Wrestling 20-21

[ugarte]

Kyle Dake, as expected, ripped through the competition in the 74kg Challenge Tournament. He got a bye to the semifinal because he won gold at Worlds in a non-Olympic weight. He won the semi 10-0 in 1:26 then, as jkahn said, won the final against Jason Nolf in 42 seconds, including an insane powerbomb right off of the opening whistle. To give an idea of how good an opponent Dake just ragdolled, Nolf lost two matches as a freshman to 2x national champion Isaiah Martinez and then (with the exception of a single injury default) didn't lose again in college for three years.

Dake's Finals match against Jordan Burroughs has been hugely anticipated all year. Nobody really expected anyone else to be here. Burroughs beat Dake in the best-of-three finals in 2013, 2015 and 2017 (Dake was injured in 2014 and moved way up in weight to try to win what he thought was an easier weight class in 2016). After 2017, Dake moved to the non-Olympic weight of 79kg and won gold in 2018 and 2019 while Burroughs won bronze both years at 74. COVID cancelled both the trials and the Olympics last year, and because none of the real contenders try for non-Olympic weights in an Olympic year, Dake came back down to 74 again. While Dake got a bye to semis because of his World medal at 79, Burroughs got to go straight to the best of three final where they will finally meet for the first time in 4 years. It's hard to tell how much is real but they really do not seem to like each other. Should be fun but I think Dake finally gets over the top and goes to the Olympics.

Vito Arujau's tournament has been great too. He came in as a very well-respected 3 seed. He opened with a solid 3-2 win over #6 Nate Tomasello that was better than the score looks, since he was up 3-0 until giving up a takedown with five seconds left; he was never close to giving up more points than that. He followed up with a 7-5 win over former World team member and #2 Daton Fix that also wasn't exactly as close as the score suggests, though it almost ended in catastrophe. Arujau led 6-0 before kind of trying to run out the clock without really attempting offense and trying to limit the damage with one step out point at a time. In the end, though, Fix whittled the lead to 6-5 and nearly got in on a shot at the whistle but Vito held it off. Fix challenged but it was pretty clear he was going to be denied. The lost challenge meant a penalty point for Arujau and a final score of 7-5.

There was no defending world medalist at 57kg, so the challenge tournament is the only tournament. Arujau goes straight to the best of three final against 2x Team USA member and 2017 World Silver medalist Thomas Gilman. Gilman is probably the favorite but a lot of people are picking Vito, who keeps getting better.
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Gabe Dean won his first match against Myles Martin 2-1 in a pretty dull defensive match. In his second match against 2018 World gold medalist David Taylor, Dean kept it closer than almost anyone else does, and really came close to making it interesting late, but he fell 4-0. He's still alive for third place and a place on Team USA but would be more of an injury substitute or training partner.

Yianni Diakomihalis also easily won his first match, 10-0 over Frank Molinaro. In his second match, against former training partner (and also former world team member Jordan Oliver), he took a 3-0 lead and was leading 4-2 late in the second period but he gave up two step out points in the last 20ish seconds to fall into a 4-4 tie, which under tiebreaking criteria was a win for Oliver since he was the last to score. Brutal. He can still compete for third place like Dean.

Cornell actually had two other wrestlers in the tournament: Nahshon Garrett lost his first match 8-2 to Anthony Ashnault and has an insane path to get to third place. Ben Honis lost 9-0 to Hayden Zillmer and also has a very difficult path to third.

Really looking forward to watching Vito and Kyle tomorrow night. Finals start at 7:30pm on either NBCSN or Peacock (which is a pay service but I got the 7-day free trial to watch this.)

[dag14]

ugarte -- thank you for the thorough summary of Friday's matches.  I streamed the tournament but didn't listen to any commentary so it is nice to put the results in context.

[ugarte]

Morning so far:

Nahshon Garrett got beat pretty solidly and is out.

