Wrestling 2019-20

Rob Koll sent out his newsletter, so here's his season preview from the horse's mouth, but first a couple of notes.

First of all, the team will start the season depleted: It appears that Yianni D, Vito Arujau, Andrew Berreyesa (in Greco) and Max Dean are taking an Olympic redshirt this year to train for 2020 qualifying. (Which the Ivies apparently allow as long as you take a leave of absence from school.) Second, Chas Tucker may miss some time because he is competing along with Max Dean at the U23 World Championships in Budapest this October. It doesn't conflict with the wrestling schedule but I wouldn't be surprised if he takes some recovery time after training over the summer. Tucker had said that he was going to skip the tournament to focus on school but I guess Max convinced him to travel and have some fun.

Rob Koll
125: With Vito taking the year off this weight has a plenty of question marks. Dom, “Big Body” LaJoie is the most obvious fix, but he didn’t get his nickname by chance so he will need to bring his weight down in order to be at his best. Dom struggled with an injury for the majority of last season but he is finally healthy and should make an immediate impact. Two freshman, Phillip Moomey and JJ Wilson, will give us much needed depth at 125 and could be contenders based on their high school accomplishments. Phillip was a three-time state champion at Kearney, NE HS, 2017 Fargo Cadet Greco-Roman national champion while placing third in free style and a 2018 UWW Cadet Greco-Roman World Team member. Wilson was a two-time place-winner at Cedar Cliff, PA HS while wrestling from 106 to 126 pounds, placed twice at the Beast of the East tournament, and was a 2019 Powerade finalist and a three-time place-winner.

133: Chas Tucker returns for his senior campaign with his sights set on a national championship. Chas has been one of our most consistent performers over the past two years and I am certain he will make the NCAA podium in March. Two-time EIWA place-winner Noah Baughman will see a great deal of action this year. I’m not sure he can make 125, but if not, he will undoubtedly see action at 133 and 141. Others to watch: Ian McNitt, Jacob Lehr.

141: With Yianni taking the year off 141 goes from our best weight to our biggest question mark. Sr. Mike Russo, So. Mike Venosa and previously mentioned Baughman are the most likely successors to Yianni. All three have experienced success but have not had the opportunity to see much starting time due to our depth at 133 and 141. Fr. Ryan Moore, two-time state champion and eight-time high school All-American, is the wildcard at this weight. He has an enormous gas tank and will be exciting to watch. Others to watch: Trence Gillem, Danial Koll, Jimmy Overhiser.

149: Hunter Richards started off strong last year then suffered a season ending injury at the South Beach Duals. He had a great summer of training and looks to lead the pack in the preseason. Sr. Christian Schoenherr has seen action from 141-165 over the past three years and expects to finally call 149 his weight. Others who expect to stake a claim include Sr. Matt Russo and Jr. Max Pickett.

157: Fredy Stroker returns for his senior season after sitting out the second half of last year due to a bicep injury. SO. Jacob Brindley has seen action for the Big Red at both 157 and 165 pounds and will be a factor at one or both weight classes this year. FR. Colton Yapoujian, two-time Colorado state champion, two-time NHSCA national champion, Fargo Freestyle national champion and Reno Tournament of Champions title-holder, went 17-2 last year wrestling in college tournaments as a high school senior. He is one of the most powerful young men I have ever encountered and will make an immediate impact. FR. Micah Hoffman placed fourth in the state of Pennsylvania as a senior, and took eighth in his weight class at Flo Nationals could see action from 157-165 depending on how much weight the dining halls add to his frame. Steven Garza has struggled with injures, but if healthy will add great talent to an already loaded weight class. Others to watch: Rami Pellumbi

165: Adam Santoro will move up from 157 pounds. His main competition will come from Milik Dawkins and FR. Andrew Merola. Dawkins was hampered by an injury last season which has been successfully repaired. Merola enjoyed a successful high school career and was a three-time national prep champion, Fargo Greco-Roman Cadet champion, Beast of the East title, multiple time place winner at both UWW Cadet nationals in Akron as well as Cadet and Junior nationals in Fargo. Others to watch: John Stawinski

174: Brandon Womack ranks 44th on the all-times Cornell wins list with 76. He will quickly climb up the ladder board and plans to get back on the podium in March.

184: Ben Darmstadt was out last year but returns to the line-up down from 197 pounds. It is a great problem when a freshman places 6th at the NCAA tournament and is disappointed. We expect Ben to be on the very top of the podium this year! Jonah Barley will give us a solid wrestler at this weight if Ben is ever unable to go and will also challenge at 197.

197: Fr. Jonathon Loew, NY state champion, NHSCA senior national title, and Jon Fagen, four-time Idaho state champion, Cadet Greco-Roman national champion and USA World team member, and
2X NHSCA All-America, have big shoes to fill replacing All-American Ben Honis.

285: Brendan Furman and Seth Janney will battle it out for the starting roll vacated due to graduation of Jeramy Sweany. Both wrestlers enjoyed stellar high school careers and we expect for one them to have a break out year. Others to watch: Fr. Drew Flynn

I still can't believe that Darmstadt is going to go 184. He was tall for 197 in '17-'18 and his length was hell on the opposition. At 184 ... whooooooo.

In terms of who I think will win the weight battles...

