Wrestling 2022-23

[Roy 82]

Vito and Yianni championship matches:

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6gY8-fxW2M

Great quote from the announcer during Yianni's bout: "Cornell looking for its first national champion since 20 minutes ago."

Vito also had the "Most Outstanding Post-match Interview" (included in the video linked above). Doing the interview with his arm around his Olympic medalist father who inserted the best comment of the day ("Genetics!") when Vito was explaining his pre-match prep - Priceless!

[On the flip side the cringiest post-match interview was Aaron Brooks. He went beyond the usual crediting it all to a god and its prophets to making sure people knew that Muhammed was a false prophet. Ouch.]

[scoop85]

Vito showed the best of humanity, Brooks demonstrated the worst.

[George64]

Cornell hosts Ukraine national wrestling team.

[dbilmes]

Deadspin just published this long article about how Princeton is becoming a wrestling powerhouse, without a single mention of Cornell in the entire story. The article makes it sound like no Ivy team has ever become a national contender in wrestling. In any case, with an ambitious coach and big bucks backing from Wall Street, it sounds like Princeton will be our toughest rivals in the Ivies in the coming years.

[Tcl123]

Deadspin just published this long article about how Princeton is becoming a wrestling powerhouse, without a single mention of Cornell in the entire story. The article makes it sound like no Ivy team has ever become a national contender in wrestling. In any case, with an ambitious coach and big bucks backing from Wall Street, it sounds like Princeton will be our toughest rivals in the Ivies in the coming years.

The author goes (went) to Princeton. Think that says it all on the bias.

[Swampy]

Deadspin just published this long article about how Princeton is becoming a wrestling powerhouse, without a single mention of Cornell in the entire story. The article makes it sound like no Ivy team has ever become a national contender in wrestling. In any case, with an ambitious coach and big bucks backing from Wall Street, it sounds like Princeton will be our toughest rivals in the Ivies in the coming years.

The author goes (went) to Princeton. Think that says it all on the bias.

I didn't bother to read the story, but I think the concept is legitimate: it's about a doormat becoming a contender. Sort of like a Cornell grad writing a 2030 article about how a coach turned around our football team.

[ugarte]

Deadspin just published this long article about how Princeton is becoming a wrestling powerhouse, without a single mention of Cornell in the entire story. The article makes it sound like no Ivy team has ever become a national contender in wrestling. In any case, with an ambitious coach and big bucks backing from Wall Street, it sounds like Princeton will be our toughest rivals in the Ivies in the coming years.

The author goes (went) to Princeton. Think that says it all on the bias.

I didn't bother to read the story, but I think the concept is legitimate: it's about a doormat becoming a contender. Sort of like a Cornell grad writing a 2030 article about how a coach turned around our football team.

sure but if you're going to make a big deal about turning around an ivy program, and mention that princeton won its first ivy crown in however many years, it's strange to not mention that there is an ivy program that is consistently among the elite programs with individual champions that has won all of the other titles for two decades (and obviously sour grapes to point this out, but had three wrestlers taking olympic redshirts the year princeton won their ivy title).

[RichH]

Deadspin just published this long article about how Princeton is becoming a wrestling powerhouse, without a single mention of Cornell in the entire story. The article makes it sound like no Ivy team has ever become a national contender in wrestling. In any case, with an ambitious coach and big bucks backing from Wall Street, it sounds like Princeton will be our toughest rivals in the Ivies in the coming years.

The author goes (went) to Princeton. Think that says it all on the bias.

I didn't bother to read the story, but I think the concept is legitimate: it's about a doormat becoming a contender. Sort of like a Cornell grad writing a 2030 article about how a coach turned around our football team.

sure but if you're going to make a big deal about turning around an ivy program, and mention that princeton won its first ivy crown in however many years, it's strange to not mention that there is an ivy program that is consistently among the elite programs with individual champions that has won all of the other titles for two decades (and obviously sour grapes to point this out, but had three wrestlers taking olympic redshirts the year princeton won their ivy title).

One of the few times it's a shame there's not a comment section.

[George64]

From today's D&C — Meet the 2023 All-Greater Rochester Division 1 Wrestling Team . . .

[ugarte]

The US Open is in progress, as part of the process of choosing Team USA. The team selection process is pretty confusing.

Any returning 2022 World medalist who claims their spot, gets a pass to Final X in June. That includes Yianni Diakomihalis '23 (65kg) and Kyle Dake '13 (74kg). In fact, 7 of the 10 weight classes have returning medalists. (One, J'Den Cox at 92kg, relinquished his bye to challenge for the spot at 97kg.) The three weights without a returning champ are 61kg, 92kg and 125kg.

Winners of the US Open at the 7 weights with returning medalists advance directly to Final X to face the 2022 World medalist for a spot at 2023 Worlds.

For the three open weight classes, the winner of the US Open advances to Final X and will face the winner of the World Team Trials in May. The qualifiers for WTT in those three weight classes are: Top 7 finishers at their weight at the US Open; 2021 and 2022 world team members who did not medal in 2022, NCAA/NAIA* champions and certain other tournament winners.

