Wrestling 2023-24

[ugarte]

12/4 Rankings

Code Select Expand


WIN Flo Intermat OpenMat AWN WS(ELO) EIWA
125: Ungar 3 7 5  7  5 11 1
133: Arujau 1 2 2  3  3 1 2
141: Cornella 12 8 15 16 13 23 1
149: Fernandez NR NR NR NR      NR 47 5
157: Shapiro NR 17 15 16 NR 4 3
165: Ramirez 4 4 3        3  7 3 1
174: Baker NR NR NR NR NR     49 NR
184: Foca   7 14 9  9  9 4 1
197: Cardenas 6 8 7  7  9 5 4
285: Fernandes 19 19 19 19 20 19
TEAM DUAL: 6 3 3  6 xx 3
TEAM NCAA: 5 10 5  8 xx 3



WIN Shapiro would have gotten a huge bump from beating Andonian but the back to back losses keep him off the chart. CKLV moved up Ungar, Ramirez and Fernandes but Foca and Cornella slid down.
Flo Flo gave Shapiro a slight bump up and Foca a big slide down. Cardenas lost to #2 and #3 and somehow slid from 6 to 8. On the other hand, the team ranking took a real big hit falling from 4 to 10.
Intermat Surprised the team scores didn't take a big hit with Foca's drop, but not much changed.
The Open Mat Not much change.
Amateur Wrestling News Huge jump for Ungar, who was way too low last time. Cardenas slip kind of inexplicable and Ramirez didn't get any respect.
Wrestlestat The computer loves Shapiro's win over Andonian and it jumped the team up in the rankings despite minimal movement elsewhere.

No action for a couple of weeks and then a series of dual meets in Nashville on 12/18-19 on a network that I'm probably not going to pay to watch. We face Little Rock, Pitt and Iowa State in ascending order of difficulty. The last one will have a great rematch of Ramirez-Carr, which ... man ... I might pay to see...

Also the EIWA conference rankings have been added, which means nothing now but will matter for conference tournament seeding at the end of the season. Only the top 8 spots get seeded.

[ugarte]

12/11 Rankings

Code Select Expand


WIN Flo Intermat OpenMat AWN WS(ELO) EIWA
125: Ungar 3 6 5  6  5 11 1
133: Arujau 1 2 2  3  3 1 2
141: Cornella 13 12 16 17 12 26 1
149: Fernandez NR NR NR NR      NR 49 5
157: Shapiro NR 16 15 16 17 4 3
165: Ramirez 4 4 3        3  3 3 1
174: Baker NR NR NR NR NR     54 NR
184: Foca   7 13 9  9  8 4 1
197: Cardenas 6 8 7  7  9 6 4
285: Fernandes 19 19 19 19 19 21
TEAM DUAL: 5 3 3  6 xx 3
TEAM NCAA: 5 10 8  8 xx 3



WIN Not much change. Cornella slipped because someone ranked below him had a big win.
Flo Not much change. Small moves based on other guys activity while we were idle. Cornella slid a big but still tied for the highest ranking he gets.
Intermat Tournament rank takes the hit I expected last week. Otherwise, same kind of tinkering.
The Open Mat Same kind of tinkering.
Amateur Wrestling News Ramirez gets the deserved bump and Shapiro makes his debut in the AWN rankings.
Wrestlestat Moderate changes from the bleep bloop analysis here and there.

We have some dual meets in Nashville on 12/18-19 on a network that I'm probably not going to pay to watch. We face Little Rock, Pitt and Iowa State in ascending order of difficulty. The last one will have a great rematch of Ramirez-Carr, which ... man ... I might pay to see... We are also sending some wrestlers to Lehigh for the Sheridan Invitational on December 22 but it isn't currently on our schedule. This would likely include a rematch between Vito Arujau and Ryan Crookham, who upset him in the opening tournament of the season and has taken over (and held) the #1 ranking in most services. Another rematch I'd probably pay to watch.

EIWA wil release December rankings at the end of the month.

[ugarte]

12/11 Rankings

Code Select Expand


WIN Flo Intermat OpenMat AWN WS(ELO) EIWA
125: Ungar 3 6 5  6  5 11 1
133: Arujau 1 2 2  3  3 1 2
141: Cornella 13 12 16 17 12 26 1
149: Fernandez NR NR NR NR      NR 49 5
157: Shapiro NR 16 15 16 17 4 3
165: Ramirez 4 4 3        3  3 3 1
174: Baker NR NR NR NR NR     54 NR
184: Foca   7 13 9  9  8 4 1
197: Cardenas 6 8 7  7  9 6 4
285: Fernandes 19 19 19 19 19 21
TEAM DUAL: 5 3 3  6 xx 3
TEAM NCAA: 5 10 8  8 xx 3



WIN Not much change. Cornella slipped because someone ranked below him had a big win.
Flo Not much change. Small moves based on other guys activity while we were idle. Cornella slid a big but still tied for the highest ranking he gets.
Intermat Tournament rank takes the hit I expected last week. Otherwise, same kind of tinkering.
The Open Mat Same kind of tinkering.
Amateur Wrestling News Ramirez gets the deserved bump and Shapiro makes his debut in the AWN rankings.
Wrestlestat Moderate changes from the bleep bloop analysis here and there.

