Wrestling 2019-20

[mountainred]

125: Dom LaJoie had to face #3 Patrick Glory - who beat Arujau in the EIWA final last year - and could not quite keep it to a regular decision, losing 9-0. [4-4]

Very true, but as a fan of Vito, I would like to add that Arujau dominated Glory in dual meet (2nd period WBF) and finished higher at the NCAA's (4th v. 6th).

This ends this unpaid announcement of Vito Arujau fan club.

i mean... i know... which you know... i was just trying to give a sense of where glory stacked up against lajoie. i was hoping dom could keep it to a major and so was pretty excited after the match and not turn each weight into a discursive essay.

I know that you know that I know that you ......{trails off in an endless loop}.  I really just wanted to think of happier days!

[ugarte]

The NCAA tournament qualification process for wrestling is really complicated - I don't know all of the rules but I'm working on it. A simplified version is that the performance of a conference's wrestlers over the course of the regular season determines the allocation of automatic qualifiers at each weight to that conference's tournament. A few slots at each weight are reserved for at-large bids. The AQ allocation is a combination of RPI*, winning percentage* and coaches' rankings. The NCAA periodically polls the coaches as the end of the season approaches and concurrently releases the top 33 RPI so everyone knows where they stand. Here's where Cornell stands now.

133: Tucker #4 CR, #4 RPI
141: Baughman #21 RPI
149: Richard #29 CR, #29 RPI
174: Womack #23 RPI^
184: Loew #28 CR
197: Darmstadt #3 CR

* figuring out RPI and winning percentage is damn near impossible because college wrestlers enter tournaments with redshirt, D-III, club, JuCo or NAIA opponents and a guy can change weight classes over the course of a season. How those factor into different winning percentages or RPI is like explaining to a person who has never watched baseball all the exceptions to distinguish an at-bat from a plate appearance. I rely on the EIWA SID for these things and even he isn't always positive and thinks the NCAA sometimes gets it slightly wrong but isn't transparent about its calculations.

^ Womack still has an RPI because he has enough matches to qualify (15) but hasn't wrestled since getting injured in December so he isn't eligible to be ranked. His replacement, Berreyesa doesn't have enough matches to qualify for RPI. There is a note in the preview for this weekend's duals (Binghamton and North Carolina) that Womack hopes to return before the end of the season, which would be great because he was wrestling really well before he was hurt and it's his senior year.

Darmstadt or Loew also are under 15 qualifying matches because they swapped weight classes midway through the season. Loew will have enough matches by the end of the weekend. I think Darmstadt and Berreyesa may go to one of the open tournaments held late in the season that let wrestlers get their match count up to get the conference extra qualifying spots.

Cornell faces Binghamton today at 1 and North Carolina tomorrow at 1. More details and match notes here: https://cornellbigred.com/news/2020/2/13/-17-wrestling-set-for-loaded-weekend-of-events-at-home.aspx

[mountainred]

The NCAA tournament qualification process for wrestling is really complicated - I don't know all of the rules but I'm working on it. A simplified version is that the performance of a conference's wrestlers over the course of the regular season determines the allocation of automatic qualifiers at each weight to that conference's tournament. A few slots at each weight are reserved for at-large bids. x

Thanks ugarte.  I appreciate how, once conference allocations are made, it gets pretty simple and everyone knows what he has to do to qualify.  If the EIWA gets 5 qualifiers, you need to finish 5th or better.  Of course, the at-large bids are the NCAA at its shadowy worst.

Crazy to think that Cornell may earn the EIWA a possible qualification at only two weights -- 133 and 197.  

I'd love to see Womack wrestle again this year, and is it crazy to want to seem him at 165?  That's probably a brutal cut, but he only needs to do it for a few weeks and he had a great NCAA Tournament at that weight.

[ugarte]

The NCAA tournament qualification process for wrestling is really complicated - I don't know all of the rules but I'm working on it. A simplified version is that the performance of a conference's wrestlers over the course of the regular season determines the allocation of automatic qualifiers at each weight to that conference's tournament. A few slots at each weight are reserved for at-large bids. x

Thanks ugarte.  I appreciate how, once conference allocations are made, it gets pretty simple and everyone knows what he has to do to qualify.  If the EIWA gets 5 qualifiers, you need to finish 5th or better.  Of course, the at-large bids are the NCAA at its shadowy worst.

Crazy to think that Cornell may earn the EIWA a possible qualification at only two weights -- 133 and 197.  

I'd love to see Womack wrestle again this year, and is it crazy to want to seem him at 165?  That's probably a brutal cut, but he only needs to do it for a few weeks and he had a great NCAA Tournament at that weight.

the more i've read about the at-large, the less shadowy it seems; i thought baughman probably deserved one his freshman year but after running the numbers i was less surprised that he got squeezed out. i'd also like to see womack wrestle again but not sure when it would happen. he'd have to be fully healthy to cut to 165 or to push out Berreyesa. it would be cool to see him get another match against UNC or Lock Haven, though, even if he's not going to be at EIWA.

[ugarte]

Cornell rolled Binghamton 32-8.