125 is a tough one but by resume Moomey over LaJoie.
141 No idea. Moore or Venosa, I guess.
149 was Hunter Richard's to lose but Schoenherr has good results when he gets to compete. I still think Schoenherr.
157 Yapoujian will probably take the spot from the inconsistent Stroker.
165 I love Santoro but don't think he'll hold off Merola.
197 Good depth but I figure Loew over Fagan.
285 This is Furman's weight now.

Tucker, Womack, Darmstadt are all unchallenged. If Darmstadt can't hold 184, 197 becomes interesting (as does 184 because I don't know who could go up or down).

Dake again wins World Championship.

Post-match interview.

Hey ugarte, do you know if the Wrestling Report forum is completely broken?

mountainred
Hey ugarte, do you know if the Wrestling Report forum completely broken?

it appears to be. someone reached out to the operator (i think) but hasn't heard back. some of the Cornell forum regulars are on themat.com forum and they may start a cornell thread there. someone mentioned this forum and i said "come on over" but nobody seems to have bit.

ugarte

mountainred
Hey ugarte, do you know if the Wrestling Report forum completely broken?

it appears to be. someone reached out to the operator (i think) but hasn't heard back. some of the Cornell forum regulars are on themat.com forum and they may start a cornell thread there. someone mentioned this forum and i said "come on over" but nobody seems to have bit.

Yeah, I’ve mostly lurked on the wrestling report forum and wondered what’s happened to it.

ugarte

mountainred
Hey ugarte, do you know if the Wrestling Report forum completely broken?

it appears to be. someone reached out to the operator (i think) but hasn't heard back. some of the Cornell forum regulars are on themat.com forum and they may start a cornell thread there. someone mentioned this forum and i said "come on over" but nobody seems to have bit.

Thanks for the tip, I may head over there. I hope the person who was running Wrestling Report is okay. It always seemed to be a one person affair and had become little more than place for Cornell and Lehigh fans to post and taunt each other.

I hope people pick somewhere to congregate, whether TheMat or here. I don't say much but have enjoyed lurking on WR threads over the years.

A few preseason notes...

ugarte
Another cool wrestling story: Ben Honis '19 is using his graduate eligibility to walk on as a linebacker for Syracuse.

Honis is listed as a Tight End on the Syracuse roster but from the stat sheet, he appears to be getting all of his playing time on special teams. He has 1 tackle in 4 games.

Chas Tucker, Max Dean and Andrew Berreyesa are all heading to the U23 wrestling championships next week. The tournament runs from Monday through Sunday. Tucker (FS 61kg) and Dean (FS 86kg) gold medal bracket matches start next Tuesday; Berreyesa (GR 82 kg) starts a week from Saturday. The first day of competition for each weight goes through the semifinals. Gold/repechage for bronze is the following day. Video is on TrackWrestling.com but if past is prologue, the tournament will cost $30 or so.

Cornell lost out on a top recruit; Cam Picklo is a decent prospect coming to Cornell next year (or maybe after a greyshirt year at FLWC) but his younger brother (a *top* prospect) Tate Picklo, is staying at home and going to Oklahoma. Bummer.

ugarte
A few preseason notes...

Cornell lost out on a top recruit; Cam Picklo is a decent prospect coming to Cornell next year (or maybe after a greyshirt year at FLWC) but his younger brother (a *top* prospect) Tate Picklo, is staying at home and going to Oklahoma. Bummer.

Do we know if he was accepted? Maybe, just maybe, he couldn't get in?

Jim Hyla

ugarte
A few preseason notes...

Cornell lost out on a top recruit; Cam Picklo is a decent prospect coming to Cornell next year (or maybe after a greyshirt year at FLWC) but his younger brother (a *top* prospect) Tate Picklo, is staying at home and going to Oklahoma. Bummer.

Do we know if he was accepted? Maybe, just maybe, he couldn't get in?

We don't but tbh I think that kind of speculation is arrogant and insulting, particularly given what Varsity Blues showed about how flexible admissions departments are with preferred athletes.

Cornell has a pretty deep history of not letting preferred athletes get in though.

ugarte

Jim Hyla

ugarte
A few preseason notes...

Cornell lost out on a top recruit; Cam Picklo is a decent prospect coming to Cornell next year (or maybe after a greyshirt year at FLWC) but his younger brother (a *top* prospect) Tate Picklo, is staying at home and going to Oklahoma. Bummer.

Do we know if he was accepted? Maybe, just maybe, he couldn't get in?

We don't but tbh I think that kind of speculation is arrogant and insulting, particularly given what Varsity Blues showed about how flexible admissions departments are with preferred athletes.

Recent historical example: John McCarron, a sophomore at the time Michael McCarron, a more highly rated prospect, was not admitted. We know that as Michael made it public by tweeting something like "I guess Cornell didn't like my ACT's." Obviously, though, that has nothing to do with Tate Picklo's choice.

jkahn

ugarte

Jim Hyla

ugarte
A few preseason notes...

Cornell lost out on a top recruit; Cam Picklo is a decent prospect coming to Cornell next year (or maybe after a greyshirt year at FLWC) but his younger brother (a *top* prospect) Tate Picklo, is staying at home and going to Oklahoma. Bummer.

Do we know if he was accepted? Maybe, just maybe, he couldn't get in?

We don't but tbh I think that kind of speculation is arrogant and insulting, particularly given what Varsity Blues showed about how flexible admissions departments are with preferred athletes.

Recent historical example: John McCarron, a sophomore at the time Michael McCarron, a more highly rated prospect, was not admitted. We know that as Michael made it public by tweeting something like "I guess Cornell didn't like my ACT's." Obviously, though, that has nothing to do with Tate Picklo's choice.

as it turns out, we lost both brothers lol

Yessir. Thank you!

