Wrestling 2022-23

[ugarte]

Heading in to the weekend against Penn and Princeton, here are the national rankings for our guys  

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WIN Flo Intermat   WrestleStat (ELO)
125: Ungar 19 14 17         22
133: Arujau 3 3 3          3
141: Cornella 9 11 17         19
149: Yianni D. 1 1 1          1
157: Handlovic  NR NR NR         71
165: Ramirez 7 12 9          7
174: Foca 4 4 4          6
184: Loew 12 7 6          8
197: Cardenas NR 17 14         23
285: Fernandes* 17 14 20         18 (Furman 45)
TEAM DUAL: 8 4 4          6
TEAM NCAA: 4 5 4          6

Princeton is ranked 16th for the tournament power rating and unranked for duals, which is to say, they are top heavy. Specifically, Glory is ranked #2 at 125 and Monday is ranked #3 at 165 by WIN and those are their only two ranked wrestlers. Glory has wrestled at 133 for a few weeks, but I suspect he's going to go back down to 125 for the tournament. Don't know what he'll do this weekend but Glory v Arjau is a matchup everyone wants to see. Glory leads 3-2, including a win in the 2022 NCAA semifinals and the 2019 EIWA finals. Vito won at the 2022 EIWA finals and they've split their matches in duals. Monday v. Ramirez is the other top-flight matchup, with 157, 197 and Heavyweight also interesting.

Penn is ranked 23 for dual meets and 29 for the tournament. Deeper, but lower peaks: Colaiocco is #8 at 133, Zapf is #13 at 149, Artalona is #18 at 157 and Incontrera is #13 at 174. We are not a great matchup for Penn, as we have top 5 guys at 133, 149 and 174. 125, 197 and Heavyweight are interesting matchups too.

*Fernandes is out for the year according to my sources (and implied by Coach Grey's emails).

[ugarte]

Cornell started the weekend against Princeton. Not as good as some of the recent Tiger teams, but two top-3 guys and decent wrestlers at some of our non-dominant weights. On paper, looked like it could be interesting. On the mat? Cornell started with an upset and rolled to a blowout.

165: The dual starts with the best match of the day, with a pair of top-10 wrestlers. Ramirez gets ther first takedown right off the bat. Monday takes the lead in the second with a takedown, but a penalty point for locked hands and a Ramirez escape ties it again at 4. Monday gets another takedown in the third, but an escape reties the score. With time running out, Ramirez gets a shot which leads to a scramble. He not only comes out on top, but gets Monday in an awkward position with his back exposed for 2 extra points and W 10-6. Cornell 3-0.

174: Chris Foca takes on Grant Cuomo, a NQ from 2020 who isn't in the starting lineup anymore. Foca gets a cradle, and nearly a pin, but can't lock it up. Cuomo is game, and gets a reversal from the cradle and a late TD to make it close but too little too late and Foca W 8-5. Cornell 6-0.

184: Loew is back after sitting out against Columbia following aggravating his shoulder injury against Army. He does not look like he's back at full strength. Tentative. Dugan with the only TD of the match and Loew L 4-3. Cornell 6-3.

197: Cardenas split his two matches with Stout last year, winning at the dual before losing in the conference semis, both matches within a takedown. Today, though, after a scoreless first period, Stout chose bottom and Cardenas quickly torqued him over for 4 and then rode out the period. Cardenas escaped in the third and with time running out, he fired off a double and took Stout down again. With the riding time, WMD 8-0. Cornell 10-3.

285: Furman is now clearly the starter. Travis Stefanik had spent his career at 184 but he's bumped up to Heavy. This match was really sleepy right up until it wasn't. No scoring in the first. Only scoring in the second and third were escapes. Goes to SV tied 1-1. In the extra period, Furman gets underhooks in and takes Stefanik straight to his back and holds him down for the pin. Cornell 16-3.

125: Princeton's best wrestler is their 125, a returning finalist. Ungar is good but not at Glory's level. He only came close to scoring once and by the end of the match Glory was scoring at will. LMD 10-2. Cornell 16-7.