141: Noah Baughman faced Anthony Sparacio, an NCAA qualifier from last year. Trailing the whole match, Baughman got a takedown with four seconds left in the match to pull off a 4-3 win. Awesome finish. [CU 3-0]

149: Hunter Richard is looking to get back in the top 25 and faced Matthew Swanson. Comfortable major decision. Bigger challenge tomorrow against #3 O'Connor. [CU 7-0]

157: Binghamton forfeit. Adam Santoro gets his hand raised for Cornell. [CU 13-0]

165: Chris Schoenherr, on Senior Night, gets a surprising start at 165 after a career as a backup at 149. Facing Dylan Wood, he wins 13-5 for a major decision. Feel like we're going to see Milik Dawkins, also a senior, tomorrow. [CU 17-0]

174: Andrew Berreyesa, facing Alex Milikian, made it interesting but pulled away for a 10-5 win. [CU 20-0]

184: Jonathan Loew is also trying to climb the rankings but that's a tall order against #5 Louie DePrez. DePrez dominated this match and won 15-4 for a major. [CU 20-4]

197: Louie's brother Sam took the mat for Binghamton against newly-minted #3 Ben Darmstadt. It was close for the first minute or so, with DePrez almost scoring and seeming to hold off Darmstadt. It looked like he may have been in a position to score again but again Darmstadt fought it off, this time fully throwing DePrez to his back for his 13th pin of the season. [CU 26-4]

Hwt: Backup Seth Janney came out for Cornell against Joe Doyle. Doyle dominated the match, winning by major 11-2. [CU 26-8]

125: Dom LaJoie, shockingly, trailed the entire match against 1-16 Tommaso Frezza (who has lost a lot of close matches and is probably better than his record) but scored late in the third and added a riding time point to win 4-3. [CU 29-8]

133: The feature match of the dual, with a pair of undefeated top 10 wrestlers. #5 Chas Tucker (24-0) vs #9 Zack Trampe (8-0). Tucker got out to an early lead, and was winning late, but, in attempt to pad his lead and/or avoid a second stalling call, gave up a takedown in the closing seconds to send the match to OT. In OT, he scored a takedown in sudden victory to preserve his unbeaten record. [CU 32-8 FINAL]

[nyc94]

2020 wrestling was Princeton's 500th Ivy League title, if you're keeping score which apparently they are.

https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/02/14/princeton-first-reach-500-ivy-league-athletic-championships

[blackwidow]

2020 wrestling was Princeton's 500th Ivy League title, if you're keeping score which apparently they are.

https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/02/14/princeton-first-reach-500-ivy-league-athletic-championships

What they have done with their wrestling program is really impressive.

[ugarte]

Haven't watched it yet but we got beat by North Carolina. Some surprises, both good and bad.

The good news: Tucker is still undefeated, Furman beat a wrestler in the CR and Baughman got his best win of the season plus a major from Loew. Also, Santoro had another close-but-no-cigar match against a ranked opponent. I'd love to see him make a run at EIWA to steal a bid.

The bad news: Darmstadt was beaten pretty handily by an unranked wrestler; Berreyesa is getting handled by unranked opponents if he can't get an upper body throw; and LaJoie got pinned.

Last dual before the conference tournament is next weekend at Lock Haven.

149: #3 Austin O'Connor (UNC) dec. Hunter Richard (COR), 10-3; UNC leads, 3-0
157: #11 A.C. Headlee (UNC) dec. Adam Santoro (COR), 9-7; UNC leads, 6-0
165: Sawyer Davidson (UNC) dec. Chris Schoenherr (COR), 8-4; UNC leads, 9-0
174: Clay Lautt (UNC) dec. Andrew Berreyesa (COR), 6-0; UNC leads, 12-0
184: Jonathan Loew (COR) major dec. Joey Mazzara (UNC), 12-3; UNC leads, 12-4
197: Brandon Whitman (UNC) dec. #3 Ben Darmstadt (COR), 6-2; UNC leads, 15-4
285: Brendan Furman (COR) dec. Andrew Gunning (UNC) 3-1 (SV-1); UNC leads, 15-7
125: Joey Melendez (UNC) over Dom LaJoie (COR), Fall (6:39); UNC leads, 21-7
133: #5 Chas Tucker (COR) dec. Jaime Hernandez (UNC), 4-1; UNC leads, 21-10
141: Noah Baughman (COR) dec. #12 Zach Sherman (UNC), 3-1; UNC wins, 21-13

[billhoward]

2020 wrestling was Princeton's 500th Ivy League title, if you're keeping score which apparently they are.
https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/02/14/princeton-first-reach-500-ivy-league-athletic-championships

What they have done with their wrestling program is really impressive.

And Princeton has nascent plans for something nicer, to replace Jadwin Gymnasium, the home to wrestling, basketball, indoor track, fencing, etcetera, I'm hearing. Jadwin is all of 51 years old; Barton Hall is 105. I always liked Jadwin because even when you got a Cornell-basketball-visits size crowd, it didn't ever feel empty.