Ben Honis won a huge 11-10 match against budding superstar AJ Ferrari (who I find very annoying but he is an incredible wrestler) coming off a national championship as a freshman. He followed with a 6-2 loss to veteran Ty Walz and is out.

Yianni Diakomihalis came back from his crushing loss yesterday to win by tech fall 14-4 over Mitch McKee and will face Nick Lee for third after Lee knocked Zain Retherford out of the tournament.

Gabe Dean elected not to continue in the consolation bracket.

Not surprising that Dean and Yianni have different takes on third place: Dean was wrestling for the Olympics only, and is generally more focused on coaching - he is an assistant at Cornell - whereas Yianni has a long career on the mat ahead of him and would benefit from third place and a spot on Team USA which comes with an NCAA-exempt stipend and training support.

[ugarte]

In a real stunner, Nick Lee was on fire. Yianni went down early and tried to come back but ultimately couldn't. Lost 16-8 in a real disappointment that he was wearing in his body language since the whistle blew yesterday, even while he was beating McKee.

Still have Vito and Kyle going tonight for a trip to Tokyo.

[jkahn]

Dake wins 3-0 and 3-2... on to Tokyo.

Vito lost his first match by fall .. 2nd still upcoming.

[jkahn]

Dake wins 3-0 and 3-2... on to Tokyo.

Vito lost his first match by fall .. 2nd still upcoming.

Update: Vito  loses 2nd match 2-2 on tiebreaker criteria.  Great effort though.

And, of course, Kyle Dake is amazing.

I'll let the experts on this forum elaborate on the finer points of the matches.

[upprdeck]

just crazy defense by Dake.

[ugarte]

I honestly didn't get to see Dake or Arujau's first matches - dinner time! - and haven't tracked them down yet. Dake won his first 3-0 and Vito lost his by pin near the end of the second period. Announcers said that Vito jumped out to an early lead but Gilman had overtaken him before the fall.

In the second matches, our guys were on opposite sides of a mirror. Dake took a 3-0 lead by forcing Burroughs out once and then getting a clean takedown. As time ticked off in the second period, he let himself get hit with a one-point inaction penalty and then conceded a step out for a second point but he was able to dance away the rest of the clock for a 3-2 victory and a 2-0 win in the series.

Vito, on the other hand, conceded a takedown in the first period and Gilman played defense the rest of the way, conceding a pair of step-outs late in the second period, but his two-point takedown is worth more in tiebreaker criteria than Vito's two one-point step-outs, leading to a 2-2 win for Gilman. Vito nearly got a takedown before the whistle for a come-from-behind win to force a rubber match but Gilman snaked his leg free, leaving Vito despondent on the mat. He does qualify for Team USA and the benefits that come from it, and he's the alternate should Gilman be injured in training before Tokyo.

[ugarte]

OK, watched Arujau-Gilman match one. Vito scored first on a nice ankle pick to get Gilman in a vulnerable position. Gilman defended by keeping his knees off the mat in a quad-pod - just toes and hands on the mat - but Arujau was able to lift the legs and use a leg lace to twist Gilman over to expose his back to make the takedown a 4 point move. After that it was all Gilman. He forced Vito off the mat three times to make it 4-3. Then, he was pushing Vito back again and it looked like Vito was maybe trying to bait him and swing Gilman around so he went out first but Gilman turned it into a throw and planted Vito on his back to make it a 7-4 lead. In the second period, Gilman mostly played defense but with time winding down he caught Vito and planted him again and I don't think Vito fought the fall particularly hard because the match was effectively over with the throw.