133: Vito Arujau with a takedown clinic. After a takedown and a pair of 4 point turns to take a 10-0 lead in the first, the rest of the match is a takedown clinic. Vito lets him up 5 times and takes him down immediately each time. WTF 20-5. Cornell 21-7.

141: Cornella gets a rest and Fernandez bumps up from 133 and Princeton sends out a backup as well. After two slow periods, Fernandez goes to the third up 1-0. In the third, just as it looks like Martino is going to escape, Fernandez returns him to the mat to his back for 4. He gets another takedown and the riding time W 8-2. Cornell 24-7.

149: Yianni gets a backup from Princeton and makes quick work of it. WTF 15-0. I know it says 17-0 down there but I'm sure the last score was NF2 not NF4 and I'm sticking with what I saw the ref signal. You can't stop me. Cornell 29-7.

157: Handlovic with a big matchup for conference seeding against Ty Whalen. No scoring in the first. In the second, Handlovic held Whalen down for almost two minutes but gave up a late escape. To my surprise, he chose to start the third at neutral. Whalen took the first good shot but Handlovic countered, got the takedown and a turn for 4. With the riding time, W 7-1. Cornell 32-7.

Cornell 32, Princeton 7.
165: #9 Julian Ramirez (Cornell) won by decision over #3 Quincy Monday (Princeton), 10-6
174: #4 Chris Foca (Cornell) won by decision over Grant Cuomo (Princeton), 8-5
184: Nate Dugan (Princeton) won by decision over #6 Jonathan Loew (Cornell), 4-3
197: #14 Jacob Cardenas (Cornell) won by major decision over #20 Luke Stout (Princeton), 8-0
285: Brendan Furman (Cornell) won by fall over #31 Travis Stefanik (Princeton), 6:48
125: #2 Patrick Glory (Princeton) won by major decision over #17 Brett Ungar (Cornell), 10-2
133: #3 Vito Arujau (Cornell) won by technical fall over Anthnoy Clark (Princeton), 20-5
141: Ethan Fernandez (Cornell) won by decision over Christopher Martino (Princeton), 8-2
149: #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) won by technical fall over Marshall Keller (Princeton), 17-0
157: Cole Handlovic (Cornell) won by decision over Ty Whalen (Princeton), 7-1

[nshapiro]

I noticed that in overtime, they didn't stop it when Furman got the takedown, letting him finish the pinning opportunity.

Is it theoretically possible to score the first points in overtime and then lose, if, while on top, you get pinned from the bottom trying for a pin?

[ugarte]

I noticed that in overtime, they didn't stop it when Furman got the takedown, letting him finish the pinning opportunity.

Is it theoretically possible to score the first points in overtime and then lose, if, while on top, you get pinned from the bottom trying for a pin?

good question, and maybe, but i don't think so. they don't give you much continuation - basically only as long as you hold the grip.

[mountainred]

I noticed that in overtime, they didn't stop it when Furman got the takedown, letting him finish the pinning opportunity.

Is it theoretically possible to score the first points in overtime and then lose, if, while on top, you get pinned from the bottom trying for a pin?

good question, and maybe, but i don't think so. they don't give you much continuation - basically only as long as you hold the grip.

I don't think so either, as the take down should take priority since it is "sudden victory." I hope not to ever see that play out, the arguing would take forever.

[mountainred]

149: Yianni gets a backup from Princeton and makes quick work of it. WTF 15-0. I know it says 17-0 down there but I'm sure the last score was NF2 not NF4 and I'm sticking with what I saw the ref signal. You can't stop me. 1

Style points?

[ugarte]

149: Yianni gets a backup from Princeton and makes quick work of it. WTF 15-0. I know it says 17-0 down there but I'm sure the last score was NF2 not NF4 and I'm sticking with what I saw the ref signal. You can't stop me. 1

Style points?

that's fair. very elegant.

