Wrestling 2023-24

[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.)

I didn't answer this for the 50 AA's but those were almost all Cornell too. Brown had one in 2014; Columbia had one in 2013; Harvard had none in the last 10 years (but two in 2012); Penn has had 3 in the last ten years and one in 2012, including one in 2022; Princeton has 10, divided among six wrestlers, including two finalists and a champ last year. Penn has some potential AAs this year; Princeton's elite guys graduated. We have a handful of candidates and fewer than four would be very disappointing.

[ugarte]

12/11 Rankings

Code Select Expand


WIN Flo Intermat OpenMat AWN WS(ELO) EIWA/Flo EIWA
125: Ungar 5 6 12 10  5 11 1/1
133: Arujau 1 2 2  3  3 1 2/2
141: Cornella 12 8 17 16 12 26 1/1
149: Fernandez NR NR 24 17      NR 51 5/2, but assumes Saunders
157: Shapiro NR 16 15 16 17 4 1/1
165: Ramirez 4 4 3        3  3 3 1/1
174: Baker NR NR NR NR NR     58 NR/6
184: Foca   6 13 8  6  8 4 1/1
197: Cardenas 6 8 7  7  9 7 1/1
285: Fernandes 19 19 19 19 19 21 4/3
TEAM DUAL: 5 3 8 10 xx 3
TEAM NCAA: 5 8 9  8 xx 3



WIN Not much change. Shapiro had a couple of good wins but neither of them are in the WIN top 20, so Shapiro didn't make it back in either.
Flo Couple of guys climbed one spot but nothing major
Intermat Ungar tumble after the loss to Camacho. Fernandez gets his first national ranking with a challenge to his starting spot by Saunders looming. Dropping Ungar and Cornella hurt the team rankings here as well.
The Open Mat Fernandez enters the rankings at OTM, in the top 20 to boot.
Amateur Wrestling News AWN finally ranks Shapiro and gives Ramirez the boost he's earned. .
Wrestlestat Computer still loves Shapiro but Ungar and Cornella slipped. Saunders currently higher (33) than Fernandez at 149.

I'm not sure all of these accounted for the Journeymen results, particularly Flo, which kept Feldkamp at 3 after Foca beat him.

EIWA conference rankings are still from November but I've added Flo's conference rankings.

[ugarte]

Cornell sent a couple of wrestlers to Lehigh this weekend to wrestle in a holiday tournament, including former top recruit Joshua Saunders. At the time, I thought this was going to be part of a challenge for Ethan Fernandez's starting spot but... I don't think that anymore.

In his first match, against a Brown frosh backup with an 0-4 record, Saunders took an early 8-0 lead then, clearly gassed, spend the last two periods clinging on to his lead. In his second match, against a Lehigh backup with a 4-4 record, he agains spent the match backing up until the third period when he chose bottom and was quickly turned over for a fall.

He has had some injury history but the truth is that he has been a major disappointment since we landed him as a 5-star recruit after his appearance on Team USA at the Cadet and Junior levels. The expectation back in 2020 was that he'd slot in the 141/149 weight class that Yianni wasn't filling, but he simply hasn't been consistent or healthy enough to win the starting role in the room. I don't think Ethan Fernandez is giving up his spot in the starting lineup this year either.

EDIT: UGH follows this up by blowing an early lead to lose to an F&M backup in the consolation round. Fitness is in the toilet after a long layoff.

[ugarte]

1/3 Rankings

I took some time away from reading the rankings, but then again so did some of the rankers. Here's where we are now.

Code Select Expand


WIN Flo Intermat OpenMat AWN WS(ELO) EIWA/Flo EIWA
125: Ungar 5 16 14 13  5 21 1/1
133: Arujau 1 2 2  3  3 1 2/2
141: Cornella 12 10 17 17 13 19 1/1
149: Fernandez NR NR 24 18      NR 39 3/2, but assumes Saunders
157: Shapiro NR 15 15 15 17 4 2/1
165: Ramirez 4 4 3        3  3 4 1/1
174: Baker NR NR NR NR NR     70 NR/6
184: Foca   6 7 8  6  6 2 1/1
197: Cardenas 6 8 7  8  9 5 1/1
285: Fernandes 19 19 19 19 19 22 5/3
TEAM DUAL: 5 3 8 10 xx 6
TEAM NCAA: 5 8 8  8 xx 2



WIN Hasn't updated since 12/20. If they update, I'll update.
Flo Ungar's loss at Journeymen before the break hit the rankings last week, and he fell to 13 before another drop because of other risers. Foca also got his Journeymen jump (for beating Feldkamp) last week. No update to the dual or EIWA rankings.
Intermat Unchanged except a one-slot bump in the NCAA team rankings.
The Open Mat The return of Binghamton's DePrez from injury bumped Cardenas down a spot.
Amateur Wrestling News Not much change.
Wrestlestat Saunders lost a pair of matches at a minor tournament and has fallen back behind Fernandez. Other than that, not much news.