— Cam Picklo (@Camjpick22) October 21, 2019

ugarte

Chas Tucker, Max Dean and Andrew Berreyesa are all heading to the U23 wrestling championships next week. The tournament runs from Monday through Sunday. Tucker (FS 61kg) and Dean (FS 86kg) gold medal bracket matches start next Tuesday; Berreyesa (GR 82 kg) starts a week from Saturday.

Tucker and Dean both had tough draws and lost their opening matches.

Tucker was facing an Iranian wrestler with Senior level experience - 5th at Senior Worlds and gold at Yasar Dogu in Turkey. Tucker scored two early takedowns but gave up 6(!) step-outs to lose 6-4.

Dean was facing the 2018 Junior Worlds gold medalist from Japan and lost by tech fall (12-2).

Both will have to wait to see if their opponents make it to the gold medal match in order to be pulled back into the repechage for bronze. Ishiguro has advanced to the semifinals, so Dean is almost back in it.

UPDATE: The guy who beat Tucker lost in the QF, so he is eliminated from repechage.
UPDATE 2: Ishiguro lost in the semis, so Dean is eliminated from repechage.

Berreyesa loses 6-1 in his first match and does not get pulled back into repechage, so Cornell's international efforts are done for the year. Tucker should be back with the team soon, if he isn't already. Dean and Berreyesa will probably be "around" but will be training with Yianni and Vito for the Olympic trials in March (I think).

Some of our greyshirts will be wrestling tomorrow at the Princeton Open, but the season for the Big Red starts on 11/23 with a tough dual against NC State. When we scheduled this I don't think we anticipated that half of our team would be taking a year off.

Like hockey, we start the wrestling season a lot later than many other teams. At Michigan State this weekend the Michigan State Open was held, with, per one news article, 450 wrestlers from 31 schools. There was an Open division and a separate Frosh-Soph division. When I walked into my hotel lobby on Friday I saw a lot of people wearing red. It turned out they were from Oklahoma.

ugarte
Some of our greyshirts will be wrestling tomorrow at the Princeton Open, but the season for the Big Red starts on 11/23 with a tough dual against NC State. When we scheduled this I don't think we anticipated that half of our team would be taking a year off.

Chris Foca (184), Lewis Fernandes (197) and Jacob Cardenas (Hwt) all finished 1st at the Princeton Open. With these guys coming next year, and the return of Dean plus Darmstadt, and Hatcher coming in the year after, we are going to have really good upper weights for a long time.

jkahn
Like hockey, we start the wrestling season a lot later than many other teams. At Michigan State this weekend the Michigan State Open was held, with, per one news article, 450 wrestlers from 31 schools. There was an Open division and a separate Frosh-Soph division. When I walked into my hotel lobby on Friday I saw a lot of people wearing red. It turned out they were from Oklahoma.

This isn't an Ivy League thing, though, because Princeton, Penn and Columbia all sent wrestlers to the Princeton open. Not sure why we didn't. We're hosting our own open tournament the day after the NC State Dual, so maybe that's why.

Most of team should be down in Binghamton next weekend, even if wrestling unattached, right? I see most of the Finger Lakes crew is registered.

mountainred
Most of team should be down in Binghamton next weekend, even if wrestling unattached, right? I see most of the Finger Lakes crew is registered.

they didn't have the binghamton open on the schedule last year either so that's a good bet.

Cornell entrants listed for Bearcat Open this weekend, on Trackwrestling. Darmstadt is back (at 184)!

klehner
Cornell entrants listed for Bearcat Open this weekend, on Trackwrestling. Darmstadt is back (at 184)!

And Fredy Stroker not listed (I shouldn't get my hopes there, should I?)

mountainred

klehner
Cornell entrants listed for Bearcat Open this weekend, on Trackwrestling. Darmstadt is back (at 184)!

And Fredy Stroker not listed (I shouldn't get my hopes there, should I?)

Womack isn't registered either so I don't know that it means a lot, since Koll included him as the presumptive starter in the season preview. I assume Tucker is catching up on his homework.

Binghamton Open results:

125: Dom LaJoie went 4-1 and finished in third place.

133: Chas Tucker skipped the tournament. Phillip Moomey, who may end up wrestling at 125 later in the year, went 0-2.

141: Noah Baughman, up from 125 at the start of last year, went 5-0 and finished in first. Good start for Baughman at a new weight. Stepping into Yianni's shoes is a tall order.

Ryan Moore went 4-2 (including a forfeit win) and finished in 5th. Michael Russo went 3-2 but didn't place. Shouting him out anyway because he got two pins. Trence wilson-Gillem (1-2), Michael Venosa (1-2) and Jacob Lehr (0-2) also wrestled for us at 141.

149: Hunter Richard went 4-0 and finished in first. Chris Schoenherr went 4-2 and finished in 4th. Ian McNitt and James Overheiser both went 0-2.

157: Freshman Colton Yapoujian went 4-0, including a MD and a pin and finished in 1st. Fredy Stroker skipped the tournament. Will be interesting to see if he can get his starting spot back. Micah Hoffman went 1-2,

165: Adam Santoro went 3-1 (including a win by MFF) and finished in 2nd. Jakob Brindley went 2-2 and finished in 4th. Adam Merola went 2-0 then forfeited out to 6th place.

