Wrestling 2022-23

[abmarks]

The wrestling team's success often seems like it's taken for granted, but it's an incredible feat to have such a dominant program at an Ivy school (unless you're talking about an elitist sport like squash or fencing). Cornell has won 19 of the last 20 Ivy titles and is consistently ranked in the national polls, not to mention some of the amazing individual wrestlers who have competed for Cornell. I don't know how much longer Cornell's run will continue, but it's an impressive accomplishment.

For those of us who follow wrestling less avidly than Ugarte, how does this year's team rank versus Cornell teams of the past decade? What is the best measure of Cornell: Ivy titles? Cornell wrestlers in the national top ten? Finish at EIWAs? Finish at NCAAs?

Until I checked for sure, I thought oso had written this post

[ugarte]

The wrestling team's success often seems like it's taken for granted, but it's an incredible feat to have such a dominant program at an Ivy school (unless you're talking about an elitist sport like squash or fencing). Cornell has won 19 of the last 20 Ivy titles and is consistently ranked in the national polls, not to mention some of the amazing individual wrestlers who have competed for Cornell. I don't know how much longer Cornell's run will continue, but it's an impressive accomplishment.

For those of us who follow wrestling less avidly than Ugarte, how does this year's team rank versus Cornell teams of the past decade? What is the best measure of Cornell: Ivy titles? Cornell wrestlers in the national top ten? Finish at EIWAs? Finish at NCAAs?

Until I checked for sure, I thought oso had written this post

it's all in the sincerity of the person asking the question. also, the presumption that we're *good* but how do we compare to other teams in a long run of being good.

[ugarte]

The first release of Coaches' Rankings and RPI are out. These two criteria are used to determine how many automatic bids each conference will get at each weight in the tournament. Only the pre-tournament rankings matter, so this is more for tracking. You need 15 eligible D-1 matches at your competition weight to be eligible for a conference allocation, so <15 means the wrestler isn't yet eligible for a qualifying RPI. I think there's only one more, and it comes out right before the conference tournaments at the same time they announce the conference bid allocations.

Here are the Cornell rankings updated with 2/10/13 CR and RPI. Yianni's CR of 3 is obviously low but he has a loss and isn't piling up the bonus points so I guess it's hurting him in the voting. On the other hand, the only guy who beat him probably isn't coming back at full strength, if at all, so ...

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CR   RPI   WIN Flo Intermat   WrestleStat (ELO)
125: Ungar      19     2   NR 20 24         28
133: Arujau 2     2    3 3 3          3
141: Cornella 13     6    9 10 18         20
149: Yianni D. 3   <15    1 1 1          1
157: Handlovic  NR   <15   NR NR NR         66
165: Ramirez 7     5    7 7 8          7
174: Foca 4     2    4 4 4          4
184: Hatcher NR   <15   NR 20 20         17
197: Cardenas 15   <15   NR 19 14         18
285: Fernandes NR   <15   16 13 NR         17
285: Furman     NR   <15   NR   NR      30         34
TEAM DUAL:            8 4 4          8
TEAM NCAA:            5 5 5          4

Obviously some guys with fewer than 15 matches wouldn't have made the top 33 regardless, but I wanted to be consistent because in this case consistent is easier than a judgment call. Dropped Loew even though he's ranked because we know he's done for the year. Kept Fernandes because while I believe he's done, there hasn't been an announcement.

[ugarte]

Binghamton meet had no surprises. 28-15 win, a lot of rested starters and a disappointing 1 point loss from Furman at heavyweight because both he and the Bearcat are on the fringes of NCAAs and will probably need to qualify at EIWAs.

[ugarte]

As of 2/14

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CR   RPI   WIN Flo Intermat   WrestleStat (ELO)
125: Ungar      19     2   NR 18 21         28
133: Arujau 2     2    3 3 3          3
141: Cornella 13     6    9 11 17         20
149: Yianni D. 3   <15    1 1 1          1
157: Handlovic  NR   <15   NR NR NR         61
165: Ramirez 7     5    7 7 8          7
174: Foca 4     2    4 4 4          4
184: Hatcher NR   <15   NR NR NR         98        
197: Cardenas 15   <15   NR 19 15         19
285: Fernandes NR   <15   16 -- --         17
285: Furman     NR   <15   --   HM      28         37
TEAM DUAL:            9 4 4          7
TEAM NCAA:            5 5 5          5


[ugarte]

Cornell - Ohio State dual in Tampa is kind of a joke. Both teams are sending out backup after backup. We sat our starters at 125, 141, 149 and 174. Our starter at 184 is hurt. They also sat their starters at 165 and 174 (at least). Also, the production is terrible: the scoreboard at the arena isn't working so it's all being kept at the scorer's table, so they can't show the clock and the announcers don't know the time either (and are often iffy on the score).