Big dual on Friday against Ohio State.

[upprdeck]

i didnt check to see if it was streaming but cornell-osu is on the b10 channel tonight

[ugarte]

i didnt check to see if it was streaming but cornell-osu is on the b10 channel tonight

Close dual. Lost 21-20, but was up 20-18 and leading the last match until a takedown with 25 seconds left. And defending champ Vito Arujau is still sitting with an injury. tbh I think he's being extra cautious because as soon as the NCAA season ends he has to drop 8 pounds for the Olympic trials and the team is aligned in that interest.

Virginia Tech, Sunday at 3.

125: No. 14 Brett Ungar def. No. 22 Brendan McCrone 7-1 by decision
133: No. 13 Nic Bouzakis def. Ethan Qureshi by fall (1:48)
141: No. 3 Jesse Mendez def. No. 17 Vince Cornella 14-4 by major decision
149: No. 5 Drew D'Emilio def. No. 24 Ethan Fernandez 8-1 by decision
157: No. 15 Meyer Shapiro def. No. 12 Paddy Gallagher 15-0 by fall
165: No. 3 Julian Ramirez def. Bryce Hepner 6-4 by decision
174: Rocco Welsh def. Benny Baker 20-4 by technical fall
184: No. 8 Chris Foca def. No. 14 Gavin Hoffman by fall (1:48)
197: No. 7 Jacob Cardenas def. No. 23 Luke Georg 8-2 by decision
HWT: No. 18 Nick Feldman def. No. 19 Lewis Fernandes 6-4 by decision

[scoop85]

i didnt check to see if it was streaming but cornell-osu is on the b10 channel tonight

Close dual. Lost 21-20, but was up 20-18 and leading the last match until a takedown with 25 seconds left. And defending champ Vito Arujau is still sitting with an injury. tbh I think he's being extra cautious because as soon as the NCAA season ends he has to drop 8 pounds for the Olympic trials and the team is aligned in that interest.

Virginia Tech, Sunday at 3.

125: No. 14 Brett Ungar def. No. 22 Brendan McCrone 7-1 by decision
133: No. 13 Nic Bouzakis def. Ethan Qureshi by fall (1:48)
141: No. 3 Jesse Mendez def. No. 17 Vince Cornella 14-4 by major decision
149: No. 5 Drew D'Emilio def. No. 24 Ethan Fernandez 8-1 by decision
157: No. 15 Meyer Shapiro def. No. 12 Paddy Gallagher 15-0 by fall
165: No. 3 Julian Ramirez def. Bryce Hepner 6-4 by decision
174: Rocco Welsh def. Benny Baker 20-4 by technical fall
184: No. 8 Chris Foca def. No. 14 Gavin Hoffman by fall (1:48)
197: No. 7 Jacob Cardenas def. No. 23 Luke Georg 8-2 by decision
HWT: No. 18 Nick Feldman def. No. 19 Lewis Fernandes 6-4 by decision

Shapiro and Foca were spectacular against very good opponents, which was great to see

[upprdeck]

I was surprised the way that Fernandez handled the last 40 secs.. he had no stall warnings. i would have thought he would have made the ref at least give him one to drag out the time a bit.

[upprdeck]

Another fun match..

[upprdeck]

any updates on the injury to the VT kid?  That one pretty much decided the match

Fernandez redeems himself in the OT win though

[ugarte]

Mostly fun 24-13 dual win over Virginia Tech.

125: No. 14 Brett Ungar L 4-2 to No. 9 Cooper Flynn - Ungar needs to generate more offense; he is losing too many of these close matches. He's good enough to beat Flynn as often as not and these losses are going to kill his seed for NCAAs.

133: Ethan Qureshi LMD 14-3 to No. 12 Sam Latona - Not worried about 133 outside of how long Arujau's injury is lingering. Qureshi is showing grit but he's not at the level of the elite EIWA 133's, much less the national competition.

141: No. 17 Vince Cornella W 4-2 over No. 18 Tom Crook - Very nice workmanlike win. Got the only takedown and defended well. Need to see more scoring but he's had a brutal schedule so far which is making his overall record look pretty awful.

149: No. 24 Ethan Fernandez L 9-2 to No. 2 Caleb Henson - Keeping this under a major, and almost scoring from his own offense, makes this a huge moral victory and provided a big benefit to the team score.

157: No. 15 Meyer Shapiro W Inj. Def. over  No. 8 Bryce Andonian - this rematch was wild. started with a scramble from Shapiro's attack that led to a takedown for Andonian. Shapiro was attempting a reversal when Andonian's foot got trapped in the scramble and something went bad in Andonian's knee and he couldn't continue. Unclear what Andonian's status is but a real shame if the injury is serious.

