Wrestling [2017-18]

A lot of changes for the season and I'm not ready to write a preview yet. We lost a lot of great wrestlers - All-Americans and conference champions and long-time starters - to graduation, so the usual conference domination is likely not in the offing. That said, there is a lot to look forward to, and I'll get to it some time before the season starts in mid-November.

But, while we're waiting, some of our guys are competing to qualify for the U23 National Greco-Roman Team at next week's World Team Trials. 2x NCAA champ and recent graduate Gabe Dean '17 (85kg); Jon Jay Chavez '19 (75kg); and Will Koll '19 (71kg).

Dean has decided to shift from freestyle to Greco to take a shot at the Olympics; he won bronze at the 2017 Pan-Am Games.

Chavez has not seen much action for Cornell, choosing instead to focus on Greco for international competition. He's a past national junior greco champ.

Koll was the starter for Cornell at 141 as a frosh before getting his knee wrecked on the mat. He came back and reclaimed his starting spot for his sophomore year in 16-17. He's also a past junior greco national champ. Since he's wrestling at 156 for Greco I am curious where he fits into Cornell's plans for the season.

With apologies to ugarte, I settled a case that was headed to trial next week and was in the mood to do a little writing for fun and not work. So, here is my preview and ugarte is welcome to offer corrections as needed:

125: Noah Baughman (So.) was pressed into service last year when returning starter Dalton Macri (who has since transferred to UNC) suffered an injury in his first bout of the season. Noah had a roller coaster of a season. He started 13-3, then lost 8 of his next 10, but closed on an 11-1 run where his only loss was to the eventual NCAA champ. Noah finished 3rd in the EIWA and, IMHO, should have gone to the NCAA's last season. I can see Noah earning a national rank and staying in the top 20 most of the season. Sophomore Mike Russo will back Noah up.

133: Mike Grey has graduated, so there will be a new name at this weight. If healthy, it should be Chaz Tucker (Jr.). Chaz was an elite recruit, two-time prep national champ, but has struggled with staying healthy. The optimist in me says Chaz earns a national rank and makes the NCAAs. Depth at this weight is an issue, so the Big Red really needs a healthy Tucker.

141: Will Koll is a returning starter, but the story at his weight is the debut of Yianni Diakomihalis. Yianni D is the bluest of blue-chips, arguably the best high-school wrestler in the country last year and a two time cadet world champion. Coach Koll has already said he has "Kyle Dake expectations." It's not fair to expect anyone to repeat what Kyle did, but Yianni really is that good. I hope it isn't needed, but there is solid depth at this weight: Koll, Trence Gillem (So.), and Max Pickett (Fr.) all could see action.

149: Last year's pre-season starter was Joey Galasso (Jr.), but he struggled with injuries and is up to 157. Jon Furnas (Jr.) took over and put up a respectable 17-11 season with a sixth place finish at Easterns. Furnas is a battler, but coach Koll's newsletter hints that Freshman Hunter Richard could earn the starting gig at this weight. This weight will be evolving over the season.

157: The unpredictable Dylan Palacio graduated, as did top sub Taylor Simaz, so 157 is wide open. Galasso is moving up and is the presumed starter. He's capable of being very good, but last year was a lost season for him. Minnesota transfer Fredy Stroker should join the team (I think) for the second semester. Fredy was 25-4 as a red-shirting freshman at Minny, was a three-time Iowa state champ and a top 20 overall recruit.

165: Brandon "Bama" Womack was the surprise of last season and was an All-American at this weight. But he's moving up to 174, which leaves the team's most wide-open weight. It could be Drew Garcia (Jr.), who is 25-11 at Cornell and a three time Michigan state champ. It could be Milik Dawkins (So.) who was 13-6 last year and is really still learning to wrestle at an elite level. It could be JJ Chavez (Jr.) who is a nationally-ranked Greco wrestler. It could be someone else. Early tournaments will be fascinating.

174: Bama replaces Brian Realbuto. Womack was 35-11 last season with 11 pins and an 8th place finish at the NCAAs. He's fun to watch, but it will be interesting to see if he has the power necessary to AA at 174. Koll called him a natural 174 pounder last year, so that's a good sign. He's technically a junior, but he probably could gain a year of eligibility due to missing his freshman year with an injury.

184: From (Gabe) Dean to (Max) Dean, as the Coach has basically said Max takes over for his big brother. Max looked good wrestling for the Finger Lakes Prep, but Gabe is a tough act to follow. Of course, four years ago no one knew the Bear would be four time national semi-finalist and two time champ. Jake Taylor (Jr.) will be back in the second semester, he was 11-8 as a part-time starter at 197 two seasons ago.

197: This is returning starter Ben Honis (Jr.) versus Freshman Ben Darmstadt. Ben won 30 matches last year and finished 3rd at the EIWAs. He probably doesn't have the brute strength to beat the very best at this weight, but he's capable of holding his own with anyone from around #10 on down. He starts out ranked #20 by Intermat. Ben was a top 50 recruit and won the National Collegiate Open (the wresting NIT) last year. Ben is long and lean and got punished some last year as moves that worked in high school did not work against collegiate wrestlers. I expect this to go on all season.

Hvy: Jeramy Sweany (Jr.) spent last season transitioning from an undersized, but very quick, heavy to a more traditional sized heavy. Unfortunately, that transition meant he was still not big enough to out-strength folks, but had lost some of his quickness. The result was a disappointing 12-11 campaign and Craig Scott taking over at Easterns. I hope the transition is completed, because the senior back-ups were 0-4 last year and never wrestled after November. In other words, it pretty much has to be Jeramy.

There is a plausible, and frankly likely, scenario that has Cornell sending 8 new wrestlers to the EIWA's compared to last year, and with only Baughman repeating at the same weight. Which is to say, it's a transition year for the program. The gap between Cornell and Princeton is narrow and the Big Red's Ivy win streak will be tested by the Tigers. The EIWA title string of 11 is in real jeopardy; Lehigh really should win the conference this year.

If the Hawkineers don't win this year, the drought may never end. Not only does Cornell not have a senior starter, most of the juniors have a case to make for an extra year of eligibility. And, the rest of the #1 recruiting class will enroll after a year at Finger Lakes, which will include unanimous top 5 recruit Vito Arujua.

mountainred
With apologies to ugarte, I settled a case that was headed to trial next week and was in the mood to do a little writing for fun and not work. So, here is my preview and ugarte is welcome to offer corrections as needed:

To be honest, I don't mind not doing this. I'd have done it eventually but it's better that it got done. I have some notes.

125: Noah Baughman (So.) was pressed into service last year when returning starter Dalton Macri (who has since transferred to UNC) suffered an injury in his first bout of the season. Noah had a roller coaster of a season. He started 13-3, then lost 8 of his next 10, but closed on an 11-1 run where his only loss was to the eventual NCAA champ. Noah finished 3rd in the EIWA and, IMHO, should have gone to the NCAA's last season. I can see Noah earning a national rank and staying in the top 20 most of the season. Sophomore Mike Russo will back Noah up.

The Macri transfer was interesting - he's ranked to start the year and Baughman is not. There are rumors that Baughman may have won this in the room but I don't think the public really knows why he decided to leave. Baughman had one really good win - a pin of Oklahoma's Piccinini, who was a top 10 guy - but was dominated by Lehigh's Cruz in their two matches (a 17-1 TF and a fairly quick pin). There's obviously no shame in losing to the national champ but if he is going to get himself in the conversation he has to be more competitive than that. I think he will be.

133: Mike Grey has graduated, so there will be a new name at this weight. If healthy, it should be Chaz Tucker (Jr.). Chaz was an elite recruit, two-time prep national champ, but has struggled with staying healthy. The optimist in me says Chaz earns a national rank and makes the NCAAs. Depth at this weight is an issue, so the Big Red really needs a healthy Tucker.

There is no depth at this weight unless someone comes up or down. I'm sure Jacob Lehr is a nice, smart, hardworking kid but I saw him sub at Columbia and he was just not strong enough to be competitive in Division I. He was 0-8 at 133, with 4 losses by first period fall, two by TF and two by MD. As far as I can tell, he didn't get a takedown and he lost to two guys from D-III Brockport and someone from Niagara CC. I don't mean this as a diss but I think he got into Cornell *primarily as a student* and wanted to stay involved in wrestling past high school.

141: Will Koll is a returning starter, but the story at his weight is the debut of Yianni Diakomihalis. Yianni D is the bluest of blue-chips, arguably the best high-school wrestler in the country last year and a two time cadet world champion. Coach Koll has already said he has "Kyle Dake expectations." It's not fair to expect anyone to repeat what Kyle did, but Yianni really is that good. I hope it isn't needed, but there is solid depth at this weight: Koll, Trence Gillem (So.), and Max Pickett (Fr.) all could see action.

I can't wait to see Yianni wrestle for us. This is so exciting.

149: Last year's pre-season starter was Joey Galasso (Jr.), but he struggled with injuries and is up to 157. Jon Furnas (Jr.) took over and put up a respectable 17-11 season with a sixth place finish at Easterns. Furnas is a battler, but coach Koll's newsletter hints that Freshman Hunter Richard could earn the starting gig at this weight. This weight will be evolving over the season.

Richard was one of the top NY recruits last year. I'd be surprised if he doesn't win the starting job.

157: The unpredictable Dylan Palacio graduated, as did top sub Taylor Simaz, so 157 is wide open. Galasso is moving up and is the presumed starter. He's capable of being very good, but last year was a lost season for him. Minnesota transfer Fredy Stroker should join the team (I think) for the second semester. Fredy was 25-4 as a red-shirting freshman at Minny, was a three-time Iowa state champ and a top 20 overall recruit.

Stroker does join the team in January. Galasso was a major recruit too but I'd be surprised if Stroker left Minnesota expecting to be a backup and I don't think we brought him in for depth. Galasso had problems getting outmuscled at 149 and I'm not sure it was because of weakness from sucking down.

165: Brandon "Bama" Womack was the surprise of last season and was an All-American at this weight. But he's moving up to 174, which leaves the team's most wide-open weight. It could be Drew Garcia (Jr.), who is 25-11 at Cornell and a three time Michigan state champ. It could be Milik Dawkins (So.) who was 13-6 last year and is really still learning to wrestle at an elite level. It could be JJ Chavez (Jr.) who is a nationally-ranked Greco wrestler. It could be someone else. Early tournaments will be fascinating.

Chavez is on the team but I don't think he really "does" freestyle anymore. He's training to make the national team for Worlds and eventually the Olympics in Greco. The big disappointment here is that Dillon Artigliere - one of the school's biggest recruits - will hardly see the mat in Red. Last year Womack beat him out for the starting spot and he's since sustained what is apparently a career-ending injury.

174: Bama replaces Brian Realbuto. Womack was 35-11 last season with 11 pins and an 8th place finish at the NCAAs. He's fun to watch, but it will be interesting to see if he has the power necessary to AA at 174. Koll called him a natural 174 pounder last year, so that's a good sign. He's technically a junior, but he probably could gain a year of eligibility due to missing his freshman year with a injury.

I'm hoping his strength and aggressiveness plays up; he had a tough time at 174 last year but I don't ascribe any meaning to it because he was subbing in and keeping himself certified at 165, so he was wrestling small. He lost 7 times at 165 last year: to 3 All-Americans, a top 10 guy who dropped down to 157 then borked the tournament and two guys that he kept off the podium himself by avenging his losses at NCAAs. I think he's going to be in the mix for AA again.

184: From (Gabe) Dean to (Max) Dean, as the Coach has basically said Max takes over for his big brother. Max looked good wrestling for the Finger Lakes Prep, but Gabe is a tough act to follow. Of course, four years ago no one knew the Bear would be four time national semi-finalist and two time champ. Jake Taylor (Jr.) will be back in the second semester, he was 11-8 as a part-time starter at 197 two seasons ago.

Max may not be Gabe but there was no way to expect Gabe's results from his greyshirt year at Finger Lakes. Hoping for a great season.

197: This is returning starter Ben Honis (Jr.) versus Freshman Ben Darmstadt. Ben won 30 matches last year and finished 3rd at the EIWAs. He probably doesn't have the brute strength to beat the very best at this weight, but he's capable of holding his own with anyone from around #10 on down. He starts out ranked #20 by Intermat. Ben was a top 50 recruit and won the National Collegiate Open (the wresting NIT) last year. Ben is long and lean and got punished some last year as moves that worked in high school did not work against collegiate wrestlers. I expect this to go on all season.

Honis got the better of Darmstadt when they faced each other last year, and the rumor is that was true in practice too. It's hard to tell if he's just a bad matchup for Darmstadt because on paper Darmstadt is the guy to beat. Honis turned himself into a fringe All-American candidate so this is probably our deepest competitive weight.

Hvy: Jeramy Sweany (Jr.) spent last season transitioning from an undersized, but very quick, heavy to a more traditional sized heavy. Unfortunately, that transition meant he was still not big enough to out-strength folks, but had lost some of his quickness. The result was a disappointing 12-11 campaign and Craig Scott taking over at Easterns. I hope the transition is completed, because the senior back-ups were 0-4 last year and never wrestled after November. In other words, it pretty much has to be Jeramy.

Heavyweight has long been a struggle for our program and I'm really hoping Sweany can break through this year. We have a big recruit coming in next year so this is his chance to make his mark and show the world that he's going to fight for his place in the lineup next fall too.

There is a plausible, and frankly likely, scenario that has Cornell sending 8 new wrestlers to the EIWA's compared to last year, and with only Baughman repeating at the same weight. Which is to say, it's a transition year for the program. The gap between Cornell and Princeton is narrow and the Big Red's Ivy win streak will be tested by the Tigers. The EIWA title string of 11 is in real jeopardy; Lehigh really should win the conference this year.

All true. I have nothing to add other than confidence that Koll will have us ready for Princeton. Lehigh is probably out of reach but I'm not ready to see the Ivy streak broken, especially not with ...

If the Hawkineers don't win this year, the drought may never end. Not only does Cornell not have a senior starter, most of the juniors have a case to make for an extra year of eligibility. And, the rest of the #1 recruiting class will enroll after a year at Finger Lakes, which will include unanimous top 5 recruit Vito Arujua.

... the amazing class we have coming in next year in addition to the experience this years' starters will carry forward. 2017-18 is going to be an interesting year but 2018-19 already has the potential to be a great one.

Thanks for the color commentary ugarte!

Don't forget that Noah also avenged two ugly early season losses to nationally-ranked Jose Rodriguez (OSU) and a very good Tanner Shoap (Drexel) in his late season run. As one of the rare freshman who didn't take a year at Finger Lakes, we got to see a fair amount of maturation on the mat. I have a really good feeling about him this year.

At 157, does Fredy have to wait until January, or can he wrestle after first semester exams end? First dual after Christmas this year is Minnesota at the South Beach Duals.

I'm not really expecting anything from JJ Chavez for the reason you mentioned, but Rob called him the "the wild card at this weight [165]." So, who knows?

Thanks to you both for your insights and expectations for the new season. Certainly more uncertainty than we're used to, but lots of intrigue for sure.

mountainred

Don't forget that Noah also avenged two ugly early season losses to nationally-ranked Jose Rodriguez (OSU) and a very good Tanner Shoap (Drexel) in his late season run. As one of the rare freshman who didn't take a year at Finger Lakes, we got to see a fair amount of maturation on the mat. I have a really good feeling about him this year.

At 157, does Fredy have to wait until January, or can he wrestle after first semester exams end? First dual after Christmas this year is Minnesota at the South Beach Duals.