174: Brandon Womack skipped the tournament. Nathan Thacker went 0-2.

184: Ben Darmstadt went 3-1 with 2 pins and finished in second. Disappointing even though Binghamton's Lou DePrez is very good.

Jonah Barley went 3-2 and finished in 5th. Jonathon Fagen went 2-2.

197: Jonathan Loew went 3-1 and finished in 2nd.

Hwt: Brendan Furman went 5-1 and finished in 3rd. Seth Janney went 2-2 including a win by MFF.

The Future (wrestlers of note taking a gap year at Finger Lakes Regional Training Center):

157: Julian Ramirez went 2-2 and finished in 6th.

174: Chris Foca went 4-0 and finished in 1st. He had two techs and a major.

197: Jacob Cardenas left his first match with an injury but I don't know if it is serious.

Hwt: Lewis Fernandes went 4-0 with three pins and finished in first.

Not a bad start. Not great. The future looks very good with not only a great class at the RTC but 4 starters who will come back after their Olympic redshirt. Not to mention some other great recruits finishing high school this year.

At the a Bill Farrell Open, an Olympic Trials Qualifier tournament, Andrew Berreyesa, a soph taking a redshirt this year, made it to the semifinals before defaulting out of the consolation bracket.

Tomorrow, Cornell has a a few guys going: Nahshon Garrett '16, Frank Perrelli '12 and future Cornellian Josh Saunders (probably). I thought Vito Arujau - another soph taking a redshirt - would be there but he's apparently not registered.

ugarte
At the a Bill Farrell Open, an Olympic Trials Qualifier tournament, Andrew Berreyesa, a soph taking a redshirt this year, made it to the semifinals before defaulting out of the consolation bracket.

Tomorrow, Cornell has a a few guys going: Nahshon Garrett '16, Frank Perrelli '12 and future Cornellian Josh Saunders (probably). I thought Vito Arujau - another soph taking a redshirt - would be there but he's apparently not registered.

Perrelli went 0-1 and was eliminated. (You had to get to the QF to make the consolation bracket.)
Garrett won his first two matches, but lost in the QF in an upset. In the consolation bracket he won two and will wrestle for 3d place. UPDATE: Finished in 4th.
Saunders went 0-1 and was eliminated.

The dual meet season starts tomorrow with a visit from NC State. When we scheduled this I don't think we planned on half of our squad taking a year off for the Olympics. Gonna be a long day.

On Sunday Cornell hosts the new Cornell Open. It's a one-day tournament mostly for D-I teams from the Northeast. This part of the schedule used to be the NYS Invitational, but since only Cornell, Army and Columbia have D-I programs of note, half the day was spent pinning guys from Brockport and Farmingdale. The NYS Invitational is now being hosted by Oswego and our guys can wrestle in a tournament where they get more matches in that count towards the minimum required to qualify for postseason consideration. Of course... be careful what you wish for because Rutgers, Lock Haven and Bucknell give the competition a real boost.

ugarte
The dual meet season starts tomorrow with a visit from NC State. When we scheduled this I don't think we planned on half of our squad taking a year off for the Olympics. Gonna be a long day.

On Sunday Cornell hosts the new Cornell Open. It's a one-day tournament mostly for D-I teams from the Northeast. This part of the schedule used to be the NYS Invitational, but since only Cornell, Army and Columbia have D-I programs of note, half the day was spent pinning guys from Brockport and Farmingdale. The NYS Invitational is now being hosted by Oswego and our guys can wrestle in a tournament where they get more matches in that count towards the minimum required to qualify for postseason consideration. Of course... be careful what you wish for because Rutgers, Lock Haven and Bucknell give the competition a real boost.

Binghamton has a decent wrestling program too, no?

scoop85

ugarte
The dual meet season starts tomorrow with a visit from NC State. When we scheduled this I don't think we planned on half of our squad taking a year off for the Olympics. Gonna be a long day.

On Sunday Cornell hosts the new Cornell Open. It's a one-day tournament mostly for D-I teams from the Northeast. This part of the schedule used to be the NYS Invitational, but since only Cornell, Army and Columbia have D-I programs of note, half the day was spent pinning guys from Brockport and Farmingdale. The NYS Invitational is now being hosted by Oswego and our guys can wrestle in a tournament where they get more matches in that count towards the minimum required to qualify for postseason consideration. Of course... be careful what you wish for because Rutgers, Lock Haven and Bucknell give the competition a real boost.

Binghamton has a decent wrestling program too, no?

indeed. i knew i'd get cavalier and miss one. better than columbia's.

ugarte

scoop85

ugarte
The dual meet season starts tomorrow with a visit from NC State. When we scheduled this I don't think we planned on half of our squad taking a year off for the Olympics. Gonna be a long day.

On Sunday Cornell hosts the new Cornell Open. It's a one-day tournament mostly for D-I teams from the Northeast. This part of the schedule used to be the NYS Invitational, but since only Cornell, Army and Columbia have D-I programs of note, half the day was spent pinning guys from Brockport and Farmingdale. The NYS Invitational is now being hosted by Oswego and our guys can wrestle in a tournament where they get more matches in that count towards the minimum required to qualify for postseason consideration. Of course... be careful what you wish for because Rutgers, Lock Haven and Bucknell give the competition a real boost.

Binghamton has a decent wrestling program too, no?

indeed. i knew i'd get cavalier and miss one. better than columbia's.