[dbilmes]

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.

[ugarte]

Cornell wins the Ivy title 19-15 over Penn with some clutch performances but tbh today really left more questions than answers.

125: Ungar v Miller. Ungar has the better ranking but idk if he was really the favorite. Ungar wasn't able to score and Miller was, and that's all she wrote. L 6-1. Penn 3-0

133: Vito was by far the better wrestler, but after a fast start by Vito, Colaiocco slowed the pace and got a takedown of his own kept this under a major.  W 13-7. Tied 3-3

141: Fernandez in for Cornella again. Not sure what's going on here, hope Cornella is OK and just taking a weekend off for rest. Fernandez got outmuscled by Ferrara. L 4-1. Penn 6-3

149: Yianni had a game opponent in Zapf but after Yianni got a few takedowns on counters, Zapf stopped shooting and Yianni wasn't able to break through the defense. Another opportunity for bonus points that didn't come through. W 8-3. Tied 6-6

157: Artalona was Penn's best chance at bonus points but Handlovic hung with him the whole time. He gave up a single takedown and that was the difference. Artalona spent the last 30-40 seconds of the match running away but the two stalling calls weren't enough. A third would have sent it to SV. L 3-2. Penn 9-6

Halftime. I admit I was starting to get worried here because Loew is obviously not at full strength, Furman is a slight underdog and Foca, while a favorite, has a tough opponent.

165: Ramirez never really threatened but he wasn't able to get the scoring going. W 4-2. Tied 9-9

174: Foca with an incredible match. After Foca took a 1-0 lead in the second period, Incontrera took a shot. Foca countered by grabbing the back of his ankle and taking him straight to his back, holding him for a 4 point exposure. In the third period, Incontrera reached again, and this time Foca reached across his chest and neck and pulled him straight backwards for a takedown, an exposure, and then settled in on top for the pin. WBF 5:59. Cornell 15-9 and I relax a bit.

184: Loew came out for the match but he's not himself. He's tentative, and when he does shoot, he lacks the strength in his injured right shoulder to finish. Hale wisely chose neutral instead of going underneath and risking a turn and Loew otherwise is ... off. His sprawl defense at the end was enough to prevent a final takedown and a major decision. L 10-3. Cornell 15-12

197: Cardenas taking on Urbas, who he went 2-1 against last year. Urbas is not having nearly as good a year while Cardenas appears to be raising his game. That's how it played out, with Cardenas dominating. Got the only takedowns and a really nice exposure. WMD 12-2. Cornell 19-12, which locks up the dual and with it the 2023 Ivy League Championship.

285: An important match for Furman for conference seeding purposes. Just like last night, no scoring but escapes in the first seven minutes and it goes to SV tied 1-1. The only real action was Goldin trying to get in an underhook and reach across the head for an upper body throw. The first couple, Furman defended. The third, Furman nearly scored on a counter. In SV, though, Goldin was able to get the leverage he needed and pulled Furman over and got behind him and Furman had to barely touch the mat for balance, which is enough to get the takedown called. L 3-1 SV. Cornell 19-15

#5 Cornell 19, #25 Penn 15
125    #24 Ryan Miller (Penn) won by decision over #17 Brett Ungar (Cornell), 6-1
133    #3 Vito Arujau (Cornell) won by decision over #8 Michael Colaiocco (Penn), 13-7
141    Carmen Ferrante (Penn) won by decision over Ethan Fernandez (Cornell), 4-1
149    #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) won by decision over #12 Doug Zapf (Penn), 8-3
157    #16 Anthony Artalona (Penn) won by decision over Cole Handlovic (Cornell), 3-2
165    #9 Julian Ramirez (Cornell) won by decision over Lucas Revano (Penn), 4-2
174    #4 Chris Foca (Cornell) won by fall over #20 Nick Incontrera (Penn), 5:59
184    Maximus Hale (Penn) won by decision over #6 Jonathan Loew (Cornell), 10-3
197    #14 Jacob Cardenas (Cornell) won by major decision over #32 Cole Urbas (Penn), 12-2
285    #29 Ben Goldin (Penn) won by decision over Brendan Furman (Cornell), 3-1 (sv1)

[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.

