Wrestling 2024-25

[scoop85]

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.

I watched the match live, and as usual you nailed the summary. Shapiro is as dominant against the average wrestler as anyone I've seen at Cornell; he has a non-stop motor and frankly wants to destroy the opponent.

[ugarte]

Giving up the ghost on Ungar at 125. Milani is in the chart until I see Ungar wrestle.

There was some action at 157: While Shapiro sits at 2 in most rankings, #1 (Teemer, Iowa) and #3 (Kasak, Penn St.) faced each other, with Kasak coming out on top. Shapiro keeps rolling through people but the big W from Kasak shuffled the top 3 in different ways across the rankers.

We've got a tough pair of duals at Princeton and Penn next week. Princeton is strongest where we're most vulnerable - at the top and bottom of the lineup, especially if Ferrara is still out. We should get big bonus from the big guns at 157-184 but hope not to need it if the other guys stand strong. Even where we aren't the favorite we aren't big underdogs. Penn has some very intriguing matchups as well; I'm looking forward to seeing if Ruiz can even up the score with Incontrera.

Code Select Expand


                Flo WIN IM TOM AWN BEG* WSt SHP CR   RPI^
125: Milani NR NR NR xx NR 28 61 33 xx   21
133: Ferrara NR NR 29 NR NR 32 21 32 NR   xx
141: Saunders 20 20 32 14 18 15 33 23 24   xx
149: Fernandez 21 NR 20 NR NR 19 35 30 18   25
157: Shapiro 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 3 xx** xx
165: Ramirez 5 5 5 4 5 4* 5 14 5   xx
174: Ruiz 13 12 11 12 10 8* 10 11 12   10
184: Foca   8 6 7 8 8 5* 8 6 xx** xx
197: Mike D. 27 NR 23 NR NR 24* 28 15 23   xx  
285: Davis NR NR 33 NR NR 31* 61 40 NR   12!
TEAM NCAA: 10 8 10 9 xx 6* 8 15 9   xx
TEAM DUAL:       9 9 10 9 xx 10* 9 12 xx   xx

Flo ranks to 33. At 157, Kasak jumped to #1 and Shapiro dropped to 3. Dellagatta slipped a little because one of his opponents lost a match in an upset, dropping them both a bit.
WIN ranks to 20. Saunders enters the rankings at 20.
Intermat ranks to 33.
Open Mat ranks to 20. The ghost of Ungar is still in the rankings at 11. First ranking to ding Fernandez for his loss at Binghamton. Kasak to 1 but Shapiro moves ahead of Teemer.
AWN ranks to 20. Ferrara and Fernandez drop out.
BEG Rank to 33.  Milani gets his first ranking from a friendly face (Cornell Wrestling forum poster SlapTheMat is part of BEG).
WrestleStat ELO updated.
SHP DII (explainer)
CR and RPI First Coaches Rankings The first CR came out on 1/23.  I also noticed that there was an NCAA team coaches' poll on 1/19 so I included that as well. SlapTheMat pegged 2/13 as the date for the NCAA's next CR release along with the first official RPI. CR and RPI are factors in the allocation of automatic qualification bids to conferences as well as the distribution of at-large bids after the conference tournaments and NCAA tournament seeding.

No update to the Flo Ivy rankings.

* BEG has only posted through 157.
** Shapiro and Foca did not have enough matches at weight as of 1/23 to qualify (minimum for the first CR but do now. I don't expect Milani to crack the top 33.
^ I've added the estimated RPI from WrestleStat, for guys that meet the 15-match minimum. You can see the injury history from how few of our starters qualify for an RPI this late in the season. Davis' RPI is a big surprise but to be honest, most guys who have wrestled 15 matches have faced a starter's schedule or have taken more losses, whereas he has a lot of matches (and wins) at low-tier second semester tournaments for backups to get work that he attended to knock off the rust and get his match count up.

[ugarte]

lol to the pep band showing up at the dual and playing wah wah wah wahhhhhh horns for the Princeton introductions

[ugarte]

Hoops and hockey both crapped the bed today but at least we have wrestling!

Cornell v Princeton was basically for the Ivy title because we should roll Penn tomorrow. I thought it might be exciting but it turns out this was probably never in doubt and any residual doubt vanished when they sat three starters (even though one of the backups still won).