[ugarte]

Interesting goings on in wrestling. Cornell won their last dual meet of the season, beating Lock Haven 23-13. After alternating wins with Lock Haven from 125 through 174, Cornell swept the last 3 weights with bonus points to run away with the meet.  

The good:
Chas Tucker stayed unbeaten, avenging his 2019 NCAA tournament loss to DJ Fehlman.
Milik Dawkins got to wrestle again before finishing his senior year, winning 13-6.
Ben Darmstadt rebounded from his surprising loss against the Tar Heels with a 16-0 tech fall.
Bonus point wins from Hunter Richard, Jonathan Loew and Brendan Furman.

The understandable:
Dom LaJoie and Noah Baughman both lost to top 15 wrestlers.

The bad:
Adam Santoro got lit up 14-1 and Andrew Berreyesa lost to an unranked wrestler. Berreyesa started hot but now that it's clear that his game is upper body throws, he is not doing that well.

There was also a tournament on Sunday, hosted by Lock Haven, that serves mostly as an opportunity to get backups and redshirts some tournament action and provide an opportunity for wrestlers who need a match or two to achieve certain NCAA qualification criteria to do that. We sent two guys* - (1) Brandon Womack needed to wrestle in order to be eligible for RPI, since he hadn't wrestled since December and (2) Hunter Richard needed to win at least one match to get his winning percentage over .700. Both did exactly what they needed to do. Womack was slated against fellow Cornellian Remi Pellumbi, pinned him quickly then medically forfeited out of the rest of the tournament. Richard won two matches, brought his winning % up to .7097, then also medically defaulted out. You will not be surprised to hear that medical forfeits do not count against you for NCAA criteria purposes and also nobody checks to see if you are really hurt.

In future Cornellian news, Incoming 197 Jacob Cardenas went 3-0 and took first place when Bucknell's Drew Phipps pulled the ol' MFF for the final and incoming 165 Julian Ramirez went 4-0 to take first place. Mason Reniche, also a future 165er, went 2-2 and didn't place. Not sure if the other FLWC guys are actually Cornell recruits but Romeo McNeil (125) took 4th and Benny Baker (157) went 2-1.

The set of Coaches Rankings and official RPI come out on Thursday along with the number of bids that each conference has earned at each weight.

* we actually sent 4 guys; Pellumbi, who I think was intentionally paired with Womack and I'm not saying he took a dive but I am saying that it's good to know that Womack was healthy enough that the outcome wasn't in doubt.John Stawinski, a sophomore 165 who doesn't get much action also got in and went 1-2.

[scoop85]

Berreyesa started hot but now that it's clear that his game is upper body throws, he is not doing that well.

From the little I know of wrestling it does seem Berreyesa is a one-trick pony who needs to expand his repertoire.

[ugarte]

Berreyesa started hot but now that it's clear that his game is upper body throws, he is not doing that well.

From the little I know of wrestling it does seem Berreyesa is a one-trick pony who needs to expand his repertoire.

easier said than done: he's a world class greco-roman wrestler and the rules are just different in freestyle. it's like introducing a boxer to MMA and telling him, as he ices his face from getting kneed in the chin, that he's got to avoid knees.

[mountainred]

Berreyesa started hot but now that it's clear that his game is upper body throws, he is not doing that well.

From the little I know of wrestling it does seem Berreyesa is a one-trick pony who needs to expand his repertoire.

easier said than done: he's a world class greco-roman wrestler and the rules are just different in freestyle. it's like introducing a boxer to MMA and telling him, as he ices his face from getting kneed in the chin, that he's got to avoid knees.

Really shows how the Big Red caught lightning in a bottle the year the JJ Chavez became an All-American.

[klehner]

(2) Hunter Richard needed to win at least one match to get his winning percentage over .700. Both did exactly what they needed to do. Womack was slated against fellow Cornellian Remi Pellumbi, pinned him quickly then medically forfeited out of the rest of the tournament. Richard won two matches, brought his winning % up to .7097, then also medically defaulted out.

More accurately, Hunter Richard needed *two* wins to bring his official WP to exactly .700 (21-9).  One of his wins was over a non-D1 opponent, and as such doesn't count toward that WP.

We still don't know much about Womack's condition.  In addition, I still find it very strange that Berreyesa gave up his ORS just so he could do a few duals:  I guess he might have been insurance in case Womack couldn't come back.  But in that case, who cares?  Cornell isn't winning EIWAs even if Womack wins at 174.  A part of me is holding out hope that Berreyesa goes 165 in two weeks...

[klehner]

Berreyesa started hot but now that it's clear that his game is upper body throws, he is not doing that well.

From the little I know of wrestling it does seem Berreyesa is a one-trick pony who needs to expand his repertoire.

easier said than done: he's a world class greco-roman wrestler and the rules are just different in freestyle. it's like introducing a boxer to MMA and telling him, as he ices his face from getting kneed in the chin, that he's got to avoid knees.

Really shows how the Big Red caught lightning in a bottle the year the JJ Chavez became an All-American.

I was just going to cite Chavez, whose folkstyle skills were pretty darned good.  I watched that throw against Buffalo many times.  See about 1:26 into this!

[video]https://youtu.be/Uokcj4lk_fE[/video]