Wrestling 2019-20

[ugarte]

The NC St. dual was tough to watch, as a lot of guys looked gassed late.  Lowe's pin was nice and Colton Yapoujian hung tough against the #1 ranked guy, but otherwise.....

yeah i didn't like a lot about the NC State dual.

184: Ben Darmstadt just doesn't look quite right yet. Still dealing with a year of recovery from back surgery and now a steeper weight cut. As usual, he was weird and funky on bottom and a monster on top. He was able to get a reversal in the first period and rode out the second. The problem was that he also gave up a takedown in the first period and, late in the third, while nursing a 1 point lead, managed to get hit with a second stall call *and* give up a takedown so it didn't even go to OT.

197: Jonathan Loew got a sweet cradle on the backup from NC State and pinned him in the first period. Nice.

285: Brendan Furman gave up a takedown with 10 seconds left and lost 3-1. Two out of three matches where a takedown in the closing seconds costs the match. I wonder if this will be a pattern.

125: Dom LaJoie was unable to generate any offense and scored all of his points on escapes. Gave up 3 takedowns and over a minute of riding time.

133: Chas Tucker couldn't finish all of his shots but he finished the one he needed. A win over a ranked opponent is nice.

141: Noah Baughman went up against Tariq Wilson - a 2018 All-American who came an OT loss away from repeating the feat last year. Baughman was game but couldn't score. He defended well, though. Not quite enough.

149: Hunter Richard gave up a reversal and a third period takedown and it was the difference. Not a good match to lose.

157: Colton Yapoujian went up against #1 two-time All-American Hayden Hidlay. Losing 4-0 was a surprisingly good result. He couldn't penetrate Hidlay's defense and wasn't able to escape when Hidlay got him down. A pretty good sign that he was so competitive with the elite of the weight class.

165: Adam Santoro was out of his depth in the only match where Cornell gave up bonus points.

174: Brandon Womack continues to have problems with aggression on top. If you aren't careful with how you position yourself when you're trying to score, you're going to give up a lot of reversals and it happened again today. As a freshman at 165 he was more dangerous on bottom, getting wild pins from crazy positions because of his strength but he hasn't been able to repeat that up at 174.  



184: #12 Trent Hidlay dec. #3 Ben Darmstadt, 7-5 [NC State 3-0]
197: Jonathan Loew def. Tyrie Houghton, fall (1:35) [CU 6-3]
285: Deonte Wilson dec. Brendan Furman, 3-1 [6-6]
125: #15 Jakob Camacho dec. Dominic LaJoie, 8-4 [NC State 9-6]
133: #6 Chas Tucker dec. #14 Jarrett Trombley, 4-1 [9-9]
141: #11 Tariq Wilson dec. Noah Baughman, 4-0 [NC State 12-9]
149: A.J. Leitten dec. Hunter Richard, 6-5. [NC State 15-9]
157: #1 Hayden Hidlay dec. Colton Yapoujian, 4-0 [NC State 18-9]
165: #14 Thomas Bullard major dec. Adam Santoro, 9-0 [NC State 22-9]
174: #17 Daniel Bullard dec. #11 Brandon Womack, 5-4 [NC State 25-9]

I'm nitpicking, but Buffalo and Hofstra are about at Columbia's level too.

true true. The new Cornell Open wasn't much either tbh. I couldn't watch because I'm only willing to pay for so many wrestling sites. That said, we rolled through the competition pretty convincingly but the competition was either from programs well below Cornell's or less than the best of what the other schools had to offer. This was not a bracketed tournament, it was broken up into round-robins so that everyone could get up to 5 matches. I'm not including MFF* wins/losses since... see the footnote. I'm including matches against the Army and Cornell's greyshirt schools, though, because I don't want to remove them.

Successful for what I assumed was the intended purpose: get qualifying matches in without putting the winning percentage at risk (though it may not be very good for opponent's winning percentage when RPI rankings come out...)

125: Dom LaJoie went 4-1, losing to a decent wrestler from Lock Haven (the only person of note he faced).

133: Chas Tucker went 4-0. He wasn't challenged. JJ Wilson, nominally the backup at 125, wrestled at 133 in the B pool and went 5-0 with 4 pins and a win over teammate Philip Moomey, who was supposed to be the primary backup at 133. Moomey beat the other 4 guys in the B pool with two pins, a tech and a major.