I'm nitpicking, but Buffalo and Hofstra are about at Columbia's level too. Still, you'd have guys wrestle 5 or 6 times but only get a win or two that actually helped the RPI. You knew Cornell was getting of the NYS Invitational business when Rob only dressed a handful of guys for it last year.

The NC St. dual was tough to watch, as a lot of guys looked gassed late. Lowe's pin was nice and Colton Yapoujian hung tough against the #1 ranked guy, but otherwise.....

The NC St. dual was tough to watch, as a lot of guys looked gassed late. Lowe's pin was nice and Colton Yapoujian hung tough against the #1 ranked guy, but otherwise.....

yeah i didn't like a lot about the NC State dual.

184: Ben Darmstadt just doesn't look quite right yet. Still dealing with a year of recovery from back surgery and now a steeper weight cut. As usual, he was weird and funky on bottom and a monster on top. He was able to get a reversal in the first period and rode out the second. The problem was that he also gave up a takedown in the first period and, late in the third, while nursing a 1 point lead, managed to get hit with a second stall call *and* give up a takedown so it didn't even go to OT.

197: Jonathan Loew got a sweet cradle on the backup from NC State and pinned him in the first period. Nice.

285: Brendan Furman gave up a takedown with 10 seconds left and lost 3-1. Two out of three matches where a takedown in the closing seconds costs the match. I wonder if this will be a pattern.

125: Dom LaJoie was unable to generate any offense and scored all of his points on escapes. Gave up 3 takedowns and over a minute of riding time.

133: Chas Tucker couldn't finish all of his shots but he finished the one he needed. A win over a ranked opponent is nice.

141: Noah Baughman went up against Tariq Wilson - a 2018 All-American who came an OT loss away from repeating the feat last year. Baughman was game but couldn't score. He defended well, though. Not quite enough.

149: Hunter Richard gave up a reversal and a third period takedown and it was the difference. Not a good match to lose.

157: Colton Yapoujian went up against #1 two-time All-American Hayden Hidlay. Losing 4-0 was a surprisingly good result. He couldn't penetrate Hidlay's defense and wasn't able to escape when Hidlay got him down. A pretty good sign that he was so competitive with the elite of the weight class.

165: Adam Santoro was out of his depth in the only match where Cornell gave up bonus points.

174: Brandon Womack continues to have problems with aggression on top. If you aren't careful with how you position yourself when you're trying to score, you're going to give up a lot of reversals and it happened again today. As a freshman at 165 he was more dangerous on bottom, getting wild pins from crazy positions because of his strength but he hasn't been able to repeat that up at 174.



184: #12 Trent Hidlay dec. #3 Ben Darmstadt, 7-5 [NC State 3-0]
197: Jonathan Loew def. Tyrie Houghton, fall (1:35) [CU 6-3]
285: Deonte Wilson dec. Brendan Furman, 3-1 [6-6]
125: #15 Jakob Camacho dec. Dominic LaJoie, 8-4 [NC State 9-6]
133: #6 Chas Tucker dec. #14 Jarrett Trombley, 4-1 [9-9]
141: #11 Tariq Wilson dec. Noah Baughman, 4-0 [NC State 12-9]
149: A.J. Leitten dec. Hunter Richard, 6-5. [NC State 15-9]
157: #1 Hayden Hidlay dec. Colton Yapoujian, 4-0 [NC State 18-9]
165: #14 Thomas Bullard major dec. Adam Santoro, 9-0 [NC State 22-9]
174: #17 Daniel Bullard dec. #11 Brandon Womack, 5-4 [NC State 25-9]

mountainred
I'm nitpicking, but Buffalo and Hofstra are about at Columbia's level too.

true true. The new Cornell Open wasn't much either tbh. I couldn't watch because I'm only willing to pay for so many wrestling sites. That said, we rolled through the competition pretty convincingly but the competition was either from programs well below Cornell's or less than the best of what the other schools had to offer. This was not a bracketed tournament, it was broken up into round-robins so that everyone could get up to 5 matches. I'm not including MFF* wins/losses since... see the footnote. I'm including matches against the Army and Cornell's greyshirt schools, though, because I don't want to remove them.

Successful for what I assumed was the intended purpose: get qualifying matches in without putting the winning percentage at risk (though it may not be very good for opponent's winning percentage when RPI rankings come out...)

125: Dom LaJoie went 4-1, losing to a decent wrestler from Lock Haven (the only person of note he faced).

133: Chas Tucker went 4-0. He wasn't challenged. JJ Wilson, nominally the backup at 125, wrestled at 133 in the B pool and went 5-0 with 4 pins and a win over teammate Philip Moomey, who was supposed to be the primary backup at 133. Moomey beat the other 4 guys in the B pool with two pins, a tech and a major.

141: Noah Baughman went 4-0. Michael Russo went 3-1 in the B pool; Michael Venosa went 2-1 in the B pool; Ryan Moore went 0-1 in the B pool and then defaulted or forfeited the rest of his matches.** Dan Koll went 2-2 in the C pool; Jacob Lehr went 0-4.

149: Hunter Richard went 4-0; Chris Schoenherr went 3-1, losing to Richard. Pickett went 1-0 in the B pool before MFF the rest of his matches; McNitt went 0-2 before defaulting.

157: Colton Yapoujian went 5-0.

165: Milik Dawkins went 4-0 with wins over his teammates Adam Santoro and Andrew Merola. Interesting. Santoro, who was the starter against NC State, went 3-1. Merola went 2-3. John Stawinkski went 2-1 in the B pool.