We have some dual meets in Nashville on 12/18-19 on a network that I'm probably not going to pay to watch. We face Little Rock, Pitt and Iowa State in ascending order of difficulty. The last one will have a great rematch of Ramirez-Carr, which ... man ... I might pay to see... We are also sending some wrestlers to Lehigh for the Sheridan Invitational on December 22 but it isn't currently on our schedule. This would likely include a rematch between Vito Arujau and Ryan Crookham, who upset him in the opening tournament of the season and has taken over (and held) the #1 ranking in most services. Another rematch I'd probably pay to watch.

EIWA wil release December rankings at the end of the month.

[ugarte]

Wild and controversial day at the Journeyman duals. Cornell had dual meets against UA Little Rock, Pitt and Iowa State. Sort of.

Cornell 32 - UALR 8
125: Ungar W 7-3 - Closer result than you'd expect but I can't tell you more because I joined the action for 149. CU 3-0

133: Arujau W 4-0 - Arujau's been away since losing to Crookham back in mid-November, apparently dealing with minor injuries. Closer result than expected, but Bailey is a freshman that is turning heads and has climbed into the rankings already. Bailey was mad about something at the end of the match and gave Vito a shove rather than a handshake, costing his team a penalty point. CU 6-(-1)

141: Cornella WTF 17-1 5:57 - Dominant win from Cornella. Logged on to the stream after this one. CU 11-(-1)

149: Fernandez W 14-13 - Wild match. Fernandez was down 7-0 early but clawed back for a great win. CU 14-(-1)

157: Shapiro W 8-1 - Facing a ranked wrestler in his first opportunity after his unfortunate back-to-back losses in Las Vegas, Shapiro looked much better in his return to the mat. Got a couple of takedowns, rode hard. Nearly got a bonus win. CU 17-(-1)

165: Ramirez WBF 2:17 - Dominant, continuing a great start to the season. CU 23-(-1)

174: Baker LBF 4:31 - First match where Cornell was putting the underdog on the mat. Baker was game, got in deep but never finished. There was no scoring from neutral, but Baker chose bottom, couldn't escape, and when Brennan turned Baker over, he flattened him out for the fall. CU 23-5

184: Hansen L 0-5 - Foca sat this one out. Like Baker, Hansen had his chances, but he was never able to finish. CU 23-8

197: Cardenas WBF 5:12 - Marquee match of the dual with Cardenas and Little both in the top 10 in some rankings. Cautiously wrestled, with the only scoring through the first two rounds an escape by Cardenas. In the third, Cardenas started on top, Little stood up and Cardenas threw him back to the mat, and rolled him over at an angle that squared his shoulders long enough for the ref to award the pin. Flash finish. CU 29-8

285: Fernandes W 5-0 - Not a ton of action but Fernandes got the only takedown of the match. CU 32-8 FINAL

Cornell 27 - Pitt 12
125: Ungar L 1-3 - This was more like one of Ungar's early season matches from last year, rather than the way he's wrestled since. Trouble getting off of bottom and too tentative in trying to score. He escaped to take a 1-0 lead, but when he started the period on top, he got reversed for 2 and was unable to get out. Pitt 3-0

133: Arujau WTF 19-4 5:55 - This was a return to form, ragdolling a decent opponent. Cornell 5-3

141: Cornella W 8-2 - Matthews is a former All-American, ranked higher than Cornella, who had a nightmare of a day, losing all three of his matches - including to the Little Rock wrestler who Cornella destroyed. It's hard to believe that Matthews beat Jesse Mendez, who teched Cornella without breaking a sweat a couple of weeks ago. Cornella was never in trouble. Looked better than he has all season. Cornell 8-3

149: Fernandez W 4-1 - Heck of a follow-up from Fernandez, taking out a ranked wrestler at 149. Cornell 8-3

157: Shapiro WMD 14-3 Dominant win over a guy he should dominate. Looked good. Cornell 12-3