At the US Open, there are/were plenty of Cornell competitors (and here I only include Cornell wrestlers and coaches, not guys training at Spartan Combat):

Greco-Roman:
We don't have any returning GR medalists, so the winner of the US Open will face the winner of WTT.

60kg: Philip Moomey '23 went 2-2 and did not place. Because he was a 2022 World Team member, he is already qualified for WTT. Winner of WTT will face Dalton Roberts.

82kg: Andrew Berreyesa '22, went 4-1 to finish in 3d Place and earn a spot at WTT. The winner of WTT will face Spencer Woods.

Freestyle:
61kg: Vito Arujau '24 is 4-0 and in the finals. He was already qualified for WTT by virtue of his NCAA title, 2022 age group medal and place as the 2022 Team USA Senior backup. In the US Open QF he beat Nahshon Garrett 9-2. If he wins the US Open he will skip the WTT and go straight to Final X.

61kg: Nahshon Garrett '16 is 4-1 and still alive in the consolation bracket. He is already qualified for WTT from a different event but has filled another slot at WTT by finishing in the top 7.

65kg: Joshua Saunders '25,** a former age-group world medalist, went 3-2 and did not place.

74kg: Julian Ramirez '25** went 2-2 and did not place.

92kg: Julian Cardenas '25** is 3-2 and will be wrestling for 7th place. He is already qualified for WTT after winning a medal at the 2022 U23 Worlds.

125kg: Nick Gwiazdowski, assistant coach, is 4-0 and in the finals. He also had previously qualified for WTT by virtue of his spot as 2022 Team USA Senior backup. If he wins the US Open, he can skip WTT and wait for the winner at Final X.


We also have multiple current and future wrestlers competing in the U20 freestyle tournament, which starts tomorrow. I can't quite figure out the qualification process for the U20 WTT but Cornella was on Team USA for 2022 U20 Worlds and Meyer Shapiro won 2021 Cadet*** gold at Worlds:

61kg: Ethan Qureshi '27
65kg: Vince Cornella '26
65kg: Ethan Fernandez '26
70kg: Nate Wade '26
70kg: Meyer Shapiro '27
79kg: Evan Canoyer '26

* NCAA does not sponsor women's wrestling at scale (yet) so the NAIA champions get the spot.
** It's generally impossible to figure out what year people are during the COVID era, especially with the more liberal granting of medical redshirts.
*** U16, I think

[ugarte]

Garrett moves on to the Consolation semis with a 10-0 tech fall. UPDATE: his opponent in the consolation semis dropped out, so Garrett is wrestling for 3d.

Cardenas loses by fall and will wrestle in the 7th place match.

[ugarte]

61kg: About a minute into the match, Vito Arujau gets a takedown and a series of exposures for a 10-0 tech fall and he'll be at Final X in June.

At the same time, on a neighboring mat, Nahshon Garrett gets a takedown off the whistle and a series of exposures for a tech fall in 14 seconds to take third place. He's a strong contender at WTT in May for the right to face Vito.

92kg: Jacob Cardenas was down 6-1 and rallied for a 7-6 win to take 7th place. He'll take another shot at WTT to get to Final X but ... he's got potential but he's not ready yet imo.

[ugarte]

61kg: Ethan Qureshi is 2-1 and still alive in wrestlebacks.
65kg: Vince Cornella is 5-0 and only one match made it out of the first round. 2 pins, 2 tech falls and a 9-7 win. In the semis.
65kg: Ethan Fernandez is 4-1, losing in the QF to the 2 seed. Still alive in wrestlebacks, one W from top 8.
70kg: Nate Wade is 2-1 and still alive in wrestlebacks.
70kg: Meyer Shapiro is 5-0, with 4 tech falls. In the semis.
79kg: Evan Canoyer is 2-1 and still alive in wrestlebacks.

[ugarte]

SF:
65kg: Cornella L 3-4. He took a 3-2 lead late but gave up a takedown with around a minute left and couldn't return the favor. He drops into the wrestlebacks and is waiting in the consolation semifinals. He can't finish worse than 6th.

70kg: Shapiro WTF 11-0. Never in doubt. Just blew through his opponent, a wrestler who decommitted from Cornell and followed Koll to Stanford. He will face a wrestler who was a redshirt freshman at Nebraska last year.

Consi:
61kg: Qureshi won by fall and then lost, and he's done.
65kg: Fernandez isn't going to wrestle again today and is a win away from a top 8 finish.
70kg: Wade lost his next match and he's done.
79kg: Canoyer has won five in a row in the consolation bracket and is still alive with a 6-1 record. He's got one more to go today, I think. wild - NCAA limits you to five in a day. He's a round behind where Fernandez sits. There's a reason it's nice to get to the QF instead of losing in R64. Update: Canoyer wins another and he's a win away from a top 8 finish.

[ugarte]

Not a great day for the Red so far. Fernandez and Canoyer lost their blood round matches and fall just short of the top 8.

Cornella took an early 6-0 lead in the consolation semifinal but couldn't hold it and fell 10-8.

The US Open closes with the U20 placement matches and the final session is supposed to start at 8pm. Cornella with wrestle for 5th at 65kg and Shapiro in the title match at 70kg.