Wrestling 2024-25

[ugarte]

Should also point out that we have a big dual meet against Lehigh on Sunday.

[CAS]

See last week Lehigh added a ranked grad transfer (5 and half yrs at NC State) heavyweight, who will be wrestling Sunday against Cornell.

[ugarte]

See last week Lehigh added a ranked grad transfer (5 and half yrs at NC State) heavyweight, who will be wrestling Sunday against Cornell.

Trephan's transfer was announced in November. NC State's former 197 bumped up to heavyweight for/after his redshirt in 2024. I assume that the transfer took affect with the new semester; I don't know Lehigh's academic calendar, but this is his debut for Lehigh, I think. (Edit: He wrestled at the Sheridan Open - also hosted by Lehigh - in December, but was officially "unrostered".)

Kind of wild that NC State was at Journeymen - a tournament hosted by Lehigh - on November 10; the transfer announcement was on November 19. You have to believe that he already knew he'd lost his starting spot, but when Lehigh's heavyweight was injured at the same tournament and will miss the remainder of the season... discussions regarding mutual benefit were had.

[ugarte]

Should also point out that we have a big dual meet against Lehigh on Sunday.

23-19 win, but disappointing overall.

Wins at 133 (Ferrara by tech fall), 157 (Shapiro by pin), 165 (Ramirez by tech fall), 174 (Ruiz by major) and 184 (Foca) - all expected Ws but the bonus points were nice. Meanwhile, at 125 (Milani), 141 (Saunders) and 149 (Fernandez) we lost close matches marked by a lack of urgency to score, whether behind or holding a small lead. Foca also showed a lack of urgency but won 2-0 so there is less to complain about. 197 and 285 were against Lehigh's best wrestlers and the back to back tech falls by them weren't much of a surprise.

It's looking more and more like Greg D. (125) won't be returning to the lineup and I'm concerned about Dellagatta too. If Ungar goes back to 125, leaving 133 to Ferrara, that would be great.

[mountainred]

It's looking more and more like Greg D. (125) won't be returning to the lineup and I'm concerned about Dellagatta too. If Ungar goes back to 125, leaving 133 to Ferrara, that would be great.

Based on the latest from the coach, it's Ungar at 125 and Ferrara at 133.  Cornell is sending 6 to an open event at Iowa State this weekend (otherwise open) to build up credentials.  I think I saw that both Dellagatta and Hanning were going to wrestle at Iowa State, but if Dellagatta can't go, my pessimistic side says he's done for the season.

[ugarte]

It's looking more and more like Greg D. (125) won't be returning to the lineup and I'm concerned about Dellagatta too. If Ungar goes back to 125, leaving 133 to Ferrara, that would be great.

Based on the latest from the coach, it's Ungar at 125 and Ferrara at 133.  Cornell is sending 6 to an open event at Iowa State this weekend (otherwise open) to build up credentials.  I think I saw that both Dellagatta and Hanning were going to wrestle at Iowa State, but if Dellagatta can't go, my pessimistic side says he's done for the season.

yeah the word from another poster on the wrestling forum said that the tournament was acting as a wrestle-off for 197. Since this is kind of a no-contest in terms of baseline ability,* it has to be a test of Dellagatta's recovery.

As for 125/133, big bummer that Greg D. is out for the year. His four years have been sitting behind Vito, a season-ending injury and a season behind Ungar after he got Pipped during his medical leave. This was his first real chance - as a senior - to start for Cornell, and he's losing it to injury again. I don't know if he'd be a starter next year even if he can get a medical redshirt and come back since recruit Anthony Knox is a candidate to bypass the gap year and start right away.

It's probably better for Ungar's sake for him to go 125, though. I don't think Ungar has looked strong enough at 133. He's 5-3 and his wins are unimpressive. He's slated to make his 2025 debut at 125 at Iowa State as well. Ferrara has been a credible 133 during Ungar's recovery. No big wins but also no bad losses.

Ivy season starts on 1/25. I'll be heading to Columbia for the dual meet on 2/2.

* No offense to Hanning.

[ugarte]

It's looking more and more like Greg D. (125) won't be returning to the lineup and I'm concerned about Dellagatta too. If Ungar goes back to 125, leaving 133 to Ferrara, that would be great.

Based on the latest from the coach, it's Ungar at 125 and Ferrara at 133.  Cornell is sending 6 to an open event at Iowa State this weekend (otherwise open) to build up credentials.  I think I saw that both Dellagatta and Hanning were going to wrestle at Iowa State, but if Dellagatta can't go, my pessimistic side says he's done for the season.

Not great news from Iowa State but it could be worse.