165: Ramirez WMD 11-1 - Facing another top 10 wrestler, Ramirez was never threatened. There was one awkward scramble where the legs got all tangled up like the tails of a rat king and both guys came up limping a little. Hope it's nothing serious because Ramirez sat out the last dual. More on that later. Cornell 16-3

174: Baker L 5-1 - Facing a ranked wrestler, Baker kept it close but ... no cigar. Cornell 16-6

184: Foca WTF 18-1 - Foca destroyed a ranked opponent. Exactly what you want to see. Cornell 21-6

197: Cardenas W 2-1 - Kinda boring. Cardenas escapes, gets another point on stalling calls. Gives up an escape. Once time gets short, Cardenas plays keep-away until the whistle. A win is a win. Cornell 24-6

285: Davis LBF 4:40 - Davis gets the start for some reason, maybe because he's a Tennessee kid and they're wrestling in Nashville? There are more suspicious theories... In any event, Pitzer is ranked higher than Fernandes and is definitely too much for Davis. Cornell 24-12 FINAL

Iowa State 26 - Cornell 15
125: Greg Diakomihalis WBF 6:34 - Unclear why Ungar got the match off, but getting dinged up would explain his difficulty against Pitt. In any event, Greg D. gets a chance and makes the most of it. The match was high-scoring and close throughout. In the third, trailing by a point, both guys went for a big throw but Greg is the one who landed it, sticking Terukina on his back and holding him for the fall. Incredible match. Cornell 6-0

133: Qureshi L 12-5 - Another starter sits. Vito indicated on Twitter that he was dinged up, which is why he sat, but the chirping on the internet started right away. Iowa State's first two wrestlers are both ranked and we sat our starters for both. Qureshi kept it closer than expected and scored on a pair of reversals but Frost isn't in the top 10 by accident. Cornell 6-3

141: Cornella LMD 13-4 - Cornella got a rematch against Echemendia, who won fairy easily in Las Vegas. Alas, just more of the same. Echemendia looks huge compared to Cornella. Iowa State 7-6

149: Fernandez L 5-1 - Good day for Fernandez despite the loss. Iowa State 10-6

157: Handlovic LMD 20-6 - This was a highly-anticipated matchup of top-tier freshmen, but Shapiro was held out - yet another starter sitting against a ranked wrestler. Iowa State 14-6

165: Rogers LBF 2:57 - Ramirez also sat for the even-more-highly-anticipated rematch between top-three wrestlers after Ramirez's upset win in Las Vegas. Rogers never stood a chance. Iowa State 20-6

174: Baker L 10-7 - This is a damn good result for Baker tbh. Iowa State 23-6

184: Foca W 8-7 - Finally, a Cornell wrestler takes the mat against top-flight competition. Foca was up early and then hung on for a close win. He needed this one badly after the disappointment in Las Vegas. Two quality wins on the day. Iowa State 23-9

197: Cardenas WBF 3:19 - After a lackluster first period, Cardenas started the second period on top and wrenched his opponent over for the fall. Iowa State 23-15

285: Fernandes L 6-3 - Fernandes was great on top but Bastida was far better in neutral, scoring the only two takedowns of the match. No shame in this loss, though if he wants to get on the podium, Fernandes is going to have to figure out how to score on other top heavies. Iowa State 26-15 FINAL

The internet is buzzing (or, more accurately, quacking) about all of the guys Cornell sat in the Iowa State match. Ungar, Vito, Shapiro and Ramirez all skipped matches against ranked opponents and the ducking accusations are flying. Afterwards, Vito, Yianni and Coach Grey all tweeted some variation on the guys getting banged up in earlier matches, and that they were held out to avoid aggravating the injuries. Alas, that has not abated the talk of Cornell ducking to keep from putting seeding at risk. I saw Ramirez get his knee tweaked, but none of the other injuries were obvious. I'm not implying that our guys are bullshitting, but I am saying that I understand why people who are not Cornell fans are not buying it.

Cornell is sending some guys to wrestle at Lehigh for an open tournament for a couple of days and Vito is supposed to be going, with the goal of a rematch with Crookham. Really hoping today didn't put that rematch in jeopardy. (Update: It very likely has.)

[ugarte]

Big news in that starting next year, the Ivy League is splitting from the EIWA as a standalone conference, with its own AQ for the conference champ. Kind of a bummer, imo, because the 17-team tournament is a lot more fun than a six-team tournament will be. Not only that, we lose our rivalry with Lehigh and create two conferences where one school is historically dramatically stronger than the rest of the league.

The non-Cornell Ivy League teams have closed the gap in recent years, and that's great, but we're still pretty dominant in light of the incredible gulf that existed before the tightening. We'll see how it goes but I'm going to miss the gauntlet of having to go through the best that schools like Bucknell, Drexel and the service academies had to offer.