165: No. 3 Julian Ramirez WMD 10-0 over No. 23 Connor Brady - Dominant. Brady was never in it. Didn't come close to scoring, never got off of bottom.

174: Benny Baker L 9-3 to No. 2 Mehki Lewis - Holding a former NCAA champ, and last year's 4th place finisher behind Foca, to a regular decision is incredibly impressive for Baker.

184: No. 8 Chris Foca WMD 12-4 over No. 18 Cody Howard - Foca is back to dominating at 184. Not worried about Las Vegas anymore.

197: No. 7 Jacob Cardenas WMD 11-1 over No. 26 Andy Smith - Cardenas is killing it at 197 this year. Smith was out of his depth.

285: No. 19 Lewis Fernandes W 6-3 OT over Jimmy Mullen - With the match locked up for Cornell (among other possible reasons), VT sent out a redshirt frosh for the match rather than their ranked Hwt. Wrestlestat's ELO evaluation doesn't see much difference between them, so I guess I can't be disappointed that it went to OT, especially given OT. Tied 3-3 after three rounds plus two minutes of Sudden Victory, the match turned to rideouts.* Fernandes had the first** choice and chose down. Unfortunately, despite some wild scrambling, Fernandes was unable to escape in 30 seconds. Fernandes is strongest on top, so rather than give him an opportunity to force another SV period or even get back points, Mullen chose neutral with the intention of running away for 30 seconds and winning on riding time. After chasing Mullen for 20+ seconds, Fernandes was able to grab Mullen's ankle and secure the takedown with 5 seconds left in the match. The Cornell bench went nuts.

Big dual at Lehigh on Saturday. Should be extra raucous given the Ivy exodus from EIWA. It will be our last dual against Lehigh as conference foes. WrestleStat has us favored in 8 matches - 7 if Arujau is still injured - but this dual is typically a lot more interesting than chalk. Three of our wins are against guys who are 0-1 against their Lehigh opponent. One of the matchups called for Lehigh is Cardenas-Beard, who split last year's matches, with Cardenas both winning the EIWA matchup and performing better at NCAAs. Both are having great seasons to date. It will be fun to watch for sure.


* A pair of 30 second periods where each wrestler gets one opportunity to choose a starting position. If the score is still tied after both periods, whoever is leading on riding time gets a decisive point. If RT is equal, there's another SV round. It's called "rideouts" because the wrestlers almost always choose down, because an escape point is the "easiest" way to score.

** Technically Mullen won the toss and deferred but come on...

[upprdeck]

ugly today..  Arujau's  not wrestling probably cost them 3 of these results

[ugarte]

ugly today..  Arujau's  not wrestling probably cost them 3 of these results

i need to rewatch foca. if he gets the tech like he should have, cornell wins (or if he got credit for a fall). instead he didn't even get the major.

[ugarte]

1/23 Rankings

I don't think I've updated since the rankings incorporated Ohio State, VT and Lehigh duals. WIN and AWN only rank to 20; Open Mat ranks to 25, Flo, Intermat and CR rank to 33. No new updates on the EIWA rankings; Ungar and Cardenas would probably slip behind their Lehigh counterparts. EIWA rankings updated.

Code Select Expand


WIN Flo Intermat OpenMat AWN WS(ELO) EIWA/Flo  CR
125: Ungar 17 15 13 14 14 17 2/2  12
133: Arujau 1 2 2  3  3 1 2/2      NR
141: Cornella 10 10 13 11 11 15 1/1      12
149: Fernandez NR NR 28 14      NR 35 1/1      24
157: Shapiro 11 14 12  6 10 2 1/1       9
165: Ramirez 5 4 2        2  5 4 1/1       3
174: Baker NR NR NR NR NR     89 NR/10     NR
184: Foca   5 8 9  8  5 2 1/1       6
197: Cardenas 6 9 8  8  8 7 2/2       7
285: Fernandes 18 20 18 20 NR 22 5/5      17
TEAM DUAL: 9 9 9 11 xx 3
TEAM NCAA: 5 11 9  5 xx 2



WIN Ungar the big dropoff here. Otherwise not a lot of change.
Flo A few slight drops in the individuals here and there but a dramatic fall in the team rankings because those slight drops through the lineup are also slots on the podium, which is where big points get scored.
Intermat Not much changed.
The Open Mat Ungar with a big fall. Shapiro with a jump.
Amateur Wrestling News Not much change.  Fernandes slips out of the rankings.
Wrestlestat The computer loves Shapiro and Foca's strength of schedule.
Coaches' Ranking Because of his injuries, Vito hasn't met the match minimum for ranking yet. It's not a concern. These rankings get updated periodically and are actually significant for conference bid allocation, at-large bids and to some extent reflect future seeding.

[upprdeck]

About as good a day as the team could have hoped leading up to tomorrows match