GOOD:

197 - Dellagatta went 3-0 to finish in first. A relief even though the competition wasn't all that steep. Meanwhile, Hanning went 5-1, losing to the wrestle that Dellagatta beat in the semi. Dellagatta back and grabbing the starting job is good news going forward.

MEH:

285 - Davis lost his opening match then went on a winning streak, finishing 5-1.

BAD:

125 - Ungar didn't compete as expected. No reason given, but it would have been nice to hit the ground running at the new weight.

WORSE:

133 - Ferrara won his opening match then defaulted his second match with an injury, forfeiting out of the consolation matches. Have to hope it isn't serious. If it is serious, Ungar probably stays at 133 and Milani stays the starter at 125 and my expectations are low at both weights.

[ugarte]

Duals against Harvard (noon) and Brown (5:30) on the road. Ungar is still a week away at 125 and Ferrara is a maybe at 133. The rest of the team is expected to go. There are a couple of backups traveling but I think whether they play is dependent on what weights the match starts at and the score when their weight comes up. Neither dual is expected to be close.

[ugarte]

Duals against Harvard (noon) and Brown (5:30) on the road. Ungar is still a week away at 125 and Ferrara is a maybe at 133. The rest of the team is expected to go. There are a couple of backups traveling but I think whether they play is dependent on what weights the match starts at and the score when their weight comes up. Neither dual is expected to be close.

1 down, 1 to go. Ferrara wrestled, wrestled well. Cornell won 9 of 10 weights and had bonus points in most of them. 39-3, good guys.

Didn't think of it until after the fact but we didn't give up a single takedown, even in the one match we lost.



Results
125 | Milani L 3-6 to #16 Sotelo [H 3-0]
133 | Ferrara WMD 8-0 over Brzozowski [C 4-3]
141 | #25 Saunders W 7-3 over Frinzi [C 7-3]
149 | #20 Fernandez WMD 10-2 over Pepe [C 11-3]
157 | #2 Shapiro WTF 18-3 over #30 Harrington [C 16-3]
165 | #5 Ramirez WBF over Berg (165) [C 22-3]
174 | #14 Ruiz WTF 17-1 over Bottiglieri [C 27-3]
184 | #8 Foca WTF 16-1 over Walsh [C 32-3]
197 | #25 Dellagatta W 4-0 over Skove [C 35-3]
HWT | Davis WMD 11-2 over Crooks [C 39-3]

[Al DeFlorio]

Didn't think of it until after the fact but we didn't give up a single takedown, even in the one match we lost.


[/b]
Results
125 | Milani L 3-6 to #16 Sotelo [H 3-0]
133 | Ferrara WMD 8-0 over Brzozowski [C 4-3]
141 | #25 Saunders W 7-3 over Frinzi [C 7-3]
149 | #20 Fernandez WMD 10-2 over Pepe [C 11-3]
157 | #2 Shapiro WTF 18-3 over #30 Harrington [C 16-3]
165 | #5 Ramirez WBF over Berg (165) [C 22-3]
174 | #14 Ruiz WTF 17-1 over Bottiglieri [C 27-3]
184 | #8 Foca WTF 16-1 over Walsh [C 32-3]
197 | #25 Dellagatta W 4-0 over Skove [C 35-3]
HWT | Davis WMD 11-2 over Crooks [C 39-3]

Don't take bottom against Sotelo.  Milani looked OK on his feet.

[mountainred]

Brown dual was more of the same.  27th straight win over the Bears, who have Cornell great Jordan Leen as their coach.


125: Milani WMD 14-2  
133: Qureshi L 4-1
141: Saunders W 16-15
149: Fernandez W 4-1 (OT)
157: Shapiro W 5-2
165: Ramirez WMD 13-2
174: Ruiz WTF 22-7 (6:40)
184: Foca WMD 8-0
197: Dellagatta WBF (4:40)
285: Davis W 4-1 (OT)
Cornell 35 Brown 3

The skill gap between Cornell and this weekend's opponents was pretty massive.  In a lot of ways, the best news is that no one looked to have been injured.

[ugarte]

Really proud of Davis, especially, with a great takedown in SV. Two really big guys scrambling and rolling around and Davis finished on top, in a mild upset (according to Flo, but not the computers).

The Saunders match was a wild, back and forth seven minutes, with Saunders pulling off an incredible takedown and nearfall in the third period after a similarly great pinning move in the closing seconds of the second by the Brown wrestler that didn't get called but could have without a lot of controversy.

This team is a little weaker than it has been at the lower weights after having Yianni and Vito in there - anyone would be - but damn if we aren't killing it from 157 through 184. I really hope Ungar can compete at 125 because Ungar/Ferrara at the top really strengthens us a lot.