Agreed on Baughman - I just consider Baughman/Macri/Rodriguez/Shoap at roughly the same level. An impressive win to be sure but Piccinini was the real shocker. To be honest I think Piccinini still thinks that pin call was bullshit.

As for Stroker, you may be right that he is eligible as soon as finals are over for the Fall semester. Someone (you, because I don't want to lol) should look into when other Spring-only guys made their debuts.

I am guessing, but don't you have to be a "matriculated student" to be eligible? And wouldn't a transfer not "matriculate" until spring term -- at least the start of orientation, move-in day or whatever? I am pretty sure that athletes who return from a leave are eligible immediately after exams in the term they were on leave but I don't think that is true of new transfers.

dag14
I am guessing, but don't you have to be a "matriculated student" to be eligible? And wouldn't a transfer not "matriculate" until spring term -- at least the start of orientation, move-in day or whatever? I am pretty sure that athletes who return from a leave are eligible immediately after exams in the term they were on leave but I don't think that is true of new transfers.

I think he's already on campus as a student for the fall semester. I'm not sure why he isn't wrestling in the fall.

ugarte

Someone (you, because I don't want to lol) should look into when other Spring-only guys made their debuts.

Thanks for the assignment! The only similar wrestler I could remember (transferring in and expecting to see immediate action) was Nick Arujua. He apparently didn't wrestle for the Big Red until late January of his first year with the team. Not sure if the ultimate small sample size tells us anything concrete. Of course, I'm sure I'm forgetting someone.

The season unofficially began Saturday in Brockport. Cornell sent six reserve wrestlers, and most of the Finger Lakes Prep team, to an open tournament against mostly D3 competition. You'd hope the Big Red would do well, and they did. Four of the six won their weight (Gillem - 149, Santoro - 157, Dawkins - 165, and Richards - Hvy). Gillem, Dawkins and Richards won all of their matches by fall or tech fall.

As for the Finger Lakes guys, Arujua dominated on the way to the 133 title (a first period fall and two TFs). Andrew Berreyesa took the 174 title with a pair of tech falls. Jaron Chavez (who doesn't seem to be a Cornell recruit officially, but is likely headed to Cornell) had a couple of first period pins before losing to Dawkins in the finals. And the two heavies (Janney and Furman) had a bunch of first period pins, but McZiggy Richards schooled Furman in the Heavy final.

More unofficial wrestling next week as pretty much the entire team will go to Binghamton for another open tournament.

Another Brockport-like tournament this weekend, as the Big Red are sending 33 wrestlers ("unattached", so it doesn't count as the start of the season) to Binghamton for the Jonathan Kaloust Bearcat Open. Finger Lakes Wrestling Club is sending another 14 wrestlers - many (all?) of them Cornell recruits taking a greyshirt year.

[www.cornellbigred.com] Is this correct, Cornell wrestles Saturday 2/10/18 at Penn at noon and then same day at Princeton 6 p.m.? After wrestling at Drexel the day before.

billhoward
[www.cornellbigred.com] Is this correct, Cornell wrestles Saturday 2/10/18 at Penn at noon and then same day at Princeton 6 p.m.? After wrestling at Drexel the day before.

Sure. NCAA rules say a wrestler can only wrestle six matches in a day. Three over two days is a piece of cake. Cornell wrestles at Harvard and Brown on the same day in even years.

Al DeFlorio

billhoward
[www.cornellbigred.com] Is this correct, Cornell wrestles Saturday 2/10/18 at Penn at noon and then same day at Princeton 6 p.m.? After wrestling at Drexel the day before.

Sure. NCAA rules say a wrestler can only wrestle six matches in a day. Three over two days is a piece of cake. Cornell wrestles at Harvard and Brown on the same day in even years.

The NYS Championships is a one day tournament where some guys could wrestle 6 times, for example And not everyone will wrestle all the dual meets in those two days. We have credible-to-solid backups at many weights and Koll may give some guys a breather unless the dual is in doubt. That's probably only an issue against Princeton, who has a real chance to be the first Ivy team to beat us since the 2001-02 season.

Wow, If I can get there, it would be three straight Saturday nights in Princeton - Football, Hockey, Wrestling!

ugarte
Another Brockport-like tournament this weekend, as the Big Red are sending 33 wrestlers ("unattached", so it doesn't count as the start of the season) to Binghamton for the Jonathan Kaloust Bearcat Open. Finger Lakes Wrestling Club is sending another 14 wrestlers - many (all?) of them Cornell recruits taking a greyshirt year.

Looks like Penn State is sending a contingent to Binghamton, including their stud 141 recruit Nick Lee. That could lead to quite the showdown with Yianni D.

Solid day at Binghamton.

125: A surprise as Noah Baughman didn't wrestle at 125, and was instead wrestling at 133. I didn't watch and haven't checked other forums so I don't know how long term this plan is. No matter for Cornell, as soph Mike Russo won the tournament in fairly dominating fashion culminating in a pin in 58 seconds in the finals over a guy from Harvard.

133: Baughman and Chaz Tucker both lost in the consolation semifinal. They might have wrestled each other for 7th but I don't think they did. The real news at this weight is that Vito Arujau, who will be a frosh next year, won the tournament with a pin, a tech, a major decision, a win over Tucker in OT and a win over the guy who beat Baughman in the final. (EDIT: Apparently the scoring in this match was a mess and Arujau actually lost this match.)

141: Yianni Diakomihalis blew through the field, with only Nick Lee - a stud frosh from Penn State in his own right - putting up much of a fight.

149: Jonathan Furnas finished in third, emerging from a crowded weight class for the Big Red. In a surprise (to me) Schoenherr finished the best out of the rest of the guys, ahead of Realbuto, Gillem and Richard.

157: Joey Galasso finished a disappointing 4th, with losses to wrestlers from Brown and Buffalo. (EDIT: Still, that was better than Fredy Stroker, who will be joining the team in the Spring and apparently needs to work on his conditioning according to people who watched.)

165: Here I was thinking that JJ Chavez was done with freestyle and not only does he wrestle at Binghamton, he wins the tournament. Milik Dawkins finished in 4th, losing to a pair of wrestlers who later lost to Chavez. I think most expected Dawkins to be the starter but this is a good start from Chavez.

174: Brandon Womack wins; none of the matches were particularly close and he got a pin.

184: Max Dean wins his first tournament in a Cornell singlet. Rolls into the finals and then wins a close one.

197: Ben Darmstadt finishes in second; Ben Honis finishes in third. This is the most important fight for a starting spot on the roster because it's the only one where the winner is an All-American contender and the other guy is a contender who just loses a year of eligibility. The spots on the podium don't figure to matter because both wrestlers only lost once, and both lost to the same guy. Honis actually wrestled him closer.

Hwt: Still not a good weight for us until Sweany comes back. Neither the guys on the roster or the FLWC greyshirts did well at all.

Dual meet season starts tonight against University of Northern Iowa - we're a modest underdog here but could pull an upset depending on how the kids perform.

Sunday is the NYS Championships, and we'll run away with that unless we rest most of our starters (we're apparently resting at least some). It is a tournament that, like Binghamton and Brockport, allow multiple entries in a weight class, so our backups and the guys who are basically workout fodder get an opportunity to wrestle in school colors so that's kind of cool. I would really like to see Jacob Lehr win a match...

ugarte
I would really like to see Jacob Lehr win a match...

Jacob won two last year in this same event (and by MD and fall too).

ugarte
Dual meet season starts tonight against University of Northern Iowa - we're a modest underdog here but could pull an upset depending on how the kids perform.

They performed pretty f'ing well. Cornell wins 30-10 thanks to three wins by fall: Tucker (133), Chavez (165) and Darmstadt (197). Chavez' pin came at 2:00.1 of the second period, but he was leading and looking good. Max Dean knocks off a top ten guy at 184. Yianni D gets a regular decision over a top 15 guy, but was in control.

The only disappointments were Bama dropping a close one in a battle of top 10 ranked wrestlers, and Joey Galasso looking, to be blunt, meh.

Huge, huge win.

mountainred

ugarte
Dual meet season starts tonight against University of Northern Iowa - we're a modest underdog here but could pull an upset depending on how the kids perform.

They performed pretty f'ing well. Cornell wins 30-10 thanks to three wins by fall: Tucker (133), Chavez (165) and Darmstadt (197). Chavez' pin came at 2:00.1 of the second period, but he was leading and looking good. Max Dean knocks off a top ten guy at 184. Yianni D gets a regular decision over a top 15 guy, but was in control.

The only disappointments were Bama dropping a close one in a battle of top 10 ranked wrestlers, and Joey Galasso looking, to be blunt, meh.

Huge, huge win.

And that doesn't even cover that Ben Honis, who had been wrestling at 197, stepped up and handled the heavyweight match, winning 8-4 and Matt Russo continued to surprise at 125, knocking off a top 20 wrestler 10-4!

Jonathan Furnas lost a MD but he was wrestling the #3 wrestler in the country so there's no shame in it.

Bama is going to have to adjust to the new weight I guess but Galasso is going to have to step up if he has any hope of keeping the starting job when Stroker joins the team in the spring.

Really proud of the team for coming out strong.

ugarte

Sunday is the NYS Championships, and we'll run away with that unless we rest most of our starters (we're apparently resting at least some). It is a tournament that, like Binghamton and Brockport, allow multiple entries in a weight class, so our backups and the guys who are basically workout fodder get an opportunity to wrestle in school colors so that's kind of cool. I would really like to see Jacob Lehr win a match...

You weren't kidding. Virtually no D1 rivals sent their starters, so the Big Red won going away while resting four/five starters (depending on who you think is the heavyweight starter). Of note to me:

Tucker and Baughman met in the 133 final and Tucker won 5-3 with the only offense of the match. Noah is going to have earn his starting spot back.
The kids (Yianni, Dean and Darmstadt) dominated. 3 titles, 6 pins, 4 techs. Only Dean was tested, as he beat a really good Bingo freshman in the finals.
Adam Santoro won at 157 to enter his name into the drawing of the starter at that weight. (Fredy Stroker looked good for two bouts, and not so good for his last two.)
Recruit Andrew Berreyesa crushed it. 5-0 with 4 wins by fall.

mountainred

ugarte

Sunday is the NYS Championships, and we'll run away with that unless we rest most of our starters (we're apparently resting at least some). It is a tournament that, like Binghamton and Brockport, allow multiple entries in a weight class, so our backups and the guys who are basically workout fodder get an opportunity to wrestle in school colors so that's kind of cool. I would really like to see Jacob Lehr win a match...

You weren't kidding. Virtually no D1 rivals sent their starters, so the Big Red won going away while resting four/five starters (depending on who you think is the heavyweight starter). Of note to me:

Tucker and Baughman met in the 133 final and Tucker won 5-3 with the only offense of the match. Noah is going to have earn his starting spot back.
The kids (Yianni, Dean and Darmstadt) dominated. 3 titles, 6 pins, 4 techs. Only Dean was tested, as he beat a really good Bingo freshman in the finals.
Adam Santoro won at 157 to enter his name into the drawing of the starter at that weight. (Fredy Stroker looked good for two bouts, and not so good for his last two.)
Recruit Andrew Berreyesa crushed it. 5-0 with 4 wins by fall.

We're going to have some trouble weights. Galasso hasn't looked good at 157 and Stroker - who was supposed to challenge for the starting spot - is either not in game shape or not too good. After losing to Simaz, he lost in the consolation bracket to RIT. (!) ... and then Simaz lost in the semis to someone from IC (!!) and then NYU (!!!).

Glad Tucker is asserting himself at 133 but Brockport wasn't great. Glad he turned it around with a win against UNI.

Russo may be a surprise at 125, Furnas is game but not a great 149, Honis is going to have trouble with better heavyweights if that's really the answer and Sweany has been very uneven regardless of his injury (and frustratingly the greyshirts are still having trouble).

Our good weights are 141 (Yianni!), 165 (Chavez), 174 (Womack), 184 (Dean) and 197 (Darmstadt) and hopefully some more will solidify as the year goes on.

I may be more optimistic about than you about Tucker. He's shaking off two years of rust and is 8-2. Those losses were to Vito and a Penn State Kid (backup, but Penn State) both in OT. Maybe I'm kidding myself, but Chaz can qualify for the NCAA's.

EDIT: Koll's newsletter is out. It looks like Adam Santoro is headed to Vegas as the next man up at 157 and Ben Honis may be going as our heavyweight at least until Sweany is healthy. Ben apparently weighed in at 203 Friday night, 40+ pounds below his opponent. He won anyway.

mountainred
Ben Honis may be going as our heavyweight at least until Sweany is healthy. Ben apparently weighed in at 203 Friday night, 40+ pounds below his opponent. He won anyway.

Koll also said that 197 was a tough cut for Honis, so he may have grown out of 197 and has to adjust to a new reality. Beating a ranked wrestler while giving up so much beef is a good start.

The early success has gotten the team some pop in the rankings. Womack, understandably took a slight fall for losing to a guy just below him in the rankings but Russo, Chavez and Darmstadt are starting to show up, while Yianni and Dean are climbing the rankings. WIN hasn't received the memo about Honis and still has him ranked ahead of Darmstadt at 197. The various rankings are not in any particular order other than "the order I thought of them in." I hope that in the coming weeks I can add (in order of likelihood) Honis (as a Hwt), Tucker, Santoro and Furnas to the chart.

                   Flo    IM      TOM     AWN     WIN

125: Russo          U      U      15(20)  20(U)    U
141: Diakomihalis  11(20) 12(13)   8(20)  11(18)   9(10)
165: Chavez         U     18(U)   15(20)   U       U
174: Womack         8(7)   9(6)   10(6)    9(8)    9(6)
184: Dean          13(17) 10(17)   5(15)  10(17)  14(U)
197: Darmstadt      U     19(U)    U      16(15)  17(UR)
197: Honis                                        14(15)

EDIT: I've been told that someone already does this for the whole EIWA, so ... here you go. [static.psbin.com]

An interesting weekend as Cornell took a team out to Las Vegas to compete in the Cliff Keen Open. It is a tournament that draws a lot of the top teams and the competition is steep.

125: Russo (unseeded) started his tournament by knocking off the 7 seed (#15) guy. He followed it up with a MD before falling in a revenge match to the 10 seed, who he knocked out of the top 20 last week.* He then got pinned to end his tournament. Kind of up-and-down, and he fell far short of the podium, but he showed he's not a pushover and he's putting together a resume.

* He'll be back in the rankings after finishing in 5th.

133: Tucker started his day by beating a 2017 NCAA qualifier before losing a close match to the 5 seed (#7). In the consolation bracket he beat the #16 wrestler before falling to #12 by a single point. Again, he established himself as someone who can hang with the second tier and it's something to build on.

141: Yianni Diakomihalis, superstar recruit, planted his flag. He entered the tournament as the 5 seed, ranked #12 before he blazed through the tournament. He didn't rack up points but he also didn't allow a single offensive point to be scored against him, He had 2 MDs against unranked wrestlers before facing #3 Bryce Meredith of Wyoming - a former national finalist and two-time All-American. After a takedown that would have given him the win in regulation was waved off, he finally got the points he needed early in the Sudden Victory OT period. The final was a dominant 8-2 win over #13 Alber to take the title. Great start. He's undefeated to start the year and I'd be shocked if he were any lower than #4 in the next poll (and probably #3).

149: Jonathan Furnas had a tough start against the #9 wrestler, passively scored the team some points when he won a match by MFF and then dropped a close match to a wrestler from Binghamton that he should expect to see again. He's a grinder who will be more competitive in Ivy play than at major national events.