174: Brandon Womack went 4-0. Nate Thacker went 2-2 in the B pool.

184: Ben Darmstadt went 4-0 with 4 pins, but that was pretty much expected. Jonathon Fagan went 4-0 in the B pool; Jonah Barley went 2-2.

197: Jonathan Loew went 6-0.

285: Brendan Furman went 4-0. Seth Janney went 2-2 in the B pool and was injured in his final match.

Our Finger Lakes guys - Ramirez, Fernandes and Foca - all went undefeated.

* MFF is medical forfeit. How MFFs play into postseason consideration is complicated because the way forfeits, defaults, and matches against non D-I opponents are considered for RPI, win% and various other qualifying metrics is almost impenetrable.

** A win by injury default is considered a win on the mat and a win by forfeit sometimes is not, so I suspect Moore took the mat and ate an injury default to help his opponents get credit for the matches they traveled for.

On a forward-looking note, how many of the Finger Lakes Ivyshirts do you think would start today? Ramirez and Fernandez would have to be favored to take over at 165 and 285, right? I’m not sure I would bet against Foca at 174 or Cardenas (when healthy) at 197 either. Next year’s team will be loaded if they can avoid injuries.

mountainred
On a forward-looking note, how many of the Finger Lakes Ivyshirts do you think would start today? Ramirez and Fernandez would have to be favored to take over at 165 and 285, right? I’m not sure I would bet against Foca at 174 or Cardenas (when healthy) at 197 either. Next year’s team will be loaded if they can avoid injuries.

I am pretty comfortable that Ramirez and Fernandes would start and Foca and Cardenas are going to be real challengers. I'm curious what will happen when Dean comes back at 184/197. And Hatcher will be coming the year after. This really is going to be a very, very deep team.

mountainred
On a forward-looking note, how many of the Finger Lakes Ivyshirts do you think would start today? Ramirez and Fernandez would have to be favored to take over at 165 and 285, right? I’m not sure I would bet against Foca at 174 or Cardenas (when healthy) at 197 either. Next year’s team will be loaded if they can avoid injuries.

How about this lineup next year *and* the year after?

125: Diakomihalis (Fr)
133: Arujau (Jr)
141: Saunders (Fr)
149: Diakomihalis (Jr)
157: Yapoujian (So)
165: Ramirez (Fr)
174: Foca (Fr)
184: Dean (Jr)
197: Darmstadt/Cardenas (Jr/Fr)
285: Fernandes (Fr)

klehner

mountainred
On a forward-looking note, how many of the Finger Lakes Ivyshirts do you think would start today? Ramirez and Fernandez would have to be favored to take over at 165 and 285, right? I’m not sure I would bet against Foca at 174 or Cardenas (when healthy) at 197 either. Next year’s team will be loaded if they can avoid injuries.

How about this lineup next year *and* the year after?

125: Diakomihalis (Fr)
133: Arujau (Jr)
141: Saunders (Fr)
149: Diakomihalis (Jr)
157: Yapoujian (So)
165: Ramirez (Fr)
174: Foca (Fr)
184: Dean (Jr)
197: Darmstadt/Cardenas (Jr/Fr)
285: Fernandes (Fr)

You think Greg D and Saunders skip the Finger Lakes year?

I know Andrew Berreyesa seems to have declared a Greco major, but it is crazy that he isn't in the mix (not that he has an obvious slot).

klehner

mountainred
On a forward-looking note, how many of the Finger Lakes Ivyshirts do you think would start today? Ramirez and Fernandez would have to be favored to take over at 165 and 285, right? I’m not sure I would bet against Foca at 174 or Cardenas (when healthy) at 197 either. Next year’s team will be loaded if they can avoid injuries.

How about this lineup next year *and* the year after?

125: Diakomihalis (Fr)
133: Arujau (Jr)
141: Saunders (Fr)
149: Diakomihalis (Jr)
157: Yapoujian (So)
165: Ramirez (Fr)
174: Foca (Fr)
184: Dean (Jr)
197: Darmstadt/Cardenas (Jr/Fr)
285: Fernandes (Fr)

Not sure if Greg D. is going to pass up the greyshirt but maybe he will to spend two years competing alongside his brother. It's also wild that we're even considering that Darmstadt may not be a starter next year just because he has losses to a pair of top 10 guys.

mountainred
You think Greg D and Saunders skip the Finger Lakes year?

I know Andrew Berreyesa seems to have declared a Greco major, but it is crazy that he isn't in the mix (not that he has an obvious slot).

I think Saunders skips the greyshirt unless he's not going to start. I do think Berreyesa competes for the spot with Ramirez/Foca I just don't see him winning it based on last year's results. His leg defense is ... Greco-like and I saw him get taken feet-to-back against Brown multiple times while going for a Greco throw because, well, in Greco you can't leg-block or trip and Viruet was allowed to.

You think Greg D and Saunders skip the Finger Lakes year?

I'm just speculating. If Koll thinks that they would put Cornell onto the top step of the NCAA podium as freshman, why not?

It's also wild that we're even considering that Darmstadt may not be a starter next year just because he has losses to a pair of top 10 guys.

Nothing to do with his losses this year; rather, it is that Cardenas is that good. He was ranked #1 at 195 in HS. He beat Rider's junior starter at 197, who beat Lehigh's senior starter 197 this year (who happened to beat Honis at NCAAs last year). Of course, at the beginning of the season last year nobody expected Darmstadt to have the #2 seed at NCAAs!