And Dake-Burroughs match one. Dake got an early step-out, and that was it for the first round scoring. Cautious, defensive positioning for both wrestlers. In round 2, Burroughs fired off a signature leg attack but Dake sprawled back, putting pressure on Burroughs from above and got his hands clasped between Burroughs legs in an attempt to do a crotch-lift and expose Burroughs' back. He didn't get the lift but it did break Burroughs' grip, so Dake got behind for 2. He then attempted the crotch-lift again, but the action went out of bounds for a stalemate. 3-0 Dake. Burroughs tried it again with about 20 seconds left but Dake defended the same way, though he didn't try to score since he was content to let the clock run down, which it did. After the restart with about 11 seconds, Dake ran away until time expired for the W. Really nice win.

[ugarte]

Big news in the wake of OTT is that Max Dean is probably transferring to Michigan and Coach Gabe going with him.

[ugarte]

Big news in the wake of OTT is that Max Dean is probably transferring to Michigan and Coach Gabe going with him.

according to coach koll it has to do with a fear that the ivies are going to keep canceling sports and cornell's rule requiring student vaccinations for the fall. yikes.

[blackwidow]

Big news in the wake of OTT is that Max Dean is probably transferring to Michigan and Coach Gabe going with him.

according to coach koll it has to do with a fear that the ivies are going to keep canceling sports and cornell's rule requiring student vaccinations for the fall. yikes.

Is he transferring as a graduate transfer? This is a big loss.

[ugarte]

Big news in the wake of OTT is that Max Dean is probably transferring to Michigan and Coach Gabe going with him.

according to coach koll it has to do with a fear that the ivies are going to keep canceling sports and cornell's rule requiring student vaccinations for the fall. yikes.

Is he transferring as a graduate transfer? This is a big loss.

i don't think he is. regular transfer. it is a big loss symbolically. unclear how big a loss it will be on the mat. not because he isn't a pretty clear AA pick and title contender but because Chris Foca may already be better than he is. Foca beat him 10-0 at the OTT qualifier and looked great doing it. Freestyle rules and college rules may favor Foca but it if Foca was going to wrestle at 184 instead of 174 things might have gotten interesting.

[blackwidow]

Big news in the wake of OTT is that Max Dean is probably transferring to Michigan and Coach Gabe going with him.

according to coach koll it has to do with a fear that the ivies are going to keep canceling sports and cornell's rule requiring student vaccinations for the fall. yikes.

Is he transferring as a graduate transfer? This is a big loss.

i don't think he is. regular transfer. it is a big loss symbolically. unclear how big a loss it will be on the mat. not because he isn't a pretty clear AA pick and title contender but because Chris Foca may already be better than he is. Foca beat him 10-0 at the OTT qualifier and looked great doing it. Freestyle rules and college rules may favor Foca but it if Foca was going to wrestle at 184 instead of 174 things might have gotten interesting.

I have a feeling losing to Foster in the 2019 final was a big confidence hit. (Not that he was necessarily expected to win, it's just that i imagine it's hard to get over a loss like that)  im more worried about Gabe Dean not being a recruiter. I thought he was doing a really great job bringing young talents in.

[ugarte]

The Junior and Senior World team qualification (not Olympics - the 2021 worlds are still happening...) is going on and Cornell has a couple of athletes and recruits wrestling. Today is Junior Greco and so far...

60kg: Phillip Moomey, a Junior and a backup for us, made it to the finals where he lost to Nick Bouzakis. Bouzakis is a high school junior but one of the elite recruits in his class.


63 kg: Chayse LaJoie, a rising frosh, blazed through the tournament, winning the best of three finals with a pair of tech falls 8-0, 10-0 and will be the Team USA representative at 2021 Junior Worlds in Ufa, a mere 20-hour drive east of Moscow.

82kg: Jonathon Fagen, a junior and an upper-weights backup, is in the finals and won the first match in the best of 3. Loses the second 9-0 in ~30 seconds... third coming... and Fagen dominates, 6-0 and will be the Team USA representative. He also celebrated with a parody of AJ Ferrari, so I like that kid.

87kg: Jack Darrah, a rising frosh, lost a heartbreaker in the semifinals, giving up a last second takedown, and finished in 5th.