157: Adam Santoro opened the tournament with a quick Tech Fall before falling to the #18 wrestler. He had the misfortune to immediately meet up with the #15 guy in the consolation bracket. That said, he was absolutely dominated by #15 earlier this year and kept the match closer this weekend.

165: Jon Jay Chavez came into the tournament #18 and opened with 2 pins in his firsst three matches before falling in the QF to the #5 wrestler 6-2. In the consolation bracket he won his first match to get on the podium before losing 6-5 to #11 and 16-7 to #8. I think his readjustment back to freestyle is going pretty well.

174: #9 Brandon Womack had a tough tournament. From people who watched he was plagued by a combination of sloppy leg defense on his feet (something that kind of served him well as a counterattacking guy at 165) and a penchant for looking for high-scoring reversal moves from the bottom rather than just escaping, running out the clock on himself and allowing his opponents to pile up riding time. After winning his first match, he lost 9-8 to #16 despite having a 7-1 lead halfway through the match (with a RT point to his opponent the decisive point). He followed that up with a 7-6 loss that again came down to allowing a RT point to an opponent who shouldn't have been able to keep him down. Hopefully this is a learning experience at a new weight after he was so much stronger than most of his opponents at 165 last year.

184: #10 Max Dean won his first match in a 17-0 TF, and then a second match over #17 before falling to #6 Zavatsky* in the QF. An unfortunate draw had him facing #7 Foster for a spot on the podium. While Dean beat Foster in the UNI dual, he couldn't repeat the performance. Dean is positioning himself as a potential All-American in his freshman year. Very nice.

* Probably nice for Zavatsky, who was handed a vicious 19-4 TF by Max's brother Gabe in the finals of this tournament last year.

197: Kind of a surprise to see Honis here over Darmstadt; either he won the job in a wrestle-off or Koll is trying to keep two 197s in shape with the return of Sweany as our starting Heavy. In any event, Honis won his first match before dropping a close 5-3 decision to the #1 wrestler in the country. In the consolation bracket, Honis decisively beat the #15 guy before falling in rideouts to a guy from Army that he split a pair of 4-3 decisions with last year. Some good matches but he's gotta figure out how to beat this guy!

285: Jeramy Sweany came back for his first matches of the year. He started with a tough draw, facing #6 right off the bat but he kept it close and lost without allowing any offensive points. He then won 5 straight matches - including to MDs and a pin - to get into the medal rounds. In the medal rounds he dropped a pair to the #8 guy and VT's heavyweight to finish in 8th. No wins over ranked guys but some admirably close losses and a great start to his season.

The team finished in 8th overall with a title for Yianni! and a pair of 8th place finishes for Chavez and Sweany. Not *great* but a solid performance and our odds of preserving our EIWA title streak are looking better than I'd expected.

Cornell has been going to this Vegas tournament for years, but this was the deepest I've ever seen the field. Tucker's draw was insane; three guys ranked in the top 16 plus someone who was 2-2 at last year's NCAAs.

It will be interesting to see if Santoro did enough to hang on to the starting gig at 157. And how 197 plays out; Ben D. will be heard from before this season ends.

This is the last big tournament for the guys until Easterns. Rob has changed his New Year's event from the Southern Scuffle to four dual matches in Florida.

A few of Cornell's reserves and pretty much all of the Finger Lakes Club spent Saturday in Cleveland at the CSU Open. There were nearly 300 wrestlers there, mainly younger reserves from D1 schools in the NE and mid-west. By and large, it was a good day for the good guys.

Ben Darmstadt headed home(-ish) and destroyed the competition at 197. He had four first period pins and won the final 13-2 with over six minutes of riding time. Matches only last 7 minutes. His potential is outstanding.

Vito Arujua won at 133. He wasn't quite as dominant as Ben, but he won his four matches comfortably, including a 11-5 win in the finals over a three time PA HS champ. Noah finished fourth.

Fredy Stroker (coming to Cornell next semester, maybe) won at 157. He seems to be rounding into shape after some tough tournaments to start the season. Kyle Simaz finished 3rd at 157 and his only loss was to Fredy.

Andrew Berreyesa (Finger Lakes) finished 3rd at 174. His only loss was in sudden victory to a top 30 recruit from tOSU. He won his 3rd place match by tech fall 17-2. Foster Karmon started well (a 39 second WBF) and made the quarters where he lost to the eventual champ by a single point. He defaulted out of wrestlebacks though.

Brendan Furman (Finger Lakes) took 6th at Heavy after putting together a nice run in the wrestlebacks.

Edit: Scoop is right about Fredy.

I’m pretty certain I’d seen Stroker tweet recently about his official acceptance to Cornell

Cornell had a dual against Buffalo last night, which is archived here.

The meet started at 184 (don't know if it was consent or random draw), with Max Dean dominating his opponent but giving up a late takedown when trying for the technical fall and an extra bonus point. He still won by MD.

197: Honis was never really threatened and won 5-1, basically by being the stronger guy.

285: Sweany isn't strong enough to deal with someone this much bigger than him. He also kept giving up his legs. Gunning is surprisingly quick.

125: Russo couldn't get off of bottom and gave up a reversal on a nifty move from Akins. He didn't look bad though; this was a close one. His best shot at a takedown was whistled dead by the ref, probably for a dangerous position that Russo had on Akins' head.

133: Tucker will probably jump into the top 20 with his second win over a ranked wrestler. The score was 1-1 heading into rideouts. Lantry held Tucker down for the full period. Tucker chose to give up the escape point and try to win on his feet, and he did - converting a shot near the end of the period for a well-deserved 3-2 win.

141: This was unfair. Diakomihalis, who may move up to #2 - and possibly #1 - by next week because of the other top 4 guys wrestling each other, was facing a guy with an 0-4 record. It took over two periods to finally get the right position, but Yianni finally got the pin. (Skip to 1:03:00 for the start of the third period to see the set up and fall.)

149: Furnas had all the offense and won easily. Estevez was too timid.

157: Santoro was tired at the end but he was still very effective countering Fasnacht's shots, scoring even though he wasn't trying to generate his own offense. He was also way too tired to try riding, and cut Fasnacht quickly each time. It was enough.

165: Chavez had a 6-0 lead after 1, getting a late TD and back points. In the second, he really let his Greco background come through. Got him in an upper body grip and just bodyslammed him on his back for the fall. Beautiful. Skip to 1:25:35 for the setup.

174: Womack comes back after a couple of bouts where he flagged late and lost by a point. Cruises to a win but, like Dean, gives up a late takedown when trying to secure a bonus point. (I think Cornell has the score wrong and it finished 8-3, where 8-1 wouldn't have scored the bonus.)

Next action is at a series of dual meets in Florda after Christmas, including #4 Missouri and #10 Minnesota (plus NDSU and Kent State).

#13 Cornell 31, Buffalo 6
Dec. 18, 2017 * UB Center for the Arts
184: #11 Max Dean (C) won by major decision over Brett Perry (UB), 14-3
197: Ben Honis (C) won by decision over Joe Ariola (UB), 5-1
285: #20 Jake Gunning (UB) won by decision over Jeramy Sweany (C), 10-4
125: Kyle Akins (UB) won by decision over Mike Russo (C), 3-0
133: Chaz Tucker (C) won by decision over #16 Bryan Lantry (UB), 3-2 (SV2)
141: #3 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by fall over Blake Retell (UB), 5:26
149: Jonathan Furnas (C) won by decision over Jason Estevez (UB), 6-3
157: Adam Santoro (C) won by decision over Eric Fasnacht (UB), 9-7
165: #16 John Jay Chavez (C) won by fall over Noah Grover (UB), 3:40
174: #16 Brandon Womack (C) won by decision over Ryan Kromer (UB), 8-2

As everyone expected, Cornell opens the South Beach Duals by losing to a good not great North Dakota St. and then beating #10 Minnesota. Sports are weird.

Yianni D looked dominant. He had a pin against NDSU and an 18-4 major over a top 10 kid from Minny. It wasn't that close. Dean had a solid win in the opener and followed it up with a TF at 184. Ben Dartmstadt got the start at 197 and had a nice major decision and then a second period win by fall. Ben Honis wrestled up from 197 to heavy; versus NDSU he gave up a last second TD that decided his match and dual (a TD he really should have avoided) and then scored a last minute TD and rideout to take his match and the dual versus Minnesota. Will Koll wrestled for the first time this year and scored a nice win versus the Golden Rodents.

JJ Chavez did not wrestle and it hurt at 165.

Tomorrow it's Kent State and Missouri. The Missou dual could be the last real test for Yianni before NCAAs as the Tigers have the #5 guy at 141.

Yes; Honis lost his HWT match against NDS but I give him credit for even being competitive when he is significantly outweighed by his opponents. His quickness gave him takedown points on the edge of the mat that surprised his NDS opponent. I wish he had wrestled as hard in the last 10 seconds as he did in the first 6:50 seconds but that letup was clearly a teachable moment as he was not going to let it happen again against Minny.

Cornell rolled through Kent State with only a loss at 133 (and we didn't dress anyone for 125 for reasons unknown). Koll. Womack, Dean and Darmstadt all came back to win in the third period, while Sweany hung on for a win. Based on the 2 point unsportsmanlike deduction against the KSU bench, I suspect they either wanted a stalling call against Sweany in the third while their guy was trying to come back or they didn't get a call at the buzzer that would have tied the match.

Missouri went ... poorly. No wins in the first 7 matches, including Yianni's first loss of the year - on a last second takedown to a cradle that turned a 6-3 lead into a 9-6 loss. Also no shame in Womack losing to Lewis at 174 but LBF in the first period is not good, especially when he couldn't score a takedown against an unranked wrestler from KSU. After a stunning All-American season at 165, Womack has been mediocre at 174 and is not likely to stay ranked after this 2-2 weekend. Bright spot was Darmstadt taking a 9-0 MD from the #2 wrestler in the country. Honis apparently weighed in at 216 for his Hwt matches yesterday and won't even be allowed to qualify at 197 (because of safe weight cutting rules) so I wonder if a decision was made about making Darmstadt the starter at 197.

Cornell 27, Kent State 7
125: Will Bardezbain (Kent State) won by forfeit
133: Anthony Tutolo (Kent State) won by decision over Chaz Tucker (Cor), 6-2
141: #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cor) won by technical fall over Chance Driscoll (Kent State), 25-10
149: Will Koll (Cor) won by decision over Will Monico (Kent State), 4-3
157: Kyle Simaz (Cor) won by major decision over Casey Sparkman (Kent State), 12-3
165: #16 Jon Jay Chavez (Cor) won by decision over Isaac Bast (Kent State), 10-3
174: #16 Brandon Womack (Cor) won by decision over Dylan Barreiro (Kent State), 3-2
184: #11 Max Dean (Cor) won by decision over Colin McCracken (Kent State), 8-5
197: Ben Darmstadt (Cor) won by decision over Kyle Conel (Kent State), 13-6
285: Jeramy Sweany (Cor) won by decision over Devin Nye (Kent State), 10-8
Kent State deducted two team points for unsportsmanlike conduct

#4 Missouri 27, #12 Cornell 11
125: Barlow McGhee (Mizzou) won by forfeit
133: #9 John Erneste (Mizzou) won by decision over Chaz Tucker (Cor), 6-2
141: #5 Jaydin Eierman (Mizzou) won by decision over #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cor), 9-6
149: #16 Grant Leeth (Mizzou) won by decision over Will Koll (Cor), 6-5
157: #4 Joey Lavallee (Mizzou) won by major decision over Adam Santoro (Cor), 16-5
165: Connor Flynn (Mizzou) won by decision over #16 Jon Jay Chavez (Cor), 5-3
174: #4 Daniel Lewis (Mizzou) won by fall over #16 Brandon Womack (Cor), 1:30
184: #11 Max Dean (Cor) won by decision over Canten Marriott (Mizzou), 4-3
197: Ben Darmstadt (Cor) won by major decision over #2 Willie Miklus (Mizzou), 9-0
285: Jeramy Sweany (Cornell) won by major decision over Dante Jiovenetta (Mizzou), 10-2

mountainred
As everyone expected, Cornell opens the South Beach Duals by losing to a good not great North Dakota St. and then beating #10 Minnesota. Sports are weird.

Yianni D looked dominant. He had a pin against NDSU and an 18-4 major over a top 10 kid from Minny. It wasn't that close. Dean had a solid win in the opener and followed it up with a TF at 184. Ben Dartmstadt got the start at 197 and had a nice major decision and then a second period win by fall. Ben Honis wrestled up from 197 to heavy; versus NDSU he gave up a last second TD that decided his match and dual (a TD he really should have avoided) and then scored a last minute TD and rideout to take his match and the dual versus Minnesota. Will Koll wrestled for the first time this year and scored a nice win versus the Golden Rodents.

JJ Chavez did not wrestle and it hurt at 165.

Not only did Chavez not make weight on Friday, but his backup missed weight as well. We ended up sending our weighed-in 157s out to wrestle at 165 and it went about as well as you'd expect. Honestly, avoiding techs at both weights was a minor success. In a post-match interview Koll called them "a couple of knuckleheads" but seemed more bemused than really angry.

North Dakota State University defeated Cornell 20-16
125 - Paul Bianchi (North Dakota State University) over Michael Russo (Cornell) Dec 13-9
133 - Cam Sykora (North Dakota State University) over Charles Tucker (Cornell) Dec 4-3
141 - Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) over Sam Hampton (North Dakota State University) Fall 4:11
149 - Kyle Gliva (North Dakota State University) over Hunter Richard (Cornell) Dec 9-6
157 - Clayton Ream (North Dakota State University) over Adam Santoro (Cornell) Maj 14-6
165 - Andrew Fogarty (North Dakota State University) over Kyle Simaz (Cornell) Maj 19-5
174 - Brandon Womack (Cornell) over Charley Popp (North Dakota State University) Dec 9-5
184 - Maxwell Dean (Cornell) over Tyler McNutt (North Dakota State University) Dec 11-5
197 - Ben Darmstadt (Cornell) over Cordell Eaton (North Dakota State University) Maj 13-4
HWT - Daniel Stibral (North Dakota State University) over Benjamin Honis (Cornell) Dec 8-7

Cornell defeated Minnesota 22-19
125 - Ethan Lizak (Minnesota) over Michael Russo (Cornell) TF 16-0
133 - Mitchell McKee (Minnesota) over Charles Tucker (Cornell) Maj 11-2
141 - Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) over Thomas Thorn (Minnesota) Maj 18-4
149 - William Koll (Cornell) over Hunter Marko (Minnesota) Maj 10-2
157 - Jake Short (Minnesota) over Kyle Simaz (Cornell) Dec 3-2
165 - Nick Wanzek (Minnesota) over Adam Santoro (Cornell) Maj 17-6
174 - Chris Pfarr (Minnesota) over Brandon Womack (Cornell) TB-1 6-4
184 - Maxwell Dean (Cornell) over Owen Webster (Minnesota) TF 16-1
197 - Ben Darmstadt (Cornell) over Bobby Steveson (Minnesota) Fall 4:43
HWT - Benjamin Honis (Cornell) over Rylee Streifel (Minnesota) Dec 4-3

Cornell beat their main EIWA rival, Lehigh, 23-14. Before I crow too much, the Hawkineers were down two of their best starters. Had they wrestled, the score is more likely something like 19-17 Cornell with the Big Red needing a mild upset at 184 to win the dual. But they didn't wrestle.

