
141: Chas Tucker wrestled at 141 again, and I assume he weighed in at 133 again because his opponent looked significantly bigger. Early in the match it looked like Luke Martin's length would be a problem, but Tucker eventually found his offense and powered through for a 6-2 win. [WVU 9-7]
149: Hunter Richard got the start again, this time against Christian Monserrat. A really close match and it looked like he might pull it out late, but he got in a huge riding time hole early, and while he looked stronger at the end, he ran out of time and lost 8-7. [WVU 12-7]
157: Fredy Stroker was facing Hunter Jones, a wrestler who had a losing record last year. He attacked him without fear and dominated from the opening whistle. Stroker cruised to an 11-1 win. Much better than the tentative wrestling I saw from him most of last season. [WVU 12-11]
165: Milik Dawkins tried to outmuscle his opponent and paid the price, ending up on bottom more than he should have. Down by one, with Cornell favored at the last two weights, he really couldn't afford to give up bonus points to Nick Kiussis. Fortunately, Kiussis couldn't covert a late shot and a 7-1 loss kept the match close. [WVU 15-11]
174: #16 Brandon Womack was facing a solid frosh in Josh Ramirez. Ramirez took an early lead, but Womack eventually converted a strong takedown and was able to control from the top. He couldn't get back points but once he had the lead he didn't give it up, winning 6-4. [WVU 15-14]
184: #9 Max Dean faced Jackson Moomau and flat dominated him. He was up by 14, with a tech fall in hand, but he was able to convert the last turn into a pin before the  nearfall points were awarded. All in the first period. [CU 20-15]

It was close, but Cornell pulls it out, with bonus points from Arujau, Stroker and Dean. Not the best dual, but Cornell has backups at a bunch of weights and we still pulled it off.

A few of our guys are going to be wrestling in the NYS championships tomorrow, but we often don't send all of our starters. The quality of competition isn't great - a lot of the field is JuCo and Division III - but there are always a handful of Cornell guys there.

[mountainred]

A few of our guys are going to be wrestling in the NYS championships tomorrow, but we often don't send all of our starters. The quality of competition isn't great - a lot of the field is JuCo and Division III - but there are always a handful of Cornell guys there.

Emphasis on few.  Only a few years ago, most of the NY D1 schools sent their starters.  Not anymore.  Of interest to Big Red fans:


141: Recruit Ryan Moore cruised into the semi-finals where he lost to a freshman from Army and defaulted out (injury?).
149: Jon Furnas wins this event again, again over Chris Schoenherr. They were miles ahead of the rest of the field.
157: Recruit Colton Yapoujian won this weight for Finger Lakes Prep, even though I think he should be a HS senior.  The last two bouts were close, but again, he had to be the youngest person in the field.
174: Freshman Andrew Berreyesa won the weight easily. He beat Soph. Jonah Barley 8-4 in the finals with 2 minutes of ride time. I wouldn't be surprised to see him a few times this year.

[ugarte]

174: Freshman Andrew Berreyesa won the weight easily. He beat Soph. Jonah Barley 8-4 in the finals with 2 minutes of ride time. I wouldn't be surprised to see him a few times this year.

He's blocked at 165 by Chavez and 174 by Womack but definitely is going to make it tough for Koll to keep him on the bench.

Whispers that Arujau is cutting to 125 and if he can do it and maintain strength holy cow that would be insanely good.

[Cop at Lynah]

I just saw on USA Today website that Cornell has 3 of the top 25 high school wrestlers committed to them.  The future looks quite bright for the program.

https://usatodayhss.com/2018/2018-19-american-family-insurance-all-usa-preseason-wrestling-team

[ugarte]

I just saw on USA Today website that Cornell has 4 of the top 25 high school wrestlers committed to them.  The future looks quite bright for the program.

https://usatodayhss.com/2018/2018-19-american-family-insurance-all-usa-preseason-wrestling-team

Thanks for this.

As for the current team, we sent a somewhat depleted squad out to Las Vegas for the Cliff Keen Invitational, probably the toughest tournament outside of NCAAs (or the Big Ten, I suppose.) It's gone about as expected.

125: Dom LaJoie went 1-2.
133: #15 Chas Tucker went to the QF, with a win over #18 Thornton (Purdue) in the round of 16. He lost in the QF to #5 Pletcher (tOSU) 4-3, and apparently ran out of time to convert a takedown at the buzzer for the win. He's still alive for a shot at the podium, with his next match against #7 Duncan (Illinois).
141: Mike Venosa went 0-2. I guess he got the start because of his performance at the Bearcat Open in Binghamton? Yianni is supposed to come back for the dual meet against Northern Iowa in a couple of weeks.
149: Hunter Richard went 1-2.
157: Jakob Brindley went 2-2. Both losses to ranked wrestlers. No idea why Fredy Stroker sat this out.
165: Milik Dawkins went 2-2. Inexcusable loss to Harvard! But the two wins in the consolation were good to see. Flo Wrestling wrote that they don't expect Chavez to come back for Spring semester. If true, that would be a huge blow to the team. (If Berreyesa drops down to 165, it would mitigate it a bit.)
174: #16 Brandon Womack barely escaped his first round match, avoiding a second period pin and coming back to win 11-10. He steamrolled his second opponent before losing a wild match to #9 Lujan (N. Iowa) 16-9 in the QF. He's still alive and will face #13 Lydy (Purdue) in the wrestlebacks.
184: #9 Max Dean has been the standout so far. He won his first three matches 16-1, pin, 12-5. In the QF, facing #8 Ness (UNC), who beat him in the 7th place match at NCAAs last year, he rolled to a 10-0 major decision. His reward? #1 Martin (tOSU) in the semifinal.
197: #20 Ben Honis had a very good tournament going. First round tech fall, win over #17 Woodley (Oklahoma) and a lead with 30 seconds left against #3 Moore (tOSU) in his QF match, Unfortunately, he gave up a takedown and then back points to lose 7-2. He also apparently got banged up, because he has already forfeited his wrestleback match and the tournament doesn't start for another hour.
285: #12 Jeramy Sweany had a rough day. He won his opening match then lost on a late takedown to an unseeded wrestler before getting pinned in the first round of his consolation match by another unseeded wrestler.