Ramirez was #2 in HS at 170; he's going 165 now. Foca was #4 at 182; he's at 170 now. All Fernandes has done this year
is pin Binghamton's, Columbia's, and Harvard's starting heavyweights. Loaded for (Big Red) bear.

(this is what you do when your best guys are taking an ORS this year...)

Blowout loss to Ohio State today. Some of the losses were expected and even encouraging but ... goddamn. Some of them were just not good.

141: Starting Noah Baughman at 141 against #1 Luke Pletcher was an interesting choice for the Big Red (and it was apparently our choice) but it was a compelling match. Pletcher won, but close, and Baughman even got a takedown of his own.

149: Another tough one for the Big Red as Hunter Richard faced #12 Sammy Sasso. Sasso took an early lead and he needed it, as he clearly got tired and Richard was scoring at will at the end of the match. Richard ran out of time, though, and Cornell had to be content with a moral victory.

157: Colton Yapoujian faced OSU's Elijah Cleary. Neither tried very hard to score but Cleary never came close. Yapoujian was much better on top and with the benefit of a couple of stalling calls against Cleary and an escape in rideouts, Cornell got its first win of the night.

165: Milik Dawkins didn't have anything for Ethan Smith and lost a match that wasn't as close as the final score.

174: #14 Brandon Womack with another disappointing loss to someone ranked below him, #19 Caleb Romero. Had an early lead but wasn't able to generate any offense in the last two periods and Romero came back with a couple of takedowns. Womack has to start winning if he wants to stay ranked.

184: #7 Ben Darmstadt looked a lot more like our old friend this week. Gavin Hoffman had no response to Darmstadt on top and while Darmstadt didn't get the turns he wanted, he had a ton of riding time and looked strong.

197: Jonathan Loew is not ready for #1 Kollin Moore yet. He did get the first takedown but the rest of the match was all Moore.

285: Brendan Furman gave up a takedown with a second left in the match to lose to OSU's backup, Gary Traub. Very disappointing, especially since he seemed like he'd be able to score a lot early and then couldn't convert more than one of his deep shots.

125: Dom LaJoie didn't have it today and lost to an inconsistent but talented Malik Heinselman.

133: Chas Tucker dominated Dylan Koontz and could have had a major decision, as he got a takedown with seconds left but didn't try to hold on to prevent the escape and had to settle for a 7 point win.

Losing the dual was to be expected, tbh. No unsurprising wins, a couple of encouraging losses but - from Womack and Furman - a couple of real disappointing Ls.

141: Baughman L to #1 Pletcher 8-6 [OSU 3-0]
149: Richard L to #12 Sasso 12-9 [OSU 6-0]
157: Yapoujian W over Cleary 3-1 (OT) [OSU 6-3]
165: Dawkins LMD to #12 Smith 12-4 [OSU 10-3]
174: #14 Womack L to #19 Romero 6-4 [OSU 13-3]
184: #7 Darmstadt W over Hoffman 5-0 [OSU 13-6]
197: #1 Moore WMD over Loew 18-6 [OSU 17-6]
285: Furman L to Traub 4-3 [OSU 20-6]
125: LaJoie L to Heinselman 8-4 [OSU 23-6]
133: #7 Tucker W over Koontz 12-5 [OSU 23-9]

[www.nj.com]

My apologies if already posted. Didn’t take time to look at prior messages.

toddlose
[www.nj.com]

My apologies if already posted. Didn’t take time to look at prior messages.

Thanks for posting. Those guys are big-time

toddlose
[www.nj.com]

My apologies if already posted. Didn’t take time to look at prior messages.

awesome. thanks.

Cornell is competing as we speak at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas invitational. The tournament is incredibly deep - as tough as anything we'll face until NCAAs. No first round surprises. Expected wins from Tucker, Baughman, Yapoujian, Womack and Darmstadt. Losses from LaJoie, Richard, Dawkins, Loew and Furman.

ugarte
Cornell is competing as we speak at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas invitational. The tournament is incredibly deep - as tough as anything we'll face until NCAAs. No first round surprises. Expected wins from Tucker, Baughman, Yapoujian, Womack and Darmstadt. Losses from LaJoie, Richard, Dawkins, Loew and Furman.

Tucker is in the finals; Darmstadt and Womack finished in 7th. Nobody won any significant matches they weren't expected to win and we lost a few in upsets. Disappointing results overall. Going to be a strange year.

Chas Tucker won

I didn't expect a lot, but blah.

Tucker's win was very him. 5 wins by a total of 16 points. His defense is amazing.

Darmstadt's defense is troubling as he lost by fall twice. Losing to Venz is disappointing but not the end of the world; the loss to the unranked Gopher was terrible. At least he did beat ISU's Colbray who I've seen ranked in the top 10. Bama caught the ranked kid from Oklahoma in a peterson, which was nice, but lost to the other 3 ranked guys he faced.

Otherwise, Loew's tournament was about as good as could be hoped, he won three matches and only lost to 2 of the top 3 seeds (but neither loss was particularly close). Baughman went 3-2 as well, but the R12 loss to Parker was pretty one-sided. LaJoie had a tough draw, hitting two ranked guys in his 3 bouts; his opening round loss to the eventual runner-up included a 2nd period ride-out (but he trailed 10-1 early on).