125: #3 Darian Cruz (L) won by major decision over Noah Baughman (C), 17-8
133: Chaz Tucker (C) won by decision over Nick Farro (L), 3-1 (sv1)
141: #4 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by major decision over #13 Luke Karam (L), 8-0
149: Will Koll (C) won by decision over #19 Cortlandt Schuyler (L), 4-1
157: Ian Brown (L) won by major decision over Adam Santoro (C), 10-1
165: Jon Jay Chavez (C) won by decision over #18 Gordon Wolf (L), 12-6
174: #5 Jordan Kutler (L) won by decision over #17 Brandon Womack (C), 4-1
184: #11 Max Dean (C) won by major decision over Andrew Price (L), 10-1
197: #6 Ben Darmstadt (C) won by fall over Jake Jakobsen (L), 2:35
285: #11 Jordan Wood (L) won by decision over Ben Honis (C), 8-3

My takeaways for whatever they are worth: It was nice to Baughman making weight at 125. There's no shame in losing the defending national champ and this should help the team at Easterns. Koll seems to have emerged as the starter at 149; he's only 3-1 but that was a nice win. Adam Santoro has a solid future at Cornell, but my guess is Fredy Stroker takes over at 157 when the spring term starts next week.

Cornell's big three freshmen, Yianni D, Dean and Darmstadt, are a combined 57-4 with 18 WBF, 9 TFs, and 15 MDs.

Big win for the Big Red last night as we knocked off our chief rival (now that Penn and Harvard aren't as competitive) #7 Lehigh. (NB that Princeton is rising as a rival.)

There are caveats and countercaveats about how big this win is, naturally. Lehigh's has a pair of top 10 wrestlers (Parker at 133 and Preisch at 184) who didn't wrestle and we won both of those matches, including an MD at 184. Of course, Preisch has been out all year so he isn't formally ranked and until he gets on the mat it's weird to consider him their starter. Similarly, Cornell's transfer from Minnesota, Fredy Stroker can't officially wrestle for us until classes start this week, and he is the presumptive starter at 157. Stroker was a very highly regarded recruit and his first action in the Cornell singlet - wrestling "unattached" at at a small tournament last week - included a win over a top 20 guy from Rutgers.

Baughman kept himself off his back against the defending national champion, Cruz, which was nice. It was also good - even in a loss - to see him back at 125. He just barely missed qualifying for NCAAs last year and seems like a better candidate to qualify than Russo, despite Russo's surprising success. (Meanwhile, Dalton Macri - the guy who we expected to start last year, ended up transferring to North Carolina. He started the year ranked in the top 10 before going 2-4 and defaulting out of his 7th match with an injury.)

Tucker and especially Koll pulled out wins in low-scoring matches with late takedowns (Tucker's in SV). Tucker is a cautious, low-action guy but he's been pulling out a lot of wins like this. He'll probably spend the season on the fringes of the top 20. Meanwhile, Koll has come back from injury and may have taken the starting job from Furnas. He lost a close match to the #15ish guy from Missouri around Christmas and beat a top 20 guy in Schuyler yesterday.

Womack is still struggling at 174. Kutler is a top 5 guy so there isn't anything bad about a loss here, but he was so successful at 165 last year it is not easy to get used to seeing all the Ls by his name. Similarly, with Honis' shift to Heavyweight, Wood is a fringe top 10 wrestler, so this was a tall order and no shock on the outcome.

Our hammers did their hammering. Yianni cruised to an 8-0 win, with one red flag being his inability to get out from bottom in the third period. His technique and balance are great, but he's not a pure strength guy yet and has had some trouble being ridden. Max Dean handled the Lehigh backup easily. Chavez was facing Wolf - like him a fringe top 20 guy - and won handily.

Finally, Ben Darmstadt has - as many expected - taken over the starting spot at 197 and has been dominant. His biggest challenge, it seems, has always been beating Honis in wrestle-offs. This season coming into the Lehigh match he was 18-1 with 11 pins (10 in the first period), two TF and two MD. His wins included a 9-0 whitewash of then-#2 Miklus of Missouri and a win over #10 Rasheed of Penn State. His only loss was to #8 Mattiace of Penn in the first tournament of the year. The dominant win over Miklus jumped him into the top 10. Wearing his new ranking he went out and added another first period pin to his stat sheet.

No. 12 Cornell 23, No. 7 Lehigh 14
All rankings from Intermat
125 – #3 Darian Cruz (Lehigh) MD Noah Baughman (Cornell) 19-6 (4-0 Lehigh)
133 – Chaz Tucker (Cornell) W Nick Farro (Lehigh) 3-1, sv (4-3 Lehigh)
141 – #4 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) MD #13 Luke Karam (Lehigh) 8-0 (7-4 Cornell)
149 – Will Koll (Cornell) W #19 Cortlandt Schuyler (Lehigh) 4-1 (10-4 Cornell)
157 – Ian Brown (Lehigh) major dec. Adam Santoro (Cornell) 10-1 (10-8 Cornell)
165 – Jon Jay Chavez (Cornell) W #18 Gordon Wolf (Lehigh) 12-6 (13-8 Cornell)
174 – #5 Jordan Kutler (Lehigh) dec. #17 Brandon Womack (Cornell) 4-1 (13-11 Cornell)
184 – #11 Max Dean (Cornell) MD Andrew Price (Lehigh) 10-1 (17-11 Cornell)
197 – #6 Ben Darmstadt (Cornell) Fall Jake Jakobsen (Lehigh) 2:35 (23-11 Cornell)
285 – #11 Jordan Wood (Lehigh) dec. Ben Honis (Cornell) 8-3 (23-14 Cornell)

EDIT: lol I spent so much time noodling around with this mountainred got there first.

ugarte

EDIT: lol I spent so much time noodling around with this mountainred got there first.

I was wondering where your update was!

mountainred

ugarte

EDIT: lol I spent so much time noodling around with this mountainred got there first.

I was wondering where your update was!

well, i haven't watched yet. Waiting for ILN to post the archived dual.

ugarte

mountainred

ugarte

EDIT: lol I spent so much time noodling around with this mountainred got there first.

I was wondering where your update was!

well, i haven't watched yet. Waiting for ILN to post the archived dual.

Just go to the ILN schedule, go back (left arrow) in the schedule, and watch.

Al DeFlorio

ugarte

mountainred

ugarte

EDIT: lol I spent so much time noodling around with this mountainred got there first.

I was wondering where your update was!

well, i haven't watched yet. Waiting for ILN to post the archived dual.

Just go to the ILN schedule, go back (left arrow) in the schedule, and watch.

cool thanks for the tip. i assumed i had to wait for it to show up in the archive.

Cornell rolls over Brown (27-9) and Harvard (35-3) as the Ivy season gets underway.

125: Good to see Baughman back and seemingly comfortable at 125. His win against Harvard was wild - down 1-0 late, with his opponent seemingly with a second RT point in the bank, Baughman gets a takedown to a cradle and gets 4 nearfall points and rides out to take away the RT point also.

133: Tucker continues to wrestle agonizingly close matches against people that he should be blasting. He's content to let his defense do most of the work and only scoring when it's absolutely necessary. He didn't lose today but one false move and he would have. He's very short for the weight, which may explain his strategy, because a bad shot leaves him very vulnerable, I guess.

141: Diakomihalis didn't have any competition today. Pinned Brown easily and took Harvard down at will, though never with good enough leverage to roll him over for the fall.

149: Koll with a pair of workmanlike wins. Looked like the better wrestler in both matches and would have won the Harvard match in regulation were it not for some strange calls on the mat.

157: Stroker faced the best guy in the Brown lineup and was mostly fine, though he had trouble finishing his shots because he couldn't get in deep enough. Then he got caught at the end of the second period and ended up giving up a big 6 point move and wasn't able to recover. He had a better match against Harvard but didn't look great. I expected a little more from him after his tournament win last week, including a win over a ranked wrestler.

165: No Chavez for some reason and Santoro stepped up, now that he's lost his starting spot at 157. He had a wild match against Brown, taking an 11-2 lead with an amazing takedown and a pair of 4 point nearfalls, but he gave all of it back and more when his opponent basically put the exact same move on him. It was a wild match but even though Santoro took the big early lead it almost seemed fluky that he got that advantage and the better wrestler won out. His match against Harvard went much better, and he won by fall with a great finish.

174: Womack is not long for the ranked world. He beat Brown but then lost to Harvard and didn't even look like the better wrestler for most of the match. He's had to wrestle through some illness all year and hopefully he's fully healthy by EIwAs. He hasn't looked good this year at 174 after an amazing All-American year at 165.

184: Dean had no problems in either match.

197: Darmstadt had even less trouble, getting a dominant 18-0 TF against Brown and then another first period pin against Harvard. He almost pinned the Harvard guy in the first 10 seconds but couldn't quite pull it off.

285: Honis threw away the Brown match, leading 3-2 with time running out, he took a bad shot and ended up giving up a takedown without enough time to escape before the final buzzer. He didn't make the same mistake against Harvard and held on for the win.

#11 Cornell 28, Brown 9
125: Noah Baughman (C) won by major decision over Trey Keeley (B), 14-3 [4-0 CU]
133: Chaz Tucker (C) won by decision over Hunter Kosco (B), 3-2 [7-0 CU]
141: #4 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by fall over Zeke Salvo (B), 2:47 [13-0 CU]
149: Will Koll (C) won by decision over Zach Krause (B), 3-1 [16-0 CU]
157: Justin Staudenmayer (B) won by decision over Fredy Stroker (C), 11-4 [16-3 CU]
165: Christian LaBrie (B) won by decision over Adam Santoro (C), 20-13 [16-6 CU]
174: #17 Brandon Womack (C) won by decision over Bryce Rogers (B), 8-2 [19-6 CU]
184: #11 Max Dean (C) won by decision over CJ LaFragola (B), 5-0 [22-6 CU]
197: #6 Ben Darmstadt (C) won by technical fall over Tucker Ziegler (B), 18-0 [28-6 CU]
285: Ian Butterbrodt (B) won by decision over Ben Honis (C), 4-3 [28-9 CU]

#11 Cornell 35, Harvard 3
125: Noah Baughman (C) won by decision over Nolan Hellickson (H), 6-1 [3-0 CU]
133: Chaz Tucker (C) won by decision over Ryan Friedman (H), 3-2 [6-0 CU]
141: #4 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by technical fall over Trevor Tarsi (H), 23-8 [11-0 CU]
149: Will Koll (C) won by decision over Hunter Ladnier (H), 8-6 (sv1) [14-0 CU]
157: Fredy Stroker (C) won by decision over Brock Wilson (H), 6-3 [17-0 CU]
165: Adam Santoro (C) won by fall over Tyler Tarsi (H), 4:04 [23-0 CU]
174: Josef Johnson (H) won by decision over #17 Brandon Womack (C), 6-3 [23-3 CU]
184: #11 Max Dean (C) won by decision over Kanon Dean (H), 3-0 [26-3 CU]
197: #6 Ben Darmstadt (C) won by fall over Logan Kirby (H), 0:56 [32-3 CU]
285: Ben Honis (C) won by decision over Angus Cowell (H), 7-3 [35-3 CU]

Perhaps I expected too much, but on a day where the Big Red opened the soft underbelly of their dual slate by winning 16 of 20, I hoped to see more.

The "Bâby Bears" of Yianni D, Dean and Dartmstadt looked great. Max didn't score much, but he was in control of both matches. His Brown opponent was #18 on the Coaches Poll (i.e. the only one that matters), so that was a nice win. But all of that was expected.

Noah looked pretty good and I agree Koll was workmanlike. I re-watched his match with Ladiner and the calls that went against him were just weird awful, but he fought through. The key for both guys is to earn a #2 or 3 seed for EIWAs and avoid the top dog at each weight (Lehigh's Cruz at 125, Princeton's Kolodzik at 149) until the final. They both stayed on track for that.

The bad was the Stroker's Cornell dual debut could have been better. The Brown loss will hurt come EIWA seeding-time, but at least he has a chance to beat a number of key contenders over the next few weeks. Bama doesn't have that chance and would seem to be capped at no better than a #4 seed since he's lost to Kutler and Johnson and doesn't get to face Bernstein of Navy. At this point, I just want Womack to rest so we see his best wrestling in March.

Not sure what to make of Chavez. Maybe he was sick. Maybe he missed weight. Maybe Koll knew Brown's starter at 165 was out and he decided to give JJ the day off. Maybe Koll's newsletter will give us an idea. (Edit: It did. According to Koll's newsletter, JJ was sick.)

ugarte

165: No Chavez for some reason ...

reportedly just sick, not injured or failed to make weight. good news.

Cornell takes a squeaker from Lock Haven 20-18. Darmstadt's pin at 1:07 of first period at 197 was decisive. Diakomihalis won by technical fall in second period before he could pin his opponent.

George64

George64
Cornell takes a squeaker from Lock Haven 20-18. Darmstadt's pin at 1:07 of first period at 197 was decisive. Diakomihalis won by technical fall in second period before he could pin his opponent.

A wild dual the day after a 33-2 blowout over Columbia. Against Columbia we won 8 of 10 weights; against LH, 5 of 10 but we got a tech (141) and a fall (197), whereas they only got a tech (125) and a major (165).

125: Noah Baughman had a strange weekend - rolled over his opponent for an MD on Saturday before getting teched by an unranked Lock Haven wrestler on Sunday. Someone on the wrestlingreport forum suggested that back-to-back one hour weigh-ins may have been a factor, since he has only recently made his way back to 125.

133: Good weekend from Chaz Tucker. Two wins (10-4 v Columbia, 6-4 v Lock Haven) and he added multiple takedowns in each match to his typically solid defense.

141: Yianni Diakomihalis is a national title contender for a reason. First period fall v Columbia and a tech fall against a top 20 wrestler from LH.

149: Will Koll is clearly the starter now at 149 over Furnas. A MD over a decent Columbia wrestler followed by a close (deserved) loss against a ranked wrestler from LH. A decent weekend. He'll be a contender for a bid to NCAAs.

157: Tough weekend for Fredy Stroker. Dropped a close match against #16 Scheidel from Columbia then lost again to an unranked wrestler from LH. He looked OK against Scheidel but gassed against LH. May have the same weigh-in fatigue as Baughman?

165: JJ Chavez is still out sick (I assume the flu because everyone has it). Against Columbia, Chris Schoenherr stepped up from 149(!) and not only won, he won 10-5. It's the match I haven't seen yet that I'm really looking forward to. Against LH, we didn't send out a small fry to face the #4 wrestler in the country and that was probably a very good idea. Kyle Simaz avoided a tech fall but was handled easily in a 17-6 major decision loss.

174: Brandon Womack with a pair of unremarkable wins over Columbia and LH. Not a lot of faith in Womack in a tough match going forward, I have to admit.

184: Max Dean didn't have trouble either night. MD against Columbia and a win against LH. LH was probably closer than it should have been but it never felt in doubt.

197: Ben Darmstadt is insane. Two more falls, and congrats to the Columbia wrestler for making it out of the first period even though he was down like 12-0 after 1.

Hwt; Tough weekend for the Big Red as both Columbia and LH have quality heavies. Ben Honis was facing #16 Ryan and kept it close but mostly because of some dubious calls by the ref. (The Columbia bench was so mad that they received a rare team penalty point after a match their wrestler won.) On Sunday Jeramy Sweany returned to the lineup to face #13 Haines. A win would have been nice, but mostly Sweany needed to avoid losing by a tech fall or worse and costing the team the match. In that light, a 9-3 loss to an All-American contender isn't terrible.