There were a lot of good to great matches that could have happened but the guys who sat are crossed out.

First half
141: #17 Cornella v #19 D'Emelio. D'Emilio beat Fernandez. 3-0 tOSU
149: #1 Yianni v #2 Sasso Jones got hurt and defaulted but probably gets pinned anyway. 9-0 tOSU
157: Handlovic v #24 Gallagher The starters wrestled but it's a big advantage for tOSU. Gallagher beat Handlovic by Major Decision. 13-0 tOSU
165: #7 Ramirez v #12 Kharchla (Kharchla went 3-0 against Ramirez last year, and beat him in the R12 by 1 point on a takedown with 4 seconds left). Ramirez ragdollsthe backup. 13-5 tOSU
174: #4 Foca v #5 Smith Hansen and Wilcox wrestle a fun match that Hansen wins in SV. 13-8 tOSU at "halftime"

Add to that our injuries at 184 (huge dropoff) and Heavyweight (small dropoff).

Hope that we get the starters at 197, Heavy and 133.

The backups at 174 are scrapping though. Both care a lot. Christian Hansen takes the mat for us. Tied 4-4 in the third... going to replay on a takedown on the edge to see if he kept his toe in the cylinder before going out of bounds with 12 seconds left ... no takedown. Going to SV. Low single to a takedown HANSEN with the win! Nice. (Filling in the early matches now.)

Second half

184: Hatcher v #5 Romero Another starter sitting, Bell steps in against our starter-due-to-injury. Another close match - Hatcher gets the only takedown of the first, Bell gets one in the second to go up 4-3. Hatcher starts on bottom and gets turned for 4 before reversing and giving up an escape. 9-5 Bell midway through the period... Hatcher TD, release 10-7... TD, time runs out. 10-9 Bell. 16-8 tOSU

197: #15 Cardenas v #19 Hoffman Ohio sends out a well-regarded frosh, Geog, but a backup all the same. Cardenas got a clean takedown at the end of the first... then I had to stop watching. Rolled to a 7-1 win. 16-11 tOSU

Hwt: Furman v #19 Orndorff Would have been an important win for Furman's resume but it wasn't to be. L 4-1 19-11 tOSU

125: #21 Ungar v #10 Heinselman Sciarrone in for Ungar again. Heinselman wins easily, 8-1 19-11 tOSU

133: #3 Arujau v #8 Mendez The only real-real match of the day. Vito was never threatened and got the only two takedowns of the match. W 6-1.

FINAL Ohio State 19-14

EIWAs are the weekend of March 3 at the Palestra. See you there if you're coming.

[nshapiro]

Hwt: Furman v #19 Orndorff Would have been an important win for Furman's resume but it wasn't to be. L 4-1 19-11 tOSU

125: #21 Ungar v #10 Heinselman Sciarrone in for Ungar again. Heinselman wins easily, 8-1 19-11 tOSU

133: #3 Arujau v #8 Mendez The only real-real match of the day. Vito was never threatened and got the only two takedowns of the match. W 6-1.

FINAL Ohio State 19-14

EIWAs are the weekend of March 3 at the Palestra. See you there if you're coming.

Should probably be 22-11 after 133, and 22-14 final

[ugarte]

Hwt: Furman v #19 Orndorff Would have been an important win for Furman's resume but it wasn't to be. L 4-1 19-11 tOSU

125: #21 Ungar v #10 Heinselman Sciarrone in for Ungar again. Heinselman wins easily, 8-1 19-11 tOSU

133: #3 Arujau v #8 Mendez The only real-real match of the day. Vito was never threatened and got the only two takedowns of the match. W 6-1.

FINAL Ohio State 19-14

EIWAs are the weekend of March 3 at the Palestra. See you there if you're coming.

Should probably be 22-11 after 133, and 22-14 final

indeed

[George64]

Yet another Diakomihalis!  This from the Rochester D and C —

Elijah Diakomihalis (Hilton)

Sophomore maybe a favorite to win the Division I 189-pound tournament. He is the No. 2 seed in the weight class, owner of a 39-1 record. A third-place finisher in 2022.
.

[ugarte]

Updated with the allocations that the conference gets for each weight and where they are seeded for the conference tournament* and it appears in brackets as [Allocation/Pre-seed]. I've updated the pre-tournament CR and RPI with the official numbers and the rankings with changes from WIN, Flo and WS. Intermat didn't release new pre-tournament rankings. The WIN website dated their last rankings 2/21 but there were some changes from my last chart so idk what happened there. I also don't know why WIN still has Fernandes in their rankings but they do.