141: Noah Baughman went 4-0. Michael Russo went 3-1 in the B pool; Michael Venosa went 2-1 in the B pool; Ryan Moore went 0-1 in the B pool and then defaulted or forfeited the rest of his matches.**  Dan Koll went 2-2 in the C pool; Jacob Lehr went 0-4.

149: Hunter Richard went 4-0; Chris Schoenherr went 3-1, losing to Richard. Pickett went 1-0 in the B pool before MFF the rest of his matches; McNitt went 0-2 before defaulting.

157: Colton Yapoujian went 5-0.

165: Milik Dawkins went 4-0 with wins over his teammates Adam Santoro and Andrew Merola. Interesting. Santoro, who was the starter against NC State, went 3-1. Merola went 2-3. John Stawinkski went 2-1 in the B pool.

174: Brandon Womack went 4-0. Nate Thacker went 2-2 in the B pool.

184: Ben Darmstadt went 4-0 with 4 pins, but that was pretty much expected. Jonathon Fagan went 4-0 in the B pool; Jonah Barley went 2-2.

197: Jonathan Loew went 6-0.

285: Brendan Furman went 4-0. Seth Janney went 2-2 in the B pool and was injured in his final match.

Our Finger Lakes guys - Ramirez, Fernandes and Foca - all went undefeated.

* MFF is medical forfeit. How MFFs play into postseason consideration is complicated because the way forfeits, defaults, and matches against non D-I opponents are considered for RPI, win% and various other qualifying metrics is almost impenetrable.

** A win by injury default is considered a win on the mat and a win by forfeit sometimes is not, so I suspect Moore took the mat and ate an injury default to help his opponents get credit for the matches they traveled for.

[mountainred]

On a forward-looking note, how many of the Finger Lakes Ivyshirts do you think would start today?  Ramirez and Fernandez would have to be favored to take over at 165 and 285, right?  I'm not sure I would bet against Foca at 174 or Cardenas (when healthy) at 197 either.  Next year's team will be loaded if they can avoid injuries.

[ugarte]

On a forward-looking note, how many of the Finger Lakes Ivyshirts do you think would start today?  Ramirez and Fernandez would have to be favored to take over at 165 and 285, right?  I'm not sure I would bet against Foca at 174 or Cardenas (when healthy) at 197 either.  Next year's team will be loaded if they can avoid injuries.

I am pretty comfortable that Ramirez and Fernandes would start and Foca and Cardenas are going to be real challengers. I'm curious what will happen when Dean comes back at 184/197. And Hatcher will be coming the year after. This really is going to be a very, very deep team.

[klehner]

On a forward-looking note, how many of the Finger Lakes Ivyshirts do you think would start today?  Ramirez and Fernandez would have to be favored to take over at 165 and 285, right?  I'm not sure I would bet against Foca at 174 or Cardenas (when healthy) at 197 either.  Next year's team will be loaded if they can avoid injuries.

How about this lineup next year *and* the year after?

125:  Diakomihalis (Fr)
133:  Arujau  (Jr)
141:  Saunders (Fr)
149:  Diakomihalis (Jr)
157:  Yapoujian (So)
165:  Ramirez (Fr)
174:  Foca (Fr)
184:  Dean (Jr)
197:  Darmstadt/Cardenas (Jr/Fr)
285:  Fernandes  (Fr)

[mountainred]

On a forward-looking note, how many of the Finger Lakes Ivyshirts do you think would start today?  Ramirez and Fernandez would have to be favored to take over at 165 and 285, right?  I'm not sure I would bet against Foca at 174 or Cardenas (when healthy) at 197 either.  Next year's team will be loaded if they can avoid injuries.

How about this lineup next year *and* the year after?

125:  Diakomihalis (Fr)
133:  Arujau  (Jr)
141:  Saunders (Fr)
149:  Diakomihalis (Jr)
157:  Yapoujian (So)
165:  Ramirez (Fr)
174:  Foca (Fr)
184:  Dean (Jr)
197:  Darmstadt/Cardenas (Jr/Fr)
285:  Fernandes  (Fr)

You think Greg D and Saunders skip the Finger Lakes year?