All in all, a good weekend. Results below.

#10 Cornell 33, Columbia 5
197: #3 Ben Darmstadt (Cornell) won by fall over Jacob Young (Columbia), 3:23
285: #16 Garrett Ryan (Columbia) won by decision over Ben Honis (Cornell), 6-4
125: Noah Baughman (Cornell) won by major decision over Spencer Good (Columbia), 14-4
133: Chaz Tucker (Cornell) won by decision over Alec Kelly (Columbia), 10-4
141: #4 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) won by fall over Val Miele (Columbia), 2:05
149: Will Koll (Cornell) won by major decision over Jacob Macalolooy (Columbia), 10-0
157: #13 Markus Scheidel (Columbia) won by decision over Fredy Stroker (Cornell), 4-2
165: Chris Schoenherr (Cornell) won by decision over Laurence Kosoy (Columbia), 10-5
174: Brandon Womack (Cornell) won by decision over Tyrel White (Columbia), 2-0
184: #11 Max Dean (Cornell) won by major decision over Andrew Psomas (Columbia), 10-0
* Columbia deducted a team point for unsportsmanlike conduct

#10 Cornell 20, #23 Lock Haven 18
125: Luke Werner (LH) won by technical fall over Noah Baughman (C), 17-1
133: Chaz Tucker (C) won by decision over DJ Fehlman (LH), 6-4
141: #4 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by technical fall over Kyle Shoop (LH), 19-3
149: #16 Ronnie Perry (LH) won by decision over Will Koll (C), 5-3
157: Alex Klucker (LH) won by decision over Fredy Stroker (C), 5-2
165: #4 Chance Marstellar (LH) won by major decision over Kyle Simaz (C), 17-6
174: Brandon Womack (C) won by decision over Jared Siegrist (LH), 5-4
184: #10 Max Dean (C) won by decision over Corey Hazel (LH), 5-2
197: #3 Ben Darmstadt (C) won by fall over Trey Hartsock (LH), 1:07
285: #13 Thomas Haines (LH) won by decision over Jeramy Sweany (C), 9-3

 

___________________________
quality tweets | bluesky (twitter 2) | ALAB Series podcast | Other podcasts and writing

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2018 03:58PM by ugarte.

ugarte

184: Max Dean didn't have trouble either night. MD against Columbia and a win against LH. LH was probably closer than it should have been but it never felt in doubt.

FYI, the LH wrestler, Cory Hazel, is now ranked #19 by Flo. A 5-2, but never in doubt, decision isn't bad.

mountainred

ugarte

184: Max Dean didn't have trouble either night. MD against Columbia and a win against LH. LH was probably closer than it should have been but it never felt in doubt.

FYI, the LH wrestler, Cory Hazel, is now ranked #19 by Flo. A 5-2, but never in doubt, decision isn't bad.

Sure. Hazel looked good. No complaints about any of the Bâby Bears.

Three dual weekend, with Cornell taking on Drexel (yesterday), Penn (just finished) and Princeton (this evening).

Drexel wrestled tough, but the toss-up matches went our way. Womack was able to escape and ride for a 2-0 win at 174; Koll dominated the similarly ranked Elfvin (around #30) for a MD. Darmstadt was a little sloppy on his feet and got taken down twice but got almost immediate reversals both times and Loiseau couldn't get up once Darmastadt was on top. All he could do was flatten out and keep himself from getting flipped onto his back.

At 133, Tucker spent the entire match on defense, which kept the score low against the high-scoring #4 DeSanto, but eventually the ref got tired of it and hit him with a pair of stalling calls in the third. That was the difference and he lost 2-1.

Yianni's pin at 141 was the real difference-maker, and Cornell won comfortably.

----

Penn's program has fallen on hard times, I guess, and also probably the flu.

Darmstadt got his revenge on #9 Mattiace, who gave him his only the L of the year. He couldn't turn Mattiace for NF points, much less a pin, but he rode him for nearly 6 minutes and picked up stalling points in the process on the way to an 8-1 win.

Penn forfeited 125 and 141. Cornell forfeited 285. Chavez and Womack took the dual off.

Regular decisions for Koll at 141 (9-3), Stroker at 157 (6-0) and Dean at 184 (8-2). MD for Tucker at 133 (12-4), so I guess he tried to score. And an MD for Dawkins at 174 (17-5), filling in for Womack.

Only loss on the mat was Santoro, wrestling up at 165.

Cornell rolls and clinches a share of the Ivy title, the school's 16th straight.

#10 Cornell 22, Drexel 13
165: Ebed Jarrell (D) won by major decision over Adam Santoro (C), 13-5 [DU 4-0]
174: Brandon Womack (C) won by decision over Austin Rose (D), 2-0 [DU 4-3]
184: #11 Max Dean (C) won by decision over Alex DeCiantis (D), 8-3 [CU 6-4]
197: #3 Ben Darmstadt (C) won by decision over #20 Stephen Loiseau (D), 6-4 [CU 9-4]
285: Jeramy Sweany (C) won by decision over Josh Murphy (D), 6-1 [CU 12-4]
125: Zack Fuentes (D) won by decision over Noah Baughman (C), 6-0 [CU 12-7]
133: #4 Austin DeSanto (D) won by decision over Chaz Tucker (C), 2-1 [CU 12-10]
141: #4 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by fall over Julian Flores (D), 1:21 [CU 18-10]
149: Will Koll (C) won by major decision over Trevor Elfvin (D), 10-0 [CU 22-10]
157: Garrett Hammond (D) won by decision over Kyle Simaz (C), 7-4 [CU 22-13]

#10 Cornell 32, Penn 9
125: Noah Baughman (C) won by forfeit [CU 6-0]
133: Chaz Tucker (C) won by major decision over Tristin DeVincenzo (P), 12-4 [CU 10-0]
141: #4 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by forfeit [CU 16-0]
149: Will Koll (C) won by decision over Patrick Munn (P), 9-3 [CU 19-0]
157: Fredy Stroker (C) won by decision over Jon Errico (P), 6-0 [CU 22-0]
165: May Bethea (P) won by decision over Adam Santoro (C), 8-3 [CU 22-3]
174: Milik Dawkins (C) won by major decision over Quinton Hiles (P), 17-5 [CU 26-3]
184: #11 Max Dean (C) won by decision over Joe Heyob (P), 8-2 [CU 29-3]
197: #3 Ben Darmstadt (C) won by decision over #9 Frank Mattiace (P), 8-1 [CU 32-3]
285: Tyler Hall (P) won by forfeit [CU 32-9]

Dismantled Princeton.

Pins from Baughman and Diakomihalis, a tech from Dean and majors from Chavez (who is finally eligible for RPI) and Sweany.

Disappointing loss by Stroker but a good, close loss from Koll against (IIRC) a returning All-American.

Darmstadt won but got taken down three times. Sure, he had two reversals and an escape but he can't give up his legs like that to better competition. Womack had to come from behind to win, which is not good, but he did it, so it's not too bad.

#10 Cornell 34, Princeton 6
125: Noah Baughman (C) won by fall over Matteo DeVincenzo (P), 4:34 [CU 6-0]
133: Chaz Tucker (C) won by decision over Jonathan Gomez (P), 5-2 [CU 9-0]
141: #4 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by fall over Jordan Reich (P), 4:44 [CU 15-0]
149: #12 Matthew Kolodzik (P) won by decision over Will Koll (C), 8-4 [CU 15-3]
157: Mike D'Angelo (P) won by decision over Fredy Stroker (C), 4-0 [CU 15-6]
165: #18 Jon Jay Chavez (C) won by major decision over Leonard Merkin (P), 12-1 [CU 19-6]
174: Brandon Womack (C) won by decision over Jonathan Schleifer (P), 5-4 [CU 22-6]
184: #11 Max Dean (C) won by technical fall over Kevin Parker (P), 16-0 [CU 27-6]
197: #3 Ben Darmstadt (C) won by decision over Patrick Brucki (P), 10-6 [CU 30-6]
285: Jeramy Sweany (C) won by major decision over Christian Araneo (P), 9-0 [CU 34-6]

Princeton was supposed to be challenging Cornell this year?

billhoward
Princeton was supposed to be challenging Cornell this year?

things didn't work out that way

Cornell rolls over UNC. The win was expected but the score was pretty great.

125: Kind of a disappointment that we didn't get to see Baughman wrestle Macri, who transferred from Cornell over the summer but Macri wasn't having a great year to begin with and may have gotten injured.

133: Fun match for Tucker. Got the first TD and wrestled strong throughout. Gave up a TD which is rare, but escaped quickly.

141: A surprisingly tough one for Yianni, who actually gave up a TD and had a hard time with Headlee's length. Also, he couldn't turn him. Seemed a little frustrated.

149: Koll was game but Heilmann was just too much. Koll got the first points of the match on a good TD off of a great scramble when it looked like Heilmann had him dead to rights.

157: Stroker with a big upset. Monday looked like the better wrestler but he was never quite able to get a tilt and a late TD followed by a strong ride gave Stroker a surprising win that I still can't believe he pulled off.

165: Chavez is great. Aggressive, scores points from unconventional angles. A lot of his opponents are not used to the Greco moves and get caught in very awkward positions. Guys used to protecting their legs find themselves in bear hugs and wondering where life went wrong..

174: Womack hung in there but Ramos was too much for him.

184: Dean did some solid work to fight off reversals at the ends of the first and second periods. Otherwise a comfortable win. Looked great on his feet.

197: Darmstadt is a bad, bad man. Basically got the cradle in a standing position and brought it down to the mat. He's 6'3" and strong as hell and he's another guy that is unconventional in ways that his opponents usually can't counter.

285: Sweany with some solid late moves to get the NF points to end the dual with another MD for the Big Red. He's rounding into form.

The team looks great heading into the EIWA tournament, which is the first weekend in March at Hofstra.

#11 Cornell 32, #24 North Carolina 6
125: Noah Baughman (C) won by forfeit
133: Chaz Tucker (C) won by decision over Zach Sherman (UNC), 4-3
141: #4 Yianni Diakomihalis (C) won by decision over #19 A.C. Headlee (UNC), 7-6
149: #8 Troy Heilmann (UNC) won by decision over Will Koll (C), 10-7
157: Fredy Stroker (C) won by decision over #15 Kennedy Monday (UNC), 4-3
165: #18 Jon Jay Chavez (C) won by major decision over Clay Lautt (UNC), 10-1
174: #16 Ethan Ramos (UNC) won by decision over Brandon Womack (C), 6-3
184: #11 Max Dean (C) won by decision over #17 Chip Ness (UNC), 8-2
197: #3 Ben Darmstadt (C) won by fall over #15 Danny Chaid (UNC), 2:31
285: Jeramy Sweany (C) won by major decision over Andrew Gunning (UNC), 14-4

ugarte
Cornell rolls over UNC. The win was expected but the score was pretty great.

When your biggest disappointment is "I thought Yianni would win by more," it was a pretty good night.

mountainred

ugarte
Cornell rolls over UNC. The win was expected but the score was pretty great.

When your biggest disappointment is "I thought Yianni would win by more," it was a pretty good night.

Womack at 174 is still the disappointment. I'm worried he's going to go from frosh AA to not going to NCAA's at all. He doesn't seem able to score at this weight.

ugarte

mountainred

ugarte
Cornell rolls over UNC. The win was expected but the score was pretty great.

When your biggest disappointment is "I thought Yianni would win by more," it was a pretty good night.

Womack at 174 is still the disappointment. I'm worried he's going to go from frosh AA to not going to NCAA's at all. He doesn't seem able to score at this weight.

For the season, I agree (the struggle at 157 is second). But last night, I never really thought Bama would beat Ramos. Which backs up your point.

As ugarte mentioned, the team is off until the EIWA Tournament. Next week is big because the NCAA will tell us how many AQs each conference gets for the NCAA Tournament. The process (way over-simplified) is that the NCAA will select the top 29-ish wrestlers at each weight based on record, RPI and a published coaches' panel ranking; each wrestler in the top 29(-ish) earns a bid for his conference. The "-ish" is because each conference must get one AQ per weight, and sometimes there aren't enough wrestlers who meet the NCAA's minimum standards to earn an AQ. The actual NCAA invites are won at the qualifying tournament, such as the EIWA. The NCAA holds back at least four spots for wild card selections to the NCAAs to hand out to highly-regarded wrestlers who are injured or upset in their conference tournament, then to fill out the 33 person bracket. I have no idea why they use 33 instead of 32. Here is where I think the Big Red stands:

Locks for an AQ: Yianni D. (141), Max Dean (184) and Ben Darmstadt (197). Yianni and Ben are consensus top 3-4 guys and Max is solidly in the top 10. All 3 will earn bids and all 3 are locks to get a wild card if something awful happens at the EIWAs. Let's not speak of that again.

Very, very likely to get an AQ: JJ Chavez (165). JJ is solidly top 20, but didn't have enough matches to qualify for an RPI the last time it was published. He has enough matches now and should be fine. The EIWA looks to get 5-6 bids at 165, which should be plenty for JJ to qualify "on the mat" (I wouldn't be surprised if he won the EIWA title).

Could earn an AQ: Chaz Tucker (133), Brandon Womack (174) and Jeramy Sweany (285). Tucker's RPI was #16 and he's 8-1 this calendar year. That may get him a coaches ranking next time, which is important because he could really use 4 bids in the conference. If there are only 3 bids (or 2 if Lehigh's Parker doesn't have enough matches to earn one) he'll need a medium-sized upset to qualify for nationals. Bama has had a really tough season, but his RPI is very good and he has enough residual respect based on last year's AA to still be ranked by the coaches. The EIWA will probably get 5 or so bids regardless. Brandon ought to be able to finish that high, but it has been really tough year. Sweany was #25 in the last coaches ranking and #12 in the last RPI. Again, that may enough to get an AQ. Sweany is one of 3 EIWA heavies who are on the cusp of earning an AQ; I think he'll be fine as long as 1 or 2 of them do so.

Will need to steal a bid: Noah Baughman (125), Will Koll (149) and Fredy Stroker (157). Noah was wrestling at 133 for the first semester and is only 4-3 while wrestling at 125. His biggest problem is that the EIWA could well only get 1 AQ at this weight and, barring injury, that will almost certainly be won by Lehigh's returning national champion. Noah needs someone else in the EIWA to earn an AQ to give him a realistic shot. Koll didn't start wrestling this season until the South Beach Duals in late December. He's 8-4, has only lost to top-20 guys, and was ranked #32 by the coaches last time around. That won't be enough to earn an AQ (not enough matches to qualify for an RPI) but he could well steal a bid from the 3-4 the league should get. Stroker's transfer wasn't completed until the Spring Semester began, so again not enough matches to earn an AQ. The EIWA has 2 bids for certain with a chance for up to 4 more. As many as possible would be good for Fredy, but his upset last night gives me hope.

Edits: I forgot that sometimes not enough wrestlers meet the NCAA's standards to earn an AQ. Also, one website (Flo Wrestling) has projected numbers of AQ's. The two interesting numbers are that they project 3 bids at 125 (good for Noah) and 3 bids at 133 (which will force Chaz to upset someone in the top 10). We'll see if those projections hold.

The Flo Projections didn't hold. The EIWA only gets one bid at 125, so Noah isn't making NCAAs barring something really crazy. The EIWA gets 3 bids at 133, which means Tucker needs an upset to earn an AQ. His final coaches' ranking was #31, to go along with an RPI of 19. He might get a wild card if he doesn't qualify, but he'll need there to be few upsets in qualifying tournaments.