[ugarte]

Two more dual meets this weekend. At Binghamton on Saturday and at Columbia on Sunday at 2. I'll be at the latter. They've started holding the wrestling meets in the hoops gym instead of in the Blue Room underneath the students' indoor track/fitness center.

Some interesting matches both days but probably not a lot of mystery in terms of the final result.

[ugarte]

Two more dual meets this weekend. At Binghamton on Saturday and at Columbia on Sunday at 2. I'll be at the latter. They've started holding the wrestling meets in the hoops gym instead of in the Blue Room underneath the students' indoor track/fitness center.

Some interesting matches both days but probably not a lot of mystery in terms of the final result.

As expected, Cornell steamrolled Binghamton, 29-9.

Nice win for Milani at 125, beating a guy who beat the Harvard guy who beat him last week, and by a major decision. Fernandez took a surprising loss at 149 but otherwise we won the matches we were supposed to. Davis lost a close one at Heavyweight, 3-2 to a returning national qualifier, but all of his scoring was from stalling points because his opponent took a lead then stopped engaging.

The biggest disappointment was that Binghamton's best wrestler, Brevin Cassella, didn't go. It kind of looks like he was ducking Ruiz because Ruiz beat him earlier this season and it could screw up his top 10 ranking. I am at a loss as to why Cassella is ranked ahead of Ruiz. Not just the H2H, Ruiz's full season resume is better than Cassella's. They have roughly the same four losses and Ruiz has more good wins. Whatever! With Cassella sitting out, Ruiz beat his backup 16-0.

[ugarte]

Two more dual meets this weekend. At Binghamton on Saturday and at Columbia on Sunday at 2. I'll be at the latter. They've started holding the wrestling meets in the hoops gym instead of in the Blue Room underneath the students' indoor track/fitness center.

Some interesting matches both days but probably not a lot of mystery in terms of the final result.

As expected, Cornell blew out Columbia. This went about as poorly as it could have for the Lions, with Cornell winning 40-0 despite Columbia nearly winning two matches by pin.

125: Milani started again and I'd be surprised if we see Ungar at all at this point. It appears that he's outgrown 125 without the strength to compete at the top level at 133. Milani got the first takedown and held on for a 4-2 win. He was within inches of giving away the match with 30 seconds left but the action was just barely out of bounds when he conceded a takedown.

133: Ferrara took the weekend off. He's been a bit banged up over the year, so I hope it's nothing significant. In his place, Qureshi got  another start and ran with it, dominating his opponent and winning by tech fall 19-3.

Next weekend we have a pair of home duals against Princeton and Penn to close out the conference regular season. Cornell is the favorite in both, but it's closer than I expected because Princeton matches up surprisingly well against us. Their strongest weights are the lightest and heaviest guys, whereas our dominant run is from 157-197. WrestleStat's computer puts the matches at 5-5 with the good guys winning 18-15 on bonus points. I think the computer is conservative on the bonus points for us but the match total isn't unreasonable. It'll be a fun one.

141: Saunders is finally being assertive. He scored off the whistle and kept scoring. Ran out of time before he could get a tech but did get a 15-3 major decision.

149: In what I expected to be one of the more competitive matches, Fernandez came out on fire. After losing 2-0 at Binghamton because he wasn't aggressive enough, Fernandez also scored right off of the whistle. He probably should have had a major decision, but after scoring with 17 seconds left and needing 7 more seconds on top to get a point for Riding Time, he let his opponent escape immediately and won 10-3.

157: Shapiro ripped through this poor kid. 16-0 tech fall.

165: Match of the night. Ramirez nearly lost when Alvan threw him directly to his back before he slipped out. I've seen matches where a pin was called in that situation, but not only was the pin not awarded, Alvan didn't even get credit for a takedown. Columbia challenged and they still didn't give it to him. I was sitting with the Cornell crew and we were all stunned. Then Alvan threw him down AGAIN and got credit this time. Once he escaped, though, the rest of the match was all Ramirez, and he ended up with a 14-5 major decision.

174: Ruiz was facing a wrestler coming off of a huge win against a top 10 guy. Ruiz scored first, and it looked like he might cruise, but just like at 165, our guy got caught and whipped to his back and nearly pinned. And once again, as the match wore on, skill and conditioning won out and Ruiz got the takedowns he needed to win 10-8.

184: Foca won comfortably, 8-2, but his opponent showed some slick defense to keep it from being worse.

197: Dellagatta started slow, but never trailed. In the second period, he got a clean takedown, turned his opponent and got the pin.

285: Davis didn't have much trouble, rolling to a 9-1 major decision.

I highly recommend watching the 157-197 stretch because the action was wild. Starts at around 40:05.