125: Milani got smoked by Princeton's backup 8-1. Turns out that Princeton has two really solid frosh 125s (the starter is ranked in the top 20). They're very young at the lower weights so maybe one will transfer out. Not here, since we have a great 125 coming in '26, but still. Rivera could easily start at Harvard, Columbia or Brown.

133: Comfortable 5-1 win for Ferrara. Only point he gave up was an escape with 1-2 seconds left.

141: #20 Saunders v #29 Rivera and this wasn't as close as the final score. A late takedown from Rivera makes it look credible but Saunders took him down 3 times. 11-7 win.

149: #20 Fernandez was supposed to face #11 Ty Whalen, but Whalen didn't suit up. Instead, Fernandez shredded his backup 11-2 for a major.

157: Speaking of shredding, #2 Shapiro blew through his opponent to win by tech fall in 3:00. TBH it (a) probably should have been a pin and (b) it looked like the ref was being very stingy with how he was scoring the back exposure. Sure seemed like this one should have been over sooner. 18-0 tech.

165: #5 Ramirez also ripped up his opponent, winning by tech 15-0 in 2:57.
 
174: #11 Ruiz ruined the streak by needed to go to the second period but kept a different streak up by winning by tech 17-2 in 3:40.

184: #7 Foca embarrassed himself, winning by only a major decision, 11-1.

197: #23 Dellagatta wasn't ready for what 3x national qualifier and current #15 Stout was bringing and lost by tech in 5:27.

285: Another one that looked closer on paper than it turned out, #33 Davis wins 5-0.

32-8 final. Heck of a day for the guys. Looking forward to finishing off another Ivy crown tomorrow.

And may as well also give a tip o' the cap to WBB who won their second Ivy game of the season. Not a great year, but one more Ivy win than last year and we still play both teams we beat again. In a three way tie for 5th at 2-6.

[billhoward]

TY, nice summary. I could have used a cheat sheet like that in Chem 108.

[George64]

Cornell wrestling claims its 44th Ivy League title in program history after Sunday's 26-10 victory over Penn.

[ugarte]

Cornell wrestling claims its 44th Ivy League title in program history after Sunday's 26-10 victory over Penn.

Mostly incredible dual. Penn is a reasonably strong team this year and it showed but we came to fight and ended up running away with the day.

125: Milani is good but out of his depth at the top levels. Max Gallagher took him apart.

133: Huge win for Ferrara, knocking off a ranked wrestler. Somewhat controversial, since the winning point was scored on a surprise stalling call but still a big deal to hold off the late push by Miller.

141: Saunders scored right off the whistle and then tried to sit on the lead for the rest of the match, a longstanding issue of his. Almost worked but he gave up a takedown with around 12 seconds left in the match to lose. Would have been huge for his ranking and seeding.

149: One of the most competitive matches of the night on paper. Fernandez was passive for too long. Scored late to tie the match with a minute left but he couldn't prevent a quick escape and Wasilewski was able to hold him off for the win.

157: Swisher spent as much time as he could avoiding engagement to prevent a bonus point win for Shapiro and succeeded.

165: Ramirez ran through this kid like a homecoming banner.

174: Huge win for Ruiz against his biggest Ivy competition, avenging an early season loss. Nearly gave up a late takedown but defended through the final whistle.

184: What a match from Foca. Dominated a legitimately good opponent. Savage destruction.

197: Dellagatta rebounded well from his ass-whuppin' yesterday.

285: Davis finished up a perfect Ivy season. Probably not an AA contender but really looks like the man to beat at the ILT this year and has a very good chance of going to NCAAs in his first year as starter.

Penn has strong lower weights and we were able to pull an upset and should have had two. The second half was an absolute trucking.

Up next, Arizona State and Bucknell over the next two weekends to close the regular season.