There are 4 bids at 149; I'm cautiously optimistic that Will Koll can earn one of those. Fredy has room with 6 bids at 157; Bama needs to finish in the top 5.

mountainred
The Flo Projections didn't hold.

Something something prediction models grumble grumble

CU2007

mountainred
The Flo Projections didn't hold.

Something something prediction models grumble grumble

Please don't move that discussion over here!

EIWA tournament preview off the cuff:

125: Noah Baughman is back for the Big Red. Last year, in a two-bid conference, Baughman finished third and though he had a decent profile for a wildcard bid, he didn't get one. This year he has no chance at a wildcard because he was out for half the season, it is a one bid conference and that bid is going to go to Lehigh's Darian Cruz, who is the returning NCAA champion. Every time Baughman faces Cruz it ends badly. The closest Baughman has come has been a 9 point loss last month. Next year, as a junior, if he stays healthy, he is a good enough wrestler to earn his way to the tournament. This year it is incredibly unlikely.

133: Chas Tucker was finally healthy enough to wrestle and he's had a pretty good season, despite not trying to score nearly enough. He's the fourth ranked wrestler in a three-bid weight. It's a tough road to finish ahead of any of the three ahead of him - all are All-American contenders - but he finished right on the cusp of earning a fourth bid for the conference himself, so if he can finish in fourth he stands a good chance of getting a wildcard unless there are a lot of upsets in other conferences. The favorite for the title is Drexel's great freshman DeSanto. Tucker battled him almost to a draw but that was mostly because Tucker spent the match blocking and stalling and didn't try to score. Lehigh's Parker and American's Terao are the other guys in his way for an automatic bid.

141: Yianni Diakomihalis, #3 in the country is the prohibitive favorite to win this weight class. Even if he screws up the conference has four bids, though this would be bad for his NCAA seeding. The closest competition is Bucknell's Tyler Smith, who sits just outside of the top 10.

149: Will Koll has a tough but not impossible path. The good news is that the conference has four bids; the bad news is that one of them is sure to go to Princeton's Matt Kolodzik. The other bad news is that half the weight class is in the top 30, so it's hypercompetitive for the other three slots. Koll's as good as any of them, though, so if he has a good night's sleep and a good draw he has as good a chance as anyone else of making a run to at least the semifinals, which would put him one win away from an automatic bid. He also spent a semester in dry dock, so I don't think he can get a wildcard. The tournament is his only way in. I think he can do it.

157: Fredy Stroker joined the team in January after transferring in from Minnesota. He was a very highly regarded high school wrestler who has had an up and down semester but finished the season with a solid come-from-behind win over a top 20 wrestler for his second top 20 win of the year. He's also got the benefit of being in a weight class with a whopping *six* bids on the table. Another wrestler without enough matches for a wildcard, Fredy is going to have to punch his ticket at the tournament. Again, I think he can but there are no guarantees - he is 1-3 against the other contenders, including losses to Columbia's Markus Scheidel and Princeton's Michael D'Angelo and Brown's Justin Staudenmeyer.

165: John Jay Chavez is finally getting recognition, breaking into the top 20, and he also finally has enough matches to qualify for a wildcard if necessary. It probably won't be necessary, though, as he is one of the favorites at another six-bid weight for the conference. It's another weight class with a cluster of guys in the bottom half of the top 30 without a standout wrestler, and Chavez beat the only one he faced. A lot would have to go wrong for Chavez to finish out of the top 6.

174: Brandon Womack has had a very, very strange year. After taking 8th place and earning All-American status as a freshman last year at 165, Womack started the season ranked in the top 10. It has not been a top 10 season and he's no longer ranked in the majority of the polls. Some of that is the adjustment to his new weight and some of it is the lingering effects of mono. Whatever it is, he's 14-8, has had some horrible losses and after a year when he racked up pins and won with muscle, he has had a lot of trouble scoring. He's had a couple of close losses to top 10 wrestlers so I guess that's ... not terrible? The conference has five bids, and that should be enough, but he hasn't been the same wrestler this year and the chances of missing the NCAA tournament after a season that ended on the podium are surprisingly high. The likely winner here is Lehigh's #4 Jordan Kutler, but that was one of Womack's close losses, so who knows.

184: Max Dean steps on to the mat for Cornell after four years of his brother laying waste to the conference at this weight, winning four straight titles. He's had an amazing freshman season, and in a *seven* bid conference is basically a lock. Standing in the way of the title is Lehigh's #3 Ryan Preisch. Preisch went into last year's tournament the 6 seed at 174 and came out with nothing. He was also hurt for most of this year, so if he's still off the title may stay in the Dean family after all.

197: Ben Darmstadt started the season competing with Ben Honis for the starting spot. Now Honis has converted to heavyweight and Darmstadt is ranked either #1 or #2 in the country, depending on the poll you trust, with only a single loss on the year. The conference has six bids and Darmstadt is a lock. His top competition for the title is Princeton's Patrick Brucki, who gave him some trouble a couple of weeks ago, and Penn's Frank Mattiace, who handed him his only loss of the year (though Darmstadt won the rematch earlier this month).

285: Jeramy Sweany has returned to the starting lineup after an injury and some competition from Honis. Sweany made the tournament in 2016 but inconsistent performance cost him his starting spot last year and he wasn't even Cornell's representative at the conference tournament. His return to the lineup has been pretty good - a 16-5 record without a particularly bad loss in the bunch. The conference has five bids and while he actually hasn't faced the top guys in the conference, he has beaten the guys who are in the mix for the last qualifying bids. He's also got a decent chance at a wildcard if he just misses out.

The tournament is this Saturday and Sunday at Hofstra. I'm probably going to the early session on Sunday for the semifinals and some consolation rounds. Say hi if you do too.

I was thinking of doing a preview, but it sure wouldn't have been this good. Thanks ugarte.

Based on the pre-seeds (the seeds are subject to change until a coaches meeting tonight), the battle for the team title will be very close. If everyone wrestles to their pre-seed (they won't of course), Cornell appears to have a one point lead over Lehigh before bonus points are factored in. Teams are awarded 2 bonus points when one of their wrestlers wins by fall, forfeit or DQ; 1.5 points by tech fall; and 1 point for major decision. Last year Cornell had 10 or so more bonus points than Lehigh, so they could sway a race as tight as this one should be.

Cornell has won the last 11 titles, which is just insane. The second longest streak would be the six titles Cornell won in the Wilson Administration. Coming into the season, I didn't think there was much chance of #12, but the Bâby Bears have been even better than expected and this weekend is a coin-flip with Lehigh.

ugarte
EIWA tournament preview off the cuff:

Hate to think what we'd get if you really tried.

Jim Hyla

ugarte
EIWA tournament preview off the cuff:

Hate to think what we'd get if you really tried.

i confess to doing some research ...

mountainred
Based on the pre-seeds (the seeds are subject to change until a coaches meeting tonight), the battle for the team title will be very close.

               Preseed (AQ slots) Lehigh seed

125: Baughman     6    (1)        1
133: Tucker       4    (3)        2
141: Diakomihalis 1    (4)        3
149: Koll         2    (4)        3
157: Stroker      4    (6)        5
165: Chavez       1    (6)        4
174: Womack       4    (5)        1
184: Dean         1    (7)        2
197: Darmstadt    1    (6)        4
285: Sweany       4    (5)        2

Interesting start.. both teams went 10x01 but Lehigh with multiple bonus pts.

Somehow half of a Day 1 recap got deleted and I am steaming (at myself).

125: Baughman with a pair of wins, including a win over the 3 seed, to get to the semifinal. Still, Since Darian Cruz has not stepped on a rusty nail, qualification seems unlikely. Up next is Army's Chalifoux.

133: Tucker with a pair of wins, including a major decision, to get to the semifinal. No upsets in the bracket, so all three of the tough guys are still around. Up next is the top seed (and #5) DeSanto from Drexel. I still think if he wrestles to seed he gets a wildcard.

141: Diakomilhalis is rolling through, as expected. A first period fall followed by a second period tech fall. Next is Navy's Gil.

149: Koll had a first round win but followed it up with what sounds like a timid second round loss. Then, in his first consolation match, he lost a lead, managed to come back to get to OT but was injured in OT and had to default. He is out of the tournament and unlikely to get a wildcard.

157: Stroker had a close first round win but lost in the second round. He was then pinned in the first period of his first consolation match. He is out of the tournament and unlikely to get a wildcard.

165: Chavez won his first round by fall and his second round comfortably. Since 165 is a six-bid weight for the conference, Chavez has already qualified for the NCAA tournament. Congrats to Chavez on his first NCAA bid. Up next he'll face 5 seed Daniels (Navy), who upset the 4 seed from Lehigh.

174: Womack won his first round match by major decision and then his second round match with controversy. With a 2 point lead and ~30 seconds on the clock, Tyrel White went in for a shot, got both of Womack's legs and sat him down. Womack wrapped his hands around White's waist, however, and White was never quite able to break his grip and the ref didn't award a takedown until about a half-second after the period expired. Columbia challenged (and tbh I think they should have won the challenge) but the challenge was rejected. Someone on the wrestling forum said that Womack was in a boot of some kind during Koll's consolation match, so I guess we'll see if he can wrestle tomorrow. 174 gets only 5 bids, so he'll have to win at least one match tomorrow - whether his semi or a consolation bout - to get an AQ. He may still get a wildcard, though, because he was #18 in the pre-tournament coaches' rankings. He'll face top seed (and #4) Kutler from Lehigh in the semifinal.

184: Dean won his first round match by tech and his second 4-0. He rolls into the semifinals, which means Dean has already qualified for the NCAA tournament. Congrats to Dean on his first NCAA bid. His semifinal will be against the 6 seed, Coleman from Navy.

197: Darmstadt is something else. Two matches, two pins, total match time 2:01. With his trip to the semifinals, Darmstadt has already qualified for the NCAA tournament. Congrats to Darmstadt on his first NCAA bid. Up next is Lehigh's Weller.

Hwt; Sweany got a first round bye and then a major decision in the second round to move into the semifinals. Sweany needs one more win tomorrow - semifinal or consy - to punch his ticket. Up next is the 1 seed (and #10) Hughes from Hofstra.

Agree with you on Bama and very disappointing about Will Koll (both the timid loss and, even more so, the injury).

Cornell needs a legendary semi-final round to win the team title, but that is mainly because Lehigh is wrestling very well. Eight in the semi-finals will normally be a first place performance.

ugarte

149: Koll had a first round win but followed it up with what sounds like a timid second round loss. Then, in his first consolation match, he lost a lead, managed to come back to get to OT but was injured in OT and had to default. He is out of the tournament and unlikely to get a wildcard.

The guy who beat Koll in the second round is now the finals, so that loss doesn't look quite so bad. And the word is that Koll broke his elbow, which is what led to the injury default.

Koll's injury did not look minor -- from the way they worked on him I thought they were popping in a dislocated shoulder but they may have been realigning his elbow....

dag14
Koll's injury did not look minor -- from the way they worked on him I thought they were popping in a dislocated shoulder but they may have been realigning his elbow....

Broken elbow, I've read.

Hell of a day 2 for the Big Red with a lot of positives even though the team came up short in its quest for a 12th straight title.

I went to the first session of the day but not the finals; I still haven't watched most of the finals yet, so I'm mostly going off the scoresheet.

125: Noah Baughman entered the tournament as a 6 seed and, facing the 2 seed in the semifinals, cruised to a 7-3 win. In the finals, he faced undefeated, defending champ #1 Darian Cruz of Lehigh and ... lost 1-0. It was not a very exciting match but he did take a couple of shots and came very close to converting one. He also was saved by the bell on what could have been a very ugly takedown to his back. Now we have to wait and see if he just barely misses the tournament for the second year in a row.

133: Chas Tucker got a semifinal rematch against the 1 seed, #5 Austin DeSanto. DeSanto is a wild scoring machine and wrestling Tucker - a pure defense machine - must be torture. At the Drexel dual last month, DeSanto won 2-1 when all of Tucker's backing up led to the winning stall point. Today was more of the same, but this time Tucker took one shot, converted it and won 4-2 after DeSanto was penalized for twisting Tucker's knee in a desperate attempt to get a late TD. He also took Tucker down after the whistle but that also seemed more desperate than malicious and he offered a hand and helped Tucker up. In the final, Tucker faced the 2 seed, #10 Scotty Parker of Lehigh. In what was probably another snoozer, Parker won 2-1 on a conceded escape in rideouts. On the other hand, the win over DeSamto got Tucker an AQ and he's going to his first NCAA tournament. After two years dealing with injuries Tucker finally got to wrestle and it's great that he got himself to the show.

141: Yianni Diakomihalis won his EIWA first title, of course, knocking off two top 20 wrestlers and neither match was close. In the final he won by major decision, 17-9, after conducting a takedown clinic.

165: John Jay Chavez won his first EIWA title. He won comfortably in both matches and would have had a major in the final but for giving up a takedown with 19 seconds left while comfortably ahead.

174: Brandon Womack started the day with a 9-2 loss to #3 (and eventual EIWA champ) Jordan Kutler. That put him into the consolation bracket needing to win one match to qualify for NCAAs. In the consolation semis Womack beat Josef Johnson of Harvard 4-0, avenging a loss from the dual meet last month and punching his ticket for a return trip to NCAAs. Then, in the consolation final, he turned a second period reversal into a pin to take 3rd place.

184: Max Dean had a wild come from behind win over #18 Coleman from Navy to move into the finals. After a rough first period in which he gave up two takedowns and back points that were almost a fall, the work he did to get back into and then win the match was impressive. Alas, that win got him a meeting with a buzzsaw, #3 Ryan Preisch, who won with a second period fall in a dominating performance to take the tournament.

197: Ben Darmstadt had a rough start to his semifinal match against Lehigh's Weller. I was sitting in the first row and could hear Preisch and one of his teammates getting cocky, with one guy saying to Preisch "see? he hasn't beat anyone." Kind of a strange commentary on the #1 wrestler in the country but whatever. With a little over a minute left in the match Darmstadt got a reversal, earned a stalling point then put Weller on his back for 4 NF points in a 10-6 victory. In the final Darmstadt faced the guy who gave him his only loss on the year, and much like the first rematch, Darmstadt dominated, this time with a 10-0 win.

285: Sweany had a tough matchup to start the day, falling to #10 Hughes of Hofstra. In his first consy match, Sweany won a very close (but very boring, but for the tension 4-1 win over Pelusi of F&M. The score was 2-1 until a meaningless takedown with 1 second left on what was basically a missed desperation shot by Pelusi. The winning point came on a stalling call against Pelusi. With the win Sweany earns his second trip to the NCAA tournament, but after a year off when he lost his spot in the starting lineup. After his qualifying win Sweany followed it up with a 5-4 win in the consolation final over #15 Ryan to take third.

Hell of a tournament: 3 champs, 7 NCAA qualifiers, and an outside chance at an 8th. Alas, it wasn't enough as Lehigh went 5 for 5 on championship matches to take the team title and break Cornell's stranglehold. We'll get 'em next year.

NCAA tournament is going to be fun.

A lot of good things for the Big Red. Yianni and Ben were the studs they've been all season (Of course, Ben still hasn't beaten anyone ). Bama looked like Bama for the first time all season. Noah looked great and Chaz' win over DeSanto was awesome, even if DeSanto took it rather, umm, poorly. I think JJ looked at the scoreboard and forgot to add his riding time point in the finals, he took a shot of the "have to get bonus points variety" and it backfired. Love the effort though. Preisch was on a mission, but Dean still has a helluva future.