I was expecting/hoping for a deeper run by Colton. He won his first bout by fall, lost to a highly-regarded freshman 3-1 in OT on a last-second takedown, and then dropped his first wrestleback in a low energy 7 minutes.

Both of Darmstadt's matches were worse on paper than they were on the mat tbh. He destroys anyone out of their depth. The loss to the unranked kid was a sloppy shot where he got caught awkwardly. He seemed embarrassed as he walked off of the mat. His loss to Venz had a lot to recommend it - a takedown, a reversal a minute on top - but goddamn, he and ...

Womack have the same stupid issue of overcommitting on top to dubious titling opportunities and ending up reversed. Both of them ended up pinned as a result, Womack in an 8th place match that he should have won BY LETTING THE GUY ESCAPE WITH 10 SECONDS LEFT. Womack looked terrible against Hemauer of Fresno State. Haven't watched the Mantananoa or Skatska matches yet but the results look better. That said, he was the 8 seed in an in season tournament and lost to 9 and 10.

Tucker's matches were fun because they were close but ... never close? Bridges in the final was close but even then, he took one real shot, converted it, and it was enough. Yapoujian was very disappointing. He didn't bother shooting at all in two full matches. Lost one in SV and the other right before SV. Blech. He has more in store than that but it was like a fifth-generation copy of Tucker that is distorted beyond recognition.

Baughman was fine. Looked good against the non-elite. He'll finally make the tournament, I think. Loew isn't ready to swim with the sharks yet but he's going to beat some R12 types.

LaJoie, Richard, Dawkins and Furman were all ... just kind of there. Nobody went 0-2, which was nice, but this just wasn't great.

On the plus side, Darmstadt has moved into 12th place on the all-time pins list...in less than 1.5 seasons. He's one pin behind Realbuto.

klehner

mountainred
On a forward-looking note, how many of the Finger Lakes Ivyshirts do you think would start today? Ramirez and Fernandez would have to be favored to take over at 165 and 285, right? I’m not sure I would bet against Foca at 174 or Cardenas (when healthy) at 197 either. Next year’s team will be loaded if they can avoid injuries.

How about this lineup next year *and* the year after?

125: Diakomihalis (Fr)
133: Arujau (Jr)
141: Saunders (Fr)
149: Diakomihalis (Jr)
157: Yapoujian (So)
165: Ramirez (Fr)
174: Foca (Fr)
184: Dean (Jr)
197: Darmstadt/Cardenas (Jr/Fr)
285: Fernandes (Fr)

Future Cornellian Greg Diakomihalis in the Rochester D&C.

George64
Future Cornellian Greg Diakomihalis in the Rochester D&C.

thanks!

South Beach Duals opponents posted: Minnesota, Michigan State, Wyoming, Missouri.

The US Open was this weekend. Top 5 in each weight class qualify for the Olympic Trials, and Cornell had a bunch of entrants.

More info later, but Yianni Diakomihalis and Vito Arujau both qualified. Berreyesa finished in 6th; Max Dean, Frank Perrelli and recruit Josh Saunders also failed to qualify.

ugarte
The US Open was this weekend. Top 5 in each weight class qualify for the Olympic Trials, and Cornell had a bunch of entrants.

More info later, but Yianni Diakomihalis and Vito Arujau both qualified. Berreyesa finished in 6th; Max Dean, Frank Perrelli and recruit Josh Saunders also failed to qualify.

So, some more info.

Yianni had a few very good wins - the best, a quick 10-0 tech fall over Bryce Meredith (his opponent in the 2018 NCAA final). In the semi, he faced Joey McKenna - his intent in the controversial 2019 final - and lost on a last second takedown. He finished in 4th after "injury" defaulting out of the 3d place match; probably less actual injury and more "who cares" since top 5 qualified for the Olympic Team Trials.

Arujau finished in third, losing only to 2x NCAA champ Spencer Lee. He had two tech falls over Zach Sanders and a bug win over 2019 NCAA champ Nick Suriano. He didn't get a rematch against Suriano when Suriano suffered the same injury as Yianni in the 3d place match.

Garrett lost in the semis to 2015 NCAA champ Nathan Tomasello then opted to default to 6th. Unclear if it was the same injury. Probably was, since Garrett is also already qualified for OTT.

Dean had a couple of pins, beat the guys he was seeded ahead of and lost to the guys he wasn't. Really close matches with 6th seed/6th place Aaron Brooks and 8th seed/4th place Brett Pfarr.

Saunders finished in 8th. He lost to 7 seed Meredith twice and 4 seed Ethan Henderson in the 7th place match but won four matches along the way in the consolation bracket, including over 9 seed Dom Demas. Very impressive in a senior level tournament for a kid still in high school.

Perrelli finished in 7th but won only one match on the mat. He recieved a first round bye, his second round opponent somehow missed the call to the mat and his 7th place opponent forfeited.

This weekend Cornell goes to Miami for the South Beach Duals. They will face South Dakota State, Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan State and Wyoming. The other big news is that Ben Darmstadt has given up on the cut to 184 and had returned to 197. Jonathan Loew is moving down from 197 and switching places with him in the starting lineup.

3-0 record in duals today. Wins over South Dakota State (18-16), Michigan State (20-16) and Wyoming (28-9).

Tucker, Womack and Darmstadt went 3-0, including two pins for Womack and a pin and a tech for Darmstadt. Clutch win for Furman at Heavy to win the SDSU dual.

The second day of duals in South Beach was a split. A close, come-from-behind 19-18