125: #24 Gallagher MD 12-3 Milani 12-3 (Cornell 0, Penn 4)
133: Ferrara W 2-1 #21 Miller (Cornell 3, Penn 4)
141: #9 Composto W 6-4 #20 Saunders (Cornell 3, Penn 7)
149: #15 Wasilewski W 5-4 #20 Fernandez (Cornell 3, Penn 10)
157: #2 Shapiro W 6-2 #22 Swisher (Cornell 6, Penn 10)
165: #5 Ramirez WTF 17-1 3:55 Troczynski (Cornell 11, Penn 10)
174: #11 Ruiz W 4-3 #10 Incontrera (Cornell 14, Penn 10)
184: #7 Foca WTF 17-0 3:49 #21 Hale (Cornell 19, Penn 10)
197: #23 Dellagatta WMD 10-0 LaBarbera (Cornell 23, Penn 10)
285: #33 Davis W 9-6 Pardo (Cornell 26, Penn 10)

[ugarte]

Not a lot of movement, but Ferrara got a little bump and Ruiz flip-flopped Incontrera after this weekend's match. They were pretty close already so the win made the flip inevitable.

New Ivy rankings from Flo, though they were released before the Princeton and Penn duals.

SlapTheMat pegged 2/13 as the date for the NCAA's next CR(2)/RPI(1) release so I'll update that when it comes out. 8 match minimum to receive CR, so everyone is eligible. 15 match minimum for RPI; Shapiro, Foca and Dellagatta will still be short.

Code Select Expand


                Flo WIN IM TOM AWN BEG WSt SHP CR   RPI
125: Milani NR NR NR xx NR NR 72 35 xx*  xx
133: Ferrara 24 NR 28 20 NR 26 21 25 NR   xx
141: Saunders 20 20 30 14 18 15 20 23 24   xx
149: Fernandez 21 NR 20 NR NR 19 32 30 18   xx
157: Shapiro 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 xx*  xx
165: Ramirez 5 5 5 3 5 5 5 13 5   xx
174: Ruiz 11 10 9 6 7 6 10 10 12   xx
184: Foca   8 7 6 8 8 5 5 6 xx*  xx
197: Mike D. 26 NR 24 NR NR 16 29 18 23   xx  
285: Davis NR NR 33 NR NR 31 55 37 NR   xx
TEAM NCAA: 10 8 10 5 xx xx 8 13 9   xx
TEAM DUAL:       9 9 10 9 xx 8 8 11 xx   xx

Flo ranks to 33. Not a lot of change but Ferrara and Ruiz move up.
WIN ranks to 20.
Intermat ranks to 33.
Open Mat ranks to 20. The ghost of Ungar is still in the rankings at 11.
AWN ranks to 20.
BEG Rank to 33. Updates in progress. Milani dropped back off after a tough weekend.
WrestleStat ELO updated.
SHP DII (explainer)
CR and RPI First Coaches Rankings from 1/23. New NCAA team coaches' poll was released on 2/9.

2/6/25 Ivy rankings:

125: Milani - 4
133: Ferrara - 2
141: Saunders - 2
149: Fernandez - 3
157: Shapiro - 1
165: Ramirez - 1
174: Ruiz - 2 (before Ruiz got his revenge on Ivy #1 Incontrera this weekend)
184: Foca - 1
197: Dellagatta - 2
285: Davis - 2 (before Davis beat Ivy #1 Garibaldi this weekend)

[upprdeck]

everything OK?

No update this week from the Ariz st match?

[Al DeFlorio]

everything OK?

No update this week from the Ariz st match?

Think he's on vacation.  Look here instead:  https://bigredbears.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=76

[upprdeck]

We take vacations from sports now?

What have we become.

[RichH]

We take vacations from sports now?

What have we become.

Well adjusted

[ugarte]

everything OK?

No update this week from the Ariz st match?

Think he's on vacation.  Look here instead:  https://bigredbears.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=76

lol yeah it was kind of uneventful and forgot to repost here before i left

[underskill]

Will they let Knox in now?

[ugarte]

Will they let Knox in now?

I didn't know that Anthony Jr. was involved in the fight (thought it was just his father) but that's obviously wrong. He's been DQ'd from NJ states, which he would definitely win. TBH, Knox is one of those recruits who could probably stab a guy and it wouldn't affect his standing with most schools (and maybe Cornell.) From what I've read, the video seems to show that he was backing up his dad who went into the stands first, which could be a mitigating factor. Might mean a greyshirt instead of coming directly and that may have been in the cards anyway since Greg D. appears to be returning next year at 125.