Lehigh had to be brilliant to win the tournament and unfortunately for the good guys they were. Tip your hat and move on; it only happens once every 12 years. Looking forward to NCAAs and next year.

Neither Noah Baughman or Fredy Stroker were given wildcards and with Will Koll's broken elbow I doubt he was even considered.

Second year in row for Baughman to finish one spot short of qualification. This year he didn't get "snubbed" exactly because he didn't meet the qualifications for a wildcard bid - there are a number of factors, you need to meet at least two and he only met one. It's a real bummer because one of them is "top 33 in the Coaches' Rankings" and I assume he just missed the cutoff. The guy he beat in the QF got a wildcard. And, frustratingly, the way I read the rules, if he had medically forfeited the final instead of wrestling and losing, he'd have finished with a record of 7-3 instead of 7-4... and one of the criteria for a wildcard is ".700 win %".

Honestly it looks like just about anyone who qualified for a WC got one; there probably weren't many upsets at 125.

Looking over the list of wildcards, it looks like there were a lot of upsets so he never really had a chance. At 8-6 he wasn't getting a wildcard. He needed to win at EIWAs and he lost back-to-back matches against guys that he beat during the regular season. Really disappointing showing.

Noah couldn't have even been considered because, as you say, the kid he beat in the QF received a wildcard ticket and head-to-head is the #`1 criteria. Gage really doesn't have a quality win (at least the VaTech kid with the losing record knocked off one top 20-ish guy). Sadly, I think your earlier statement that he had no chance for a wild card because he only wrestled part of the season was 100% correct; Russo probably had a better case because of his two top 20 wins. You need those early season tournaments to build the resume. I have little doubt that he would finish in the top 32 if you wrestled every 125 pounder against each other, but they didn't ask me.

Still, two legit national title contenders (Yianni and Ben), two strong contenders for AA (Chavez and Dean), Tucker being impossible to take down, and Bama looking as good as he has all season means the NCAAs will still be entertaining. I have no idea what to expect from Jeramy.

mountainred
Noah couldn't have even been considered because, as you say, the kid he beat in the QF received a wildcard ticket and head-to-head is the #`1 criteria. Gage really doesn't have a quality win (at least the VaTech kid with the losing record knocked off one top 20-ish guy). Sadly, I think your earlier statement that he had no chance for a wild card because he only wrestled part of the season was 100% correct; Russo probably had a better case because of his two top 20 wins. You need those early season tournaments to build the resume. I have little doubt that he would finish in the top 32 if you wrestled every 125 pounder against each other, but they didn't ask me.

For a quick primer for the non-wrestling fans, to be considered for a wildcard, you need to meet at least 2 of the following criteria:
- .700 Win %
- Top 33 RPI
- Top 33 CR
- .700 winning percentage against all competition
- One win against a wrestler receiving automatic qualification via an earned position (preallocated)
- Qualifying event placement one below automatic qualification

Like you, I have no idea what the difference between the first and fourth criteria is.

Baughman finished unranked in either RPI or CR and a record of 7-4, so his win% was under .700. He did finish one slot below qualification (second place in a one-bid weight.)

He had no wins of note.

Meanwhile, the more controversial choices that did get wildcards both have better resumes than Baughman. Sure, Baughman beat American's Curry in the QF, but Curry (Bronze-qualifying RPI of 28) has 22 wins, including 2 over NCAA qualifiers - Oliver (Indiana) and Bunduka (George Mason). Virginia Tech's Norstrem has a losing record, but he has the rankings qualifications (RPI of 21, CR of 31) and he beat automatic qualifiers McGee (ODU) and Allen (Chattanooga) - and if you want to point out that Baughman beat Curry ... Norstrem beat Curry too.

In the end I don't think there was any injustice here. He had a good tournament run but during the regular season he had two losses to two 125s who didn't make the tournament (an inexplicable tech fall to Werner from Lock Haven and a shutout loss to Fuentes of Drexel). Baughman is probably a top-33 125 in the abstract, but his resume isn't good enough to even fret that the criteria blocked him off in favor of lesser wrestlers. Like you, I expect a better year in 2018-19 if he can make weight for a full season.

Still, two legit national title contenders (Yianni and Ben), two strong contenders for AA (Chavez and Dean), Tucker being impossible to take down, and Bama looking as good as he has all season means the NCAAs will still be entertaining. I have no idea what to expect from Jeramy.

This sums it up. I can't wait.

ugarte

For a quick primer for the non-wrestling fans, to be considered for a wildcard, you need to meet at least 2 of the following criteria:
- .700 Win %
- Top 33 RPI
- Top 33 CR
- .700 winning percentage against all competition
- One win against a wrestler receiving automatic qualification via an earned position (preallocated)
- Qualifying event placement one below automatic qualification

Like you, I have no idea what the difference between the first and fourth criteria is.

Maybe if you beat up the same few guys in dual meets but lost to 40% of the people you wrestled. You have won 70% of your matches but lost to 4 out of 10 people that you faced. ??

marty

ugarte

For a quick primer for the non-wrestling fans, to be considered for a wildcard, you need to meet at least 2 of the following criteria:
- .700 Win %
- Top 33 RPI
- Top 33 CR
- .700 winning percentage against all competition
- One win against a wrestler receiving automatic qualification via an earned position (preallocated)
- Qualifying event placement one below automatic qualification

Like you, I have no idea what the difference between the first and fourth criteria is.

Maybe if you beat up the same few guys in dual meets but lost to 40% of the people you wrestled. You have won 70% of your matches but lost to 4 out of 10 people that you faced. ??

there are a lot of theories

The brackets posted. Cornell has 4 seeded wrestlers:

141: Yianni Diakomihalis (3)
165: John Jay Chavez (16)
184: Max Dean (9)
197: Ben Darmstadt (2)

133: Chas Tucker will open against #9 Dennis Gustafson (VT)
174: Brandon Womack opens against #3 Bo Jordan (Ohio State)
285: Jeramy Sweany opens in the pigtail against Brett Dempsey (American) with the winner facing #7 Nathan Butler (Stanford)

more later maybe

ugarte

marty

ugarte

For a quick primer for the non-wrestling fans, to be considered for a wildcard, you need to meet at least 2 of the following criteria:
- .700 Win %
- Top 33 RPI
- Top 33 CR
- .700 winning percentage against all competition
- One win against a wrestler receiving automatic qualification via an earned position (preallocated)
- Qualifying event placement one below automatic qualification

Like you, I have no idea what the difference between the first and fourth criteria is.

Maybe if you beat up the same few guys in dual meets but lost to 40% of the people you wrestled. You have won 70% of your matches but lost to 4 out of 10 people that you faced. ??

there are a lot of theories

Such as?

It seems like simple math to me.

marty

ugarte

marty

ugarte

For a quick primer for the non-wrestling fans, to be considered for a wildcard, you need to meet at least 2 of the following criteria:
- .700 Win %
- Top 33 RPI
- Top 33 CR
- .700 winning percentage against all competition
- One win against a wrestler receiving automatic qualification via an earned position (preallocated)
- Qualifying event placement one below automatic qualification

Like you, I have no idea what the difference between the first and fourth criteria is.

Maybe if you beat up the same few guys in dual meets but lost to 40% of the people you wrestled. You have won 70% of your matches but lost to 4 out of 10 people that you faced. ??

there are a lot of theories

Such as?

It seems like simple math to me.

it could mean "including matches against JuCo or Division III wrestlers at open tournaments," it could include "matches a wrestler had at a weight other than the one he is trying to qualify for" ... the problem isn't making the calculations, it's defining the data set.

ugarte

marty

ugarte

marty

ugarte

For a quick primer for the non-wrestling fans, to be considered for a wildcard, you need to meet at least 2 of the following criteria:
- .700 Win %
- Top 33 RPI
- Top 33 CR
- .700 winning percentage against all competition
- One win against a wrestler receiving automatic qualification via an earned position (preallocated)
- Qualifying event placement one below automatic qualification

Like you, I have no idea what the difference between the first and fourth criteria is.

Maybe if you beat up the same few guys in dual meets but lost to 40% of the people you wrestled. You have won 70% of your matches but lost to 4 out of 10 people that you faced. ??

there are a lot of theories

Such as?

It seems like simple math to me.

it could mean "including matches against JuCo or Division III wrestlers at open tournaments," it could include "matches a wrestler had at a weight other than the one he is trying to qualify for" ... the problem isn't making the calculations, it's defining the data set.

Thanks.

A little more bracket projection:

141: #3 Diakomihalis has guys he handled easily in the first two rounds before the bracket has him facing #6 Dean Heil (OK St.) who has had trouble with the top wrestlers this year, but is a 2x national champ.

165: #16 Chavez has a tough matchup in the first round against Andrew Atkinson (Virginia) but the real trouble comes in the second round against 2x national champion #1 Isaiah Martinez (Illinois).

184: #9 Dean will need to avenge one of his 3 losses on the year to beat Dylan Gable (N. Colo.) and then another one in the second round against #8 Drew Foster (N. Iowa) just for the privilege of facing #1 Bo Nickal, who beat his brother in last year's national championship.

197: #2 Darmstadt (assuming chalk holds for the first two rounds, which it should) has #7 Mattiace (Penn) at his draw in the QF, who he lost to early in the year but majored twice in the last month. After that, Jared Haught (VT) was #1 for a lot of the year, but if he gets upset, Darmstadt majored #6 Willie Miklus (Ok. St.), which vaulted him into the top 5 in the rankings.

The NCAA tournament starts tomorrow so I figure I'll consolidate my bracket projections and add a little more commentary.

133: Chas Tucker will open against #9 Dennis Gustafson (VT). Tough start, naturally, but coming off a win over a higher seeded wrestler at EIWA I won't count him out. Of course the path only gets harder in the top bracket (#8 then #1, according to chalk.) His chance for AA probably depends on who drops into his path in the consolation bracket. I also suspect he'll have been scouted as mostly-defense and the result will be that better wrestlers will be more aggressive so they don't have a late takedown cost them the match the way it did for DeSanto.

141: #3 Diakomihalis has guys he handled easily in the first two rounds before the bracket has him facing #6 Dean Heil (OK St.) who has had trouble with the top wrestlers this year, but is a 2x national champ. I've been pleased to see how many people think that Yianni is actually the guy to beat despite his seed. He beat #1 Meredith (Wyoming) earlier in the season and lost to #2 Eierman (Missouri) when he took an unnecessary risk with a big lead late in the match. I think he's the guy to beat too.

165: #16 Chavez has a tough matchup in the first round against Andrew Atkinson (Virginia) but the real trouble comes in the second round against 2x national champion #1 Isaiah Martinez (Illinois). I also read that his "blood round" match (the winner gets AA) in the consolation bracket will be either #3 Vincenzo Joseph (Penn State) or #6 Richie Lewis (Rutgers), either of whom would be beasts. Of course even getting that far would be tough - the loser of (probably) the 8/9 matchup is in his path as well. Having those guys get upset early and become a stumbling block for someone else would be neat.

174: Brandon Womack opens against #3 Bo Jordan (Ohio State). Oof. A first round loss is really hard to recover from. It's been done but you have to win a lot of matches to get back.

184: #9 Dean will need to avenge one of his 3 losses on the year to beat Dylan Gable (N. Colo.) and then another one in the second round against #8 Drew Foster (N. Iowa) just for the privilege of facing #1 Bo Nickal, who beat his brother in last year's national championship. Really tough road.

197: #2 Darmstadt (assuming chalk holds for the first two rounds, which it should) has #7 Mattiace (Penn) at his draw in the QF, who he lost to early in the year but majored twice in the last month. After that, Jared Haught (VT) was #1 for a lot of the year, but if he gets upset, Darmstadt majored #6 Willie Miklus (Ok. St.), which vaulted him into the top 5 in the rankings.

285: Jeramy Sweany opens in the pigtail against Brett Dempsey (American) with the winner facing #7 Nathan Butler (Stanford). He'd face another top 10 guy before even getting to the blood round. Seems unlikely.

ugarte
The NCAA tournament starts tomorrow so I figure I'll consolidate my bracket projections and add a little more commentary.

133: Chas Tucker will open against #9 Dennis Gustafson (VT). Tough start, naturally, but coming off a win over a higher seeded wrestler at EIWA I won't count him out. Of course the path only gets harder in the top bracket (#8 then #1, according to chalk.) His chance for AA probably depends on who drops into his path in the consolation bracket. I also suspect he'll have been scouted as mostly-defense and the result will be that better wrestlers will be more aggressive so they don't have a late takedown cost them the match the way it did for DeSanto.

141: #3 Diakhomihalis has guys he handled easily in the first two rounds before the bracket has him facing #6 Dean Heil (OK St.) who has had trouble with the top wrestlers this year, but is a 2x national champ. I've been pleased to see how many people think that Yianni is actually the guy to beat despite his seed. He beat #1 Meredith (Wyoming) earlier in the season and lost to #2 Eierman (Missouri) when he took an unnecessary risk with a big lead late in the match. I think he's the guy to beat too.

165: #16 Chavez has a tough matchup in the first round against Andrew Atkinson (Virginia) but the real trouble comes in the second round against 2x national champion #1 Isaiah Martinez (Illinois). I also read that his "blood round" match (the winner gets AA) in the consolation bracket will be either #3 Vincenzo Joseph (Penn State) or #6 Richie Lewis (Rutgers), either of whom would be beasts. Of course even getting that far would be tough - the loser of (probably) the 8/9 matchup is in his path as well. Having those guys get upset early and become a stumbling block for someone else would be neat.

174: Brandon Womack opens against #3 Bo Jordan (Ohio State). Oof. A first round loss is really hard to recover from. It's been done but you have to win a lot of matches to get back.

184: #9 Dean will need to avenge one of his 3 losses on the year to beat Dylan Gable (N. Colo.) and then another one in the second round against #8 Drew Foster (N. Iowa) just for the privilege of facing #1 Bo Nickal, who beat his brother in last year's national championship. Really tough road.

197: #2 Darmstadt (assuming chalk holds for the first two rounds, which it should) has #7 Mattiace (Penn) at his draw in the QF, who he lost to early in the year but majored twice in the last month. After that, Jared Haught (VT) was #1 for a lot of the year, but if he gets upset, Darmstadt majored #6 Willie Miklus (Ok. St.), which vaulted him into the top 5 in the rankings.

285: Jeramy Sweany opens in the pigtail against Brett Dempsey (American) with the winner facing #7 Nathan Butler (Stanford). He'd face another top 10 guy before even getting to the blood round. Seems unlikely.

Agree with almost all of this. Nationals are a meat grinder where every match is hard. It just makes what Kyle Dake and Gabe Dean did all the more incredible.

If Chaz can beat Austin DeSanto he can beat Gustafson. He narrowly lost to him 3-2 out in Vegas. He will be well-scouted, but DeSanto had personally wrestled Chaz in the regular season and, despite getting 90 second tech falls against lesser wrestlers, he needed a penalty point to win 2-1 in their first meeting. Tucker is just tough to score on and he'll be a miserable draw for anyone. Tough to string together a bunch of 3-2 wins however.

Technically, Dean lost to Gable last season, not this one. Doesn't really change what you are saying, as he hasn't wrestled Gable since, but Max is better this year than last. I want to see how he bounces back from a really one-sided loss in the EIWA Finals.