Code Select Expand


     CR   RPI   WIN Flo Intermat   WrestleStat (ELO)
125: Ungar      [6/1] 18     4   NR 17 21         29
133: Arujau [5/1]  3     1    3 3 3          3
141: Cornella [5/1] 15     7    9 11 17         21
149: Yianni D. [2/2]  1   <15    1 1 1          1
157: Handlovic  [3/8] NR   <15   NR NR NR         60
165: Ramirez [5/1]  7     8    7 6 8          6
174: Foca       [4/1]  4     2    4 4 4          4
184: Hansen**  [4/17]                                      51        
197: Cardenas [5/2] 16    30   NR 19 16         18
285: Furman     [6/9] NR   <15   --     HM      28         40
TEAM DUAL:                  9 7 7          8
TEAM NCAA:                  4 4 4          5

* The allocations can be reduced if a wrestler who "earned" the bid for the conference doesn't wrestle at the tournament unless the backup also would have earned a bid (it can happen if they wrestle a lot in open tournaments or while the starter was hurt). As mountainred suggested on the bigredbears wrestling forum, the seeds can be adjusted at the in-person coaches' conference before the tournament to remedy things like Yianni being the 2 seed because he sat out a couple of conference duals behind a Penn wrestler that he beat.

**Looks like Hansen has been bumped to 184 for EIWA over Hatcher since his name appears in the preseeds and it only gets there if Cornell submitted him as the prospective Cornell rep. Hansen went 5-3 at 174 over the course of the season including a fun win in the Ohio State dual over the tOSU backup. His only EIWA matches at 174 were a 6-0 loss to Navy's starter at a small tournament in November and a blowout of that guy's backup at a different one a couple of weeks later. Hansen is still ranked ahead of Sacred Heart's Owen Ayotte whose only non-MFF or INJ win of the season was over a guy from D3 majoring in cassoulet (Johnson & Wales).

[mountainred]

Thanks Ugarte.  Interesting move at 184, but Grey is probably in a no win situation and just trying to sneak out a point or two in the wrestlebacks.  

Feel free to correct me, but I can see a strange pattern of two wrestlers and the goals for the rest of the way.

Win the national title:  Yianni and Vito  (This is stupid to say because winning a title is so insanely difficult, but Yianni would have to be disappointed with anything less.  Vito will have his hands full, but could pull it off.)
Make the podium and AA:  Foca and Ramirez (Both studs and could finish high on the podium, but would need a bit of good fortune to win it all)
Make the round of 12:  Cornella and Cardenas (either could AA, but just making the R12 would be fantastic)
Make the NCAA and win a match or two:  Ungar and Furman (Ungar is a wildcard, but he just doesn't score enough and he isn't Chas Tucker on defense.  Yet)
Compete well at EIWA:  Handlovic and Hansen. (I just can't see either of these guys making NCAA, but of course would love to see it).

[ugarte]

Thanks Ugarte.  Interesting move at 184, but Grey is probably in a no win situation and just trying to sneak out a point or two in the wrestlebacks.  

Feel free to correct me, but I can see a strange pattern of two wrestlers and the goals for the rest of the way.

Win the national title:  Yianni and Vito  (This is stupid to say because winning a title is so insanely difficult, but Yianni would have to be disappointed with anything less.  Vito will have his hands full, but could pull it off.)
Make the podium and AA:  Foca and Ramirez (Both studs and could finish high on the podium, but would need a bit of good fortune to win it all)
Make the round of 12:  Cornella and Cardenas (either could AA, but just making the R12 would be fantastic)
Make the NCAA and win a match or two:  Ungar and Furman (Ungar is a wildcard, but he just doesn't score enough and he isn't Chas Tucker on defense.  Yet)
Compete well at EIWA:  Handlovic and Hansen. (I just can't see either of these guys making NCAA, but of course would love to see it).

At 184 I have to believe that Hansen won a wrestle-off in the practice room. He probably spent the season at 174 to step in for Foca and the need never arose, then Loew got hurt and Hatcher struggled in his place. Hatcher is talented and has room and time to improve but he's not there yet. If Hansen is better now, Hansen gets the call.

I don't see Yianni losing. I'd be shocked if Gomez is in form after taking such a long break to recover from his injury and nobody else scares me even a little.

133 is such a tough weight at the top. Arujau's loss was shocking but given his illness-related break, I don't think he was in peak form for McGee or Latona and I don't see either of them being an obstacle in a rematch. On the other hand, RBY and Fix are both incredible wrestlers. Sure, Vito can win, but I think all three are toss-ups against each other.

I agree on everyone else. Foca and Ramirez are both great AA candidates and I think they'll both get there - even though 165 is really deep. He should have gotten there last year. I'm still upset about how the blood round match against Kharchla ended last year. Foca is simply a different guy that the one who got rolled in 2022. Both of them spent half of last year in the concussion protocol and have been injury-free in '23.