[Ken711]

Big news in that starting next year, the Ivy League is splitting from the EIWA as a standalone conference, with its own AQ for the conference champ. Kind of a bummer, imo, because the 17-team tournament is a lot more fun than a six-team tournament will be. Not only that, we lose our rivalry with Lehigh and create two conferences where one school is historically dramatically stronger than the rest of the league.

The non-Cornell Ivy League teams have closed the gap in recent years, and that's great, but we're still pretty dominant in light of the incredible gulf that existed before the tightening. We'll see how it goes but I'm going to miss the gauntlet of having to go through the best that schools like Bucknell, Drexel and the service academies had to offer.

Why is the Ivy League making this change?

[upprdeck]

does this require the IVY to not get a bid for a few yrs like others sports have had to wait?

[George64]

Big news in that starting next year, the Ivy League is splitting from the EIWA as a standalone conference, with its own AQ for the conference champ. Kind of a bummer, imo, because the 17-team tournament is a lot more fun than a six-team tournament will be. Not only that, we lose our rivalry with Lehigh and create two conferences where one school is historically dramatically stronger than the rest of the league.

The non-Cornell Ivy League teams have closed the gap in recent years, and that's great, but we're still pretty dominant in light of the incredible gulf that existed before the tightening. We'll see how it goes but I'm going to miss the gauntlet of having to go through the best that schools like Bucknell, Drexel and the service academies had to offer.

According to Robin Harris, " In the last 10 years, Ivies have been crowned wrestling national champions 10 times and have earned 50 wrestling All-American honors."  Ugarte, for how many did Cornell account?

[ugarte]

does this require the IVY to not get a bid for a few yrs like others sports have had to wait?

No, not according to the press release. There are enough teams in the Ivies and the rump EIWA that both will get an autobid for the conference champ.

Why is the Ivy League making this change?

Not sure, but probably because it feels like the Ivy brand is much stronger than the shared EIWA brand with weak wrestling schools with much weaker brand value like F&M, Sacred Heart and LIU. The ILT can be done in one day and the field is small enough that any of the six schools can easily host. Even Levien is a good enough venue for a six-team tournament. I don't know if the EIWA - a conference older than the NCAA - will survive this. The EWL, which had schools like Bloomsburg, Clarion and Lock Haven, finally collapsed after multiple defections / program terminations and got folded into the MAC.

[ugarte]

Big news in that starting next year, the Ivy League is splitting from the EIWA as a standalone conference, with its own AQ for the conference champ. Kind of a bummer, imo, because the 17-team tournament is a lot more fun than a six-team tournament will be. Not only that, we lose our rivalry with Lehigh and create two conferences where one school is historically dramatically stronger than the rest of the league.

The non-Cornell Ivy League teams have closed the gap in recent years, and that's great, but we're still pretty dominant in light of the incredible gulf that existed before the tightening. We'll see how it goes but I'm going to miss the gauntlet of having to go through the best that schools like Bucknell, Drexel and the service academies had to offer.

According to Robin Harris, " In the last 10 years, Ivies have been crowned wrestling national champions 10 times and have earned 50 wrestling All-American honors."  Ugarte, for how many did Cornell account?

The only one I can think of that wasn't ours in the last ten years is Princeton's Patrick Glory who won at 125 last year. Harvard has won in my memory but not the last 10 years, I don't think. (Update: JP O'Connor won for Harvard in 2010, one of three NCAA champions at the school. Princeton had one more, in 1952. Penn, Brown and Columbia have never had an NCAA champ. Yale had two, but does not have a wrestling program anymore.)

[Trotsky]

Any particular reason why Dartmouth and Yale do not wrestle?

[Ken711]

Any particular reason why Dartmouth and Yale do not wrestle?

I would normally think money, but with Yale, that's certainly not the case.

[Trotsky]

This says Title IX, but I'm pretty sure that is the go to whenever you want to divert criticism for cutting a sport since it gets the Usual Suspects in a lather.

[ugarte]

Title IX killed a lot of wrestling programs, including Yale. I don't say this as a criticism of Title IX so much as a criticism of athletic department priorities. They killed wrestling instead of, say, taking money from football or starting women's volleyball or field hockey. Dartmouth has barely had a varsity wrestling program over the years and the last time we wrestled them was in the 1970's and I'm not sure that was a varsity program since they don't appear to have been in the EIWA.

[Ken711]

Not having a hockey team could be I suppose be justifiable because of the facility expense of not having a rink.  Can someone explain why Columbia doesn't field a men's lacrosse team?