Someone is going to go full "catch-and-release" on Ben (go for TD's but don't try to ride, turtle up on bottom). It will be interesting to see how Ben handles it.

mountainred
Technically, Dean lost to Gable last season, not this one.

whoops

First round in the books:

133: Tucker lost to #9 Gustafson (VT). He tried to take some shots but Gustafson's D was solid. Tucker didn't escape quickly enough in the second period and the only "real" scoring was an escape for each guy and a RT point for Gustafson. The final score was 4-1 but that's only because Tucker took a desperation shot at the end and Gustafson was able to counter for a takedown.

He'll face the winner of the pigtail match between Kelly (Ohio) and Thornton (Purdue) to stay alive.

141: Diakomihalis WMD 10-1 over Zanetta (Pitt). He will face #14 Gil (Navy) in the second round. He beat Gil 9-4 at EIWA a couple of weeks ago. The winner of that faces the winner of the 6/11 match and with #6 Heil looking vulnerable we could see an upset in that match, making the road to the semis easier for Yianni.

165: Chavez WMD 14-3 over Atkinson (Virginia). Chavez was comfortably ahead before hitting a 6-point move at the buzzer to score the bonus points. He'll face #1 Isaiah Martinez (Illinois) in the next round.

174: Womack put up a good fight against #6 and 3x All-American Bo Jordan (Ohio State), and went to OT tied 2-2, but a sloppy shot that he couldn't convert turned into a takedown for Jordan with 7 seconds left in SV and lost 4-2.

He'll face Kimball Bastian (Utah Valley) to stay alive.

184: Dean WMD 11-3 over Gabel (N. Colorado). He was never in danger. Up next is #8 Drew Foster (N. Iowa). Dean and Foster split a pair of early season matches. The winner will almost certainly face #1 (and defending champ) Bo Nickal (Penn State).

197: Darmstadt W 3-0 over Smith (WV). Darmstadt was never threatened but he also was not able to score in the first two periods. In the third he chose down, quickly reversed Smith and rode him for the rest of the match for a low-scoring but easy win. He'll face #15 Williams (Bakersfield). After Williams will be either #7 Mattiace (Penn), who he beat 10-0 to win EIWA or Weiler (Lehigh) who he beat 10-6 in the conference semifinal.

285: Sweany won his pigtail match 9-4 over Dempsey (American) but was absolutely dominated by #9 Butler (Stanford) for a 15-0 tech fall in the first round.

He'll face Gilland-Daniel (UNC), who he handled pretty easily last month, to stay alive.

Cornell is in a 4-way tie for 8th after the first round. Second round starts at 7pm. You can stream all of it on Watch ESPN.

ugarte

mountainred
Technically, Dean lost to Gable last season, not this one.

whoops

Is Gable related to Dan Gable?

marty

ugarte

mountainred
Technically, Dean lost to Gable last season, not this one.

whoops

Is Gable related to Dan Gable?

No - this kid is actually Gabel. (I mean he might be but I've never heard that and it's way less likely with the spelling thing.)

Session II

Championship Bracket:

141: Yianni Diakomihalis MD 13-4. Yianni made up for his relatively lackluster win over #14 Gil at EIWA with a 13-4 MD at NCAAs. Yianni's half of the bracket is chalk, so he'll face #6 (and 2x defending champ) Heil (Ok State) to make the semis and guarantee an AA finish. #2 Eierman (Mizzou), Yianni's only loss this year, will probably face the winner. Revenge would be sweet. Every match from here will be tough, obviously.

165: Jon Jay Chavez L 10-5. Facing #1 and 2x champ Martinez was a tall order. Chavez will face Fogarty (NDSU) in the consolation bracket with an EIWA guy waiting in the wings. A bit of luck on his path to the podium (maybe) as #11 beat #6, so #11 will probably drop into the blood round slot ahead.

184: Max Dean W 6-0. In the rubber match of his season series with #8 Drew Foster (UNI), Dean cruises to a shutout win. Two TDs, a dominant ride and an escape. Up next is #1 Nickal (Penn State). Win and he's an AA. If he loses, his path to the podium has no bad surprises - all four potential opponents are ranked below him.

197: Ben Darmstadt WMD 15-4. Darmstadt with a dominant win. Up next, for the semis and a guaranteed AA finish, is Weiler (Lehigh), who upset #7. Weiler was Darmstadt's toughest match at EIWA but by the end of the match Weiler was gassed and Darmstadt was able to tilt him. I think the rematch is easier for Ben.

Consolation Bracket:

133: Chas Tucker W 10-4. Tucker faced Thornton (Purdue) and with 4 TDs, cruised to victory. Up next is #10 Mueller (Virginia). If he wins that, his path is about as good as you could expect. The winner will face an unranked wrestler and the winner of that match is also probably going to face an unranked wrestler. That would get Tucker on the podium and would be an outstanding result. A run to the podium without having to beat a top 8 guy is basically the dream scenario. Mueller lost to DeSanto, who Tucker beat in the EIWA semifinals, so there's a chance.

174: Brandon Womack L 8-5. Womack is out after losing to Bastian (Utah Valley). A disappointing end to a very strange season.

285: Jeramy Sweany WMD 12-2. A dominant win to stay alive. He will next face #8 Hall (ASU). Let's win that before drawing out the rest of what he needs to get to the podium.

Cornell is currently tied for 7th with Oklahoma State.

Ugarte, looking at next season will Tucker likely be supplanted at 133 next year with Arujau's arrival? Or does Yianni move to 149 and Arujau slot in at 141? It seems Yianni is a bit short for 149, and I'd be a little concerned that he'd struggle similar to Womack this year.

scoop85
Ugarte, looking at next season will Tucker likely be supplanted at 133 next year with Arujau's arrival? Or does Yianni move to 149 and Arujau slot in at 141? It seems Yianni is a bit short for 149, and I'd be a little concerned that he'd struggle similar to Womack this year.

too soon to tell. i think people expected tucker to step aside for arujau at 133 but i have no idea what happens with tucker making a run for all-american at 133. i don't think anything messes with yianni's wrestling at his best weight.

Championship:

141: YIANNI DIAKOMIHALIS W 6-5 over #6 Dean Heil. Into the semifinals and an All-American! What an incredible match. I'm literally still shaking and can barely type. Heil got in on the first shot, and it looked like Yianni's knee got tweaked a little while he was trying to fight it off. Heil also took the second shot, and finished it for the first takedown; Heil stayed on top for the rest of the period and went to the second period up 2-0. Heil started down and escaped to go up 3-0, but Yianni got the next takedown to close the gap to 3-2; alas he couldn't ride out and Heil escaped with 3 seconds left in the period. 4-2, Heil after 2. Yianni started on bottom and got the reversal to tie the match up with ~1:15 left. He had to decide whether to try to ride for the full time to win 5-4 on the RT point or let Heil up (conceding the go-ahead point to Heil) and then try to win with one more takedown. He went with the second option, and with ~25 seconds left, got the takedown he needed and was able to ride out for the rest of the period. Amazing. He also said in the post-match interview that his knee is fine ("100%." )

Up next is his rematch with #2 Eierman in the night session.

184: Dean L 12-7. Closer battle with #1 Nickal than I think anyone expected. He got a third period TD to close within 2, and even got in deep on another shot, but there's a reason Nickal is #1 and he fought it off.

Dean drops to the consolation match where he'll face #12 Carr (Chatanooga) for All-American honors tonight.

197: Ben Darmstadt W 5-4. Into the semifinals and an All-American! This one got scary late. With a 2-0 lead, a minute and a half of riding time and a conceded escape to start the third period to make it 3-0, Darmstadt looked like he might be able to coast to the semi. But Weiler got a TD that bloodied the inside of Darmstadt's mouth in the process. He let Darmstadt up to make it 4-2, then got another TD to make it 4-4, but again conceded the escape to give Darmstadt the lead. (Nobody wants to try to ride Darmstadt because he routinely gets reversals.) In both cases Weiler was very close to getting back points, but never did. Darmstadt got hit with a stall as the clock ran down, but he made it to the buzzer for the win.

Up next in the semifinal, #3 Jared Haught (VT). A surprise on the top side of the bracket as #1 was pinned in his QF by an unseeded wrestler.

Consy:

133: Tucker was overmatched against #10 Mueller. Tucker is a defense-first wrestler and Mueller still got TDs in every period. Won 8-3. Tucker is out.

165: Chavez W 6-1 and he advances to face Daniels (Navy) who he beat at EIWA.

Chavez W 4-0. Daniels didn't try to do much until the last 30 seconds. Chavez was giving 1 for stalling and 1 for a quick escape in the second. When Daniels finally did take a shot, Chavez fought it off and turned it into a TD of his own with a few seconds left.

#11 White (Nebraska) is waiting in the blood round tonight. Very tough match. Winner gets AA.

285: Sweany L 6-4 to #8 Hall (ASU). Sweany got a rough ride from the ref. Didn't get awarded 2 at the end of the first, gave up a dubious escape instead of an OOB call right before the end of the second. Sweany gave up an escape to tie the match at 4 in the third and then took a really sloppy shot that Hall turned into a TD and rideout to win.

Sweany is not going to willingly give up his starting spot to Honis, Janney or Furman. I think we see him back at NCAAs with a seed next year.

4 guys left. Tonight's schedule:

Championship SF:

141: #3 Diakomihalis v #2 Eierman (Missouri)
197: #2 Darmstadt v #2 Haught (VT)

---

Consy R12:

165: #16 Chavez v #11 White (Nebraska)
184: #9 Dean v #12 Carr (Chatanooga)

SF:

141: YIANNI DIAKOMIHALIS W 6-4 SV AND HE'S IN THE FINALS! What a great match against #2 Jaydin Eierman. Yianni got the first takedown in the first period and Eierman escaped quickly. It took a little while for Yianni to get out in the second, but he got out and the score was 3-1 after 2. Eierman got out quickly in the third and got a takedown of his own to go up 4-3, but Yianni got out fairly quickly to tie the score and the game went to sudden victory. 30 seconds in, Yianni took a great shot and finished the takedown to win. Got back the guy who handed him his only loss of the year. Amazing.

Up next, tomorrow night, #1 Bryce Meredith (Wyoming). Diakomihalis beat Meredith in SV earlier this year for Meredith's only loss of the year.

197: Darmstadt LBF 5:38. Ugh. Tied 2-2 in the third, Darmstadt took a shot from a weird angle; Haught trapped Darmstadt's arm and caught him with his back to the mat and was able to stay on top and stick him. Rough loss.

Darmstadt will wrestle #1 Kollin Moore (Ohio State) - winner wrestles for third, loser wrestles for 5th.

R12:

165: CHAVEZ W 2-1 OT AND HE'S AN ALL-AMERICAN!
Chavez L 9-2.

In the blood round, facing #11 White (Nebraska) for AA honors, Chavez wrestled an amazing defensive match. The only points scored in regulation were an escape for each wrestler. Chavez fought off a number of good shots from White with pure strength. Nobody scored in the SV round, and after riding White hard for a full 30 seconds in the first rideout round, he was able to escape in 9 seconds and then block all attempts by White to score. It was a hell of a performance for a guy seeded #16. He will not be seeded so low next year.

In the placement round, Chavez fell 9-2 to #10 Wick (Wisconsin). Wick is like 165's version of Darmstadt. Long and lean and uses his reach incredibly well. Chavez had a very hard time dealing with it. Wick was also great on top, able to use his long legs to wrap around Chavez's legs and hold him down for very long stretches.

The loss sends Chavez to the 7th place match where he will face #9 Chandler Rogers (Oklahoma State), who fought back from a shocking first round loss to get to the podium.

184: DEAN W 6-4 AND HE'S AN ALL-AMERICAN!
Dean L 11-6.

Dean's blood round match started very poorly, with #11 Carr (Chatanooga) taking him down twice. He was able to escape both times, but he gave up over a minute in riding time and went to the second round down 4-2. Carr chose bottom for the second round and that was his undoing. Dean rode him for the full two minutes, tossing him back to the mat whenever he stood up and generally wearing him down. In the third period Dean quickly got out to close the gap to 4-3 and then, with 25 seconds left, scored a great takedown to go up 5-4. Once he was back underneath, Carr seemed to resign himself to being stuck on bottom and Dean rode him out again, picking up a point of riding time.

I didn't see the placement match because it was going on at the same time as Darmstadt's semifinal. Facing #7 Venz (Nebraska), Dean went down early and wasn't able to come back.

In the 7th place match, Dean will face unseeded Chip Ness (UNC), who he beat 8-2 at a dual meet last month. Ness, on the other hand, beat two of the guys who are still in the running for third, so he's no slouch.

Cornell finishes the day in 8th place with 4 guys still alive, trailing Virginia Tech by a point and a half, and a half-point ahead of Rutgers.

Rough morning in the medal rounds, with one exception.

165: In the 7th place match, #16 Jon Jay Chavez defeated #8 Chandler Rogers (Oklahoma State) 10-5 to take 7th place. He scored 4 takedowns in the match, to none for Rogers and repeatedly outmuscled his higher-ranked opponent. Between his tournament performance and graduations, it would be stunning if Chavez did not start next year ranked in the top 8. For a Greco specialist turning back to freestyle, this season was a revelation. And he's weird and funny and always smiling. I'm glad we've got another year of him.

184: In the 7th place match. #9 Max Dean could never quite find his rhythm and lost 6-3 to unseeded Chip Ness (UNC), and finished in 8th place. A disappointing loss but definitely not a disappointing tournament. It was an incredible run with wins over the #8 and #10 wrestlers to finish above his seed and earn All-American honors as a freshman. As the kid brother he has a lot to live up to but he's his own person and he's started his career in very impressive fashion. Unless there is a huge crop of new 184s, Dean will be a favorite to finish on the podium again next year.

197: Ben Darmstadt had a rough day. After losing by fall in the semifinals yesterday, he faced #1 Kollin Moore (Ohio St.) for placement in either the 3d or 5th place match. He lost 7-4 in the latest match that may be showing that the book is out on Darmstadt: he's deadly on top or on bottom, but he can be taken down on his feet. If you get him down, concede the escape rather than risk a reversal or worse. If he gets you down, pray. Moore took him down 3 times and only made the mistake of trying to ride him once. He was otherwise able to fend off Darmstadt's attacks.

I didn't see the 5th place match that followed against unseeded Jacob Holdschlag, but he lost the first scramble in such a way that he gave up back points, going down 4-0. He got a reversal, but was quickly reversed back - probably trying to turn Holdschlag and failing to maintain his hold - and ended up flattened out and lost by fall again. Under normal circumstances a 6th place finish would be great but given the way he fell from the semis to 6th, it's kind of bittersweet. The offseason project is going to be getting Darmstadt to improve on his feet - his scrambling from the bottom is too risky against the elite competition he needs to beat for the high podium placement that his raw talent deserves, and starting around a month ago, his opponents were being coached to take advantage of his Achilles heel. That said, he's going to be ranked very high next year and I think he'll deliver. He's a special wrestler and he'll be here for three more years.

Heading into the Finals tonight, Cornell is in 9th. If Diakomihalis wins, the team can finish as high as 7th. There are some outside scenarios where we could fall as far as 11th but I don't want to think about it. I just want to see Yianni take the title.

CONGRATULATIONS TO NATIONAL CHAMPION,TRUE FRESHMAN YIANNI DIAKOMIHALIS! OH MY GOD I'M FLYING!

ugarte
CONGRATULATIONS TO NATIONAL CHAMPION,TRUE FRESHMAN YIANNI DIAKOMIHALIS! OH MY GOD I'M FLYING!

What a finish! Great interview with Kyle Dake.

A terrific match and a fantastic win!

CU77
A terrific match and a fantastic win!

Is the replay online that anyone has seen?