And when we lost the Ivy title it's only because we had 3 wrestlers on Olympic redshirt years, and even then it came down to a single match. Koll built an incredible program and I'm hoping that Grey can keep it going once the team is fully his guys.

[billhoward]

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?

[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?

Definitely among the better, deeper teams but the peak has to be the Kyle Dake years. In his soph and junior years (2010-11) the team finished in 2nd* at NCAAs; in 2012 the team finished 4th but with three national champions (Dake, Simaz and Bosak). We've been very good for a long time, though. We've had at least two All-Americans every non-COVID year dating back to 2002 and at least one finalist every year back to 2008.

Last year we had three All-Americans and two more who finished one win short. This year we're the favorite for one title and All-American contenders at 5 others - 6 if Loew's shoulder is OK. This is definitely one of our best, deepest teams, but serious injuries have knocked out three starters, all of whom were potential All-Americans, which is going to make 2023 look worse in retrospect.

There really isn't a good single way to pick a "best" team when there are so many different methods. If I had to pick one, though, it would be a combination of team finish at NCAAs, All-Americans and national champs. I prefer 2012 (3 champs, 5 AA, 4th place) to either 2010 (1 champ, 4 AA, 2d place) or 2011 (1 champ, 5 AA, 2d place) but YMMV. We scored more as a team in 2012 than the two prior years but the talent was so concentrated that we still finished behind three other teams.

We've been so dominant in Ivy and EIWA for the last 20 years - and it's been so much weaker than the Big 10 anyway - that the conference/Ivy stuff is cool but we swim in deeper waters.


* Penn State won in 2011 because they brought in Andrew Long, who had been kicked off of the team at Iowa State after being a national finalist for multiple disciplinary infractions. After finishing in 3rd for Penn State, and providing the difference in winning the team title over us, he was kicked off of Penn State as well, this time for sexual assault.

[ugarte]

The rankings are slowly starting to take note of the injuries in the starting lineup.

Code Select Expand


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


Ungar and Loew fall out of the WIN rankings. UPDATE: Loew is out for the year.
Fernandes moves up? At least Intermat has started ranking Furman.
Cardenas still not ranked by WIN and falls in Flo after dominating Urbas and Stout?

Coming this Friday, a very cool dual meet. Cornell is facing Binghamton at a semi-neutral site: Hilton High School, outside of Rochester, alma mater of Yianni Diakomihalis. Only semi-neutral, though, as it is also the alma mater of Binghamton senior, All-American Louie DePrez (and the younger brothers who followed Yianni and Louie to their respective schools.) In something of a letdown, DePrez suffered a career ending injury earlier this year. Still, a great idea from whoever came up with it and kudos to the schools for agreeing to it.

[klehner]

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.

FWIW, the team loses only Yianni and Furman (seems like Loew is returning for yet another year).  While that seems terrible to be losing Yianni, possibly the number one recruit in the country will be taking his place at 149:  Meyer Shapiro.  He's taking his senior HS year at Spartan Combat RTC (which trains at Cornell), and is currently 14-0 *competing in collegiate open tournaments*.  He's really that good.

Fernandes if healthy and Loew if healthy should mean the team will be pretty much the same next year, and possibly even better if Greg Diakomihalis returns healthy from shoulder surgery and continues to improve.  Every other starter returns.

[ugarte]

Well, it's official - if a dad commenting on a facebook post is official enough for you - Jonathan Loew is out for the season. He's coming back next year, though. He has eligibility remaining and the continued ripple effects from the COVID year apparently let him use it in grad school. He'll be back in January 2024. I assume his place in the lineup will be taken by Ethan Hatcher. Hatcher was a promising prospect and his 2-6 record this season belies how competitive most of his losses have been. He is going to have to step it up.