I know Andrew Berreyesa seems to have declared a Greco major, but it is crazy that he isn't in the mix (not that he has an obvious slot).

[ugarte]

On a forward-looking note, how many of the Finger Lakes Ivyshirts do you think would start today?  Ramirez and Fernandez would have to be favored to take over at 165 and 285, right?  I'm not sure I would bet against Foca at 174 or Cardenas (when healthy) at 197 either.  Next year's team will be loaded if they can avoid injuries.

How about this lineup next year *and* the year after?

125:  Diakomihalis (Fr)
133:  Arujau  (Jr)
141:  Saunders (Fr)
149:  Diakomihalis (Jr)
157:  Yapoujian (So)
165:  Ramirez (Fr)
174:  Foca (Fr)
184:  Dean (Jr)
197:  Darmstadt/Cardenas (Jr/Fr)
285:  Fernandes  (Fr)

Not sure if Greg D. is going to pass up the greyshirt but maybe he will to spend two years competing alongside his brother. It's also wild that we're even considering that Darmstadt may not be a starter next year just because he has losses to a pair of top 10 guys.

You think Greg D and Saunders skip the Finger Lakes year?

I know Andrew Berreyesa seems to have declared a Greco major, but it is crazy that he isn't in the mix (not that he has an obvious slot).

I think Saunders skips the greyshirt unless he's not going to start. I do think Berreyesa competes for the spot with Ramirez/Foca I just don't see him winning it based on last year's results. His leg defense is ... Greco-like and I saw him get taken feet-to-back against Brown multiple times while going for a Greco throw because, well, in Greco you can't leg-block or trip and Viruet was allowed to.

[klehner]

You think Greg D and Saunders skip the Finger Lakes year?

I'm just speculating.  If Koll thinks that they would put Cornell onto the top step of the NCAA podium as freshman, why not?

It's also wild that we're even considering that Darmstadt may not be a starter next year just because he has losses to a pair of top 10 guys.

Nothing to do with his losses this year; rather, it is that Cardenas is that good.  He was ranked #1 at 195 in HS.  He beat Rider's junior starter at 197, who beat Lehigh's senior starter 197 this year (who happened to beat Honis at NCAAs last year).  Of course, at the beginning of the season last year nobody expected Darmstadt to have the #2 seed at NCAAs!

Ramirez was #2 in HS at 170; he's going 165 now.  Foca was #4 at 182; he's at 170 now.  All Fernandes has done this year
is pin Binghamton's, Columbia's, and Harvard's starting heavyweights.  Loaded for (Big Red) bear.

(this is what you do when your best guys are taking an ORS this year...)

[ugarte]

Blowout loss to Ohio State today. Some of the losses were expected and even encouraging but ... goddamn. Some of them were just not good.

141: Starting Noah Baughman at 141 against #1 Luke Pletcher was an interesting choice for the Big Red (and it was apparently our choice) but it was a compelling match. Pletcher won, but close, and Baughman even got a takedown of his own.

149: Another tough one for the Big Red as Hunter Richard faced #12 Sammy Sasso. Sasso took an early lead and he needed it, as he clearly got tired and Richard was scoring at will at the end of the match. Richard ran out of time, though, and Cornell had to be content with a moral victory.

157: Colton Yapoujian faced OSU's Elijah Cleary. Neither tried very hard to score but Cleary never came close. Yapoujian was much better on top and with the benefit of a couple of stalling calls against Cleary and an escape in rideouts, Cornell got its first win of the night.

165: Milik Dawkins didn't have anything for Ethan Smith and lost a match that wasn't as close as the final score.

174: #14 Brandon Womack with another disappointing loss to someone ranked below him, #19 Caleb Romero. Had an early lead but wasn't able to generate any offense in the last two periods and Romero came back with a couple of takedowns. Womack has to start winning if he wants to stay ranked.

184: #7 Ben Darmstadt looked a lot more like our old friend this week. Gavin Hoffman had no response to Darmstadt on top and while Darmstadt didn't get the turns he wanted, he had a ton of riding time and looked strong.

197: Jonathan Loew is not ready for #1 Kollin Moore yet. He did get the first takedown but the rest of the match was all Moore.