Not even going to worry about team results with this many starters out (we're in 18th) but getting 3 medalists would be nice. LGR.

[ugarte]

... 3 medalists would be nice. LGR.

Two will have to do.

Tucker beat Duncan 5-3 before losing to #5 Lizak 7-0. He'll wrestle for 7th.

Womack lost in double ot, 7-5, and apparently was very close to winning in ot.

Dean lost to Martin 17-7, then to #3 Zavatsky 13-6. He'll wrestle Binghamton's DePrez for 5th.

[ugarte]

Tucker won by medical forfeit and finished 7th.

Dean lost 5-3 to Deprez and finished 6th.

Team finished in 21st.

[mountainred]

No way to sugarcoat it, that was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad tournament.  No one beat their seed and only Tucker met it.  Even the Friday bright spots of Max Dean and Ben Honis, dimmed on Saturday.

Koll has some interesting decisions to make in the coming months.  He needs Vito's ability to get bonus points, but Tucker is wresting well enough that it is hard to say he's lost the starter's gig.  Can Arujau get to 125?   What does that mean for Noah, since there is clearly no room for him at 133.  If Chavez is out of the season, can Berreysa get down to 165 (because Dawkins just doesn't look like a season-long solution)?  What's the plan at 149 and 157?  Not really a Rob decision, but is Ben really hurt, or was the medical forfeit just a precautionary move because the team needs him down the road.

[ugarte]

No way to sugarcoat it, that was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad tournament.  No one beat their seed and only Tucker met it.  Even the Friday bright spots of Max Dean and Ben Honis, dimmed on Saturday.

Koll has some interesting decisions to make in the coming months.  He needs Vito's ability to get bonus points, but Tucker is wresting well enough that it is hard to say he's lost the starter's gig.  Can Arujau get to 125?   What does that mean for Noah, since there is clearly no room for him at 133.  If Chavez is out of the season, can Berreysa get down to 165 (because Dawkins just doesn't look like a season-long solution)?  What's the plan at 149 and 157?  Not really a Rob decision, but is Ben really hurt, or was the medical forfeit just a precautionary move because the team needs him down the road.

I'm trying not to find it too terrible because while it wasn't *good* it also wasn't a nightmare.

The 125/133 question is an interesting one. If we can have Arujau/Tucker that's the best case scenario. At 125 LaJoie doesn't seem ready to be a force at 125. Baughman would be fine but he hasn't even wrestled yet. If Arujau can make the cut, great. If not... he really probably is the answer at 133 even though Tucker is a fringe AA candidate. Tucker has a high floor but a low ceiling - on his feet, he's great. He can defend and take down. He's even strong enough that he can get up when he's taken down. But he's a terrible top wrestler because his height seemingly makes it impossible to get the leverage to ride or turn good opposition. Arujau may have a lower floor - he's young - but the ceiling is so much higher.

The middle weights are a huge problem. Not Yianni, of course. But with Koll done at 149, Stroker in and out of the lineup at 157 and Chavez unavailable until January (at least!)... woof. It was nice that Brindley and Dawkins each won two matches at CKLV but that's still not the performance we need out of that group.

Womack continues to struggle in a way that has become predictable: his defense is not great, so he gets taken down, and his strength advantage at 165 isn't carrying over so when he earns takedowns he gets reversed because he overcommits to turning his opponent. At 165 he seemed to live for being on bottom because he would turn it into a Peterson but, again, the extra 9 pounds of opposition makes a huge difference. Berreyesa is going to push for this spot, I think.

Dean had a great tournament until he lost to Deprez in the 5th place match. The win over Ness was huge; the losses to Martin and ZZ were expected. The loss to Deprez, not so much.

Honis also had a good tournament until he ran into the top seed. He even held his own with him for most of the match; I hope his injury isn't serious. If it is, the lineup really falls apart.

Sweany objectively had a bad tournnament. He lost to two unseeded wrestlers and was bounced early. That said, I think it won't look nearly as bad at the end of the season. The wrestler from Pitt is for real. He is a former NAIA champ who transferred this year and he ended up finishing in 4th place. The wrestler from Wyoming also won a few more matches and took 7th. Still... not a great start to the year.

We need to heal up.