Cardenas is very good and I expect him to keep improving but tbh his schedule has been kinda soft and I'm curious if he'll retreat into a defensive shell against the better guys like he did last year. He also is way too reliant on the blast double for all of his scoring. Cornella has a similar SOS issue. Very good year but not tested enough for me to feel confident that the podium is in the cards this year - but, like with Cardenas, I think he graduates with hardware.

Ungar's lack of offense makes his matches tense but despite the depth of the weight class garnering six bids, I don't think 125 is all that strong (aside from Glory). The depth has a lot of bottom half of the bracket strength and finishing worse than 6th seems inconceivable. Glory is in a class by himself; Sotelo, Miller and Ungar are the next tier. Then a big drop-off imo, with 2 bids to spare.

I really, really want to see Furman get to the tournament and I think he can. Being seeded 9th is ... harsh? He beat Princeton's Stefanik. he's better than Hofstra's Knighton-Ward. I don't know enough about the guy from Bucknell. 6th would have been reasonable and that would have had him in position for a bid. He earned a trip to NCAAs in 2020 - by beating Knighton-Ward, FWIW - only to have the opportunity taken away from him by the world shutting down.

Handlovic has stepped up as a credible representative for the program and he has a better chance of qualifying than you give him credit for, imo. Humphries and Artalona are by far the favorites to take two of the three available bids. The third bid? Handlovic beat the 3 seed, Columbia's Alvan. The 4 seed, Navy's Cerniglia had a stretch of alternating MFFs with losing by fall in December and has only wrestled twice in 2023 (he's the guy I'm most afraid of though). Handlovic lost to the 5 seed, but it was close throughout. Artalona has some surprising losses, so upsets can happen here. I wouldn't say I'm optimistic but I'm hopeful. He's been a real grinder stepping in for Yapoujian.

I have no idea what to expect from Hansen. He wrestled a great match against the Ohio State backup at 174 before bumping up but that's not much of a resume to give a lot of confidence that he'll be competitive at the higher weight. I assume his seeding isn't far off but if he can catch some good matchups in the wrestlebacks he can get some points for the team. We haven't had an 0-2 at EIWAs since 2010 and I don't think he'll break the streak.

I also have my eye on Berreyesa wrestling for Nickerson at Northern Colorado in the Big 12 tournament and really hope he makes it. The conference is deep but they have 6 bids and though he's not seeded, I can definitely see him getting there - he was 23 in the last coaches poll. I've had the opportunity to talk to him a little and he's a great kid and I know he's still close to his former teammates. Would love this for him.

[nshapiro]

I also have my eye on Berreyesa wrestling for Nickerson at Northern Colorado in the Big 12 tournament and really hope he makes it. The conference is deep but they have 6 bids and though he's not seeded, I can definitely see him getting there - he was 23 in the last coaches poll. I've had the opportunity to talk to him a little and he's a great kid and I know he's still close to his former teammates. Would love this for him.

Do you also root for another former teammate - Max Dean?

[ugarte]

I also have my eye on Berreyesa wrestling for Nickerson at Northern Colorado in the Big 12 tournament and really hope he makes it. The conference is deep but they have 6 bids and though he's not seeded, I can definitely see him getting there - he was 23 in the last coaches poll. I've had the opportunity to talk to him a little and he's a great kid and I know he's still close to his former teammates. Would love this for him.

Do you also root for another former teammate - Max Dean?

I do not! His noisy exit was very annoying [POLITICS CONTENT REDACTED] and going to Penn State a bonus kick in the ribs. Berreyesa had (1) graduated; (2) his wife got a job with Team USA Wrestling in Colorado; and (3) he would have been a backup to Foca so even if he was Covid-grad-exemption eligible, he chose starting over backing up. I'll root for Foca if they face each other for parochial reasons but otherwise I want to see Berreyesa thrive and won't get too upset if he wins. Foca beat him earlier this year, though, and I think they know each other too well for Foca to get trapped in AB's upper body death throws.

[mountainred]

I also have my eye on Berreyesa wrestling for Nickerson at Northern Colorado in the Big 12 tournament and really hope he makes it. The conference is deep but they have 6 bids and though he's not seeded, I can definitely see him getting there - he was 23 in the last coaches poll. I've had the opportunity to talk to him a little and he's a great kid and I know he's still close to his former teammates. Would love this for him.

Do you also root for another former teammate - Max Dean?

ugarte can speak for himself, obviously, but personally I am also rooting for Berreyesa to do well because he graduated from Cornell and left because of Ivy rules.  I would only root against him if he wrestles Foca. Could not care less about Max Dean.