285: Brendan Furman gave up a takedown with a second left in the match to lose to OSU's backup, Gary Traub. Very disappointing, especially since he seemed like he'd be able to score a lot early and then couldn't convert more than one of his deep shots.

125: Dom LaJoie didn't have it today and lost to an inconsistent but talented Malik Heinselman.

133: Chas Tucker dominated Dylan Koontz and could have had a major decision, as he got a takedown with seconds left but didn't try to hold on to prevent the escape and had to settle for a 7 point win.

Losing the dual was to be expected, tbh. No unsurprising wins, a couple of encouraging losses but - from Womack and Furman - a couple of real disappointing Ls.

141: Baughman L to #1 Pletcher 8-6 [OSU 3-0]
149: Richard L to #12 Sasso 12-9 [OSU 6-0]
157: Yapoujian W over Cleary 3-1 (OT) [OSU 6-3]
165: Dawkins LMD to #12 Smith 12-4 [OSU 10-3]
174: #14 Womack L to #19 Romero 6-4 [OSU 13-3]
184: #7 Darmstadt W over Hoffman 5-0 [OSU 13-6]
197: #1 Moore WMD over Loew 18-6 [OSU 17-6]
285: Furman L to Traub 4-3 [OSU 20-6]
125: LaJoie L to Heinselman 8-4 [OSU 23-6]
133: #7 Tucker W over Koontz 12-5 [OSU 23-9]

[Tcl123]

https://www.nj.com/highschoolsports/2019/11/nj-state-wrestling-champs-dominant-in-1st-college-year-will-wait-to-start-cornell-careers.html

My apologies if already posted. Didn't take time to look at prior messages.

[scoop85]

https://www.nj.com/highschoolsports/2019/11/nj-state-wrestling-champs-dominant-in-1st-college-year-will-wait-to-start-cornell-careers.html

My apologies if already posted. Didn't take time to look at prior messages.

Thanks for posting. Those guys are big-time

[ugarte]

https://www.nj.com/highschoolsports/2019/11/nj-state-wrestling-champs-dominant-in-1st-college-year-will-wait-to-start-cornell-careers.html

My apologies if already posted. Didn't take time to look at prior messages.

awesome. thanks.

[ugarte]

Cornell is competing as we speak at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas invitational. The tournament is incredibly deep - as tough as anything we'll face until NCAAs. No first round surprises. Expected wins from Tucker, Baughman, Yapoujian, Womack and Darmstadt. Losses from LaJoie, Richard, Dawkins, Loew and Furman.

[ugarte]

Cornell is competing as we speak at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas invitational. The tournament is incredibly deep - as tough as anything we'll face until NCAAs. No first round surprises. Expected wins from Tucker, Baughman, Yapoujian, Womack and Darmstadt. Losses from LaJoie, Richard, Dawkins, Loew and Furman.

Tucker is in the finals; Darmstadt and Womack finished in 7th. Nobody won any significant matches they weren't expected to win and we lost a few in upsets. Disappointing results overall. Going to be a strange year.

[CU2007]

Chas Tucker won

[mountainred]

I didn't expect a lot, but blah.  

Tucker's win was very him.  5 wins by a total of 16 points.  His defense is amazing.

Darmstadt's defense is troubling as he lost by fall twice.  Losing to Venz is disappointing but not the end of the world; the loss to the unranked Gopher was terrible.  At least he did beat ISU's Colbray who I've seen ranked in the top 10.  Bama caught the ranked kid from Oklahoma in a peterson, which was nice, but lost to the other 3 ranked guys he faced.

Otherwise, Loew's tournament was about as good as could be hoped, he won three matches and only lost to 2 of the top 3 seeds (but neither loss was particularly close).  Baughman went 3-2 as well, but the R12 loss to Parker was pretty one-sided.  LaJoie had a tough draw, hitting two ranked guys in his 3 bouts; his opening round loss to the eventual runner-up included a 2nd period ride-out (but he trailed 10-1 early on).


I was expecting/hoping for a deeper run by Colton.  He won his first bout by fall, lost to a highly-regarded freshman 3-1 in OT on a last-second takedown, and then dropped his first wrestleback in a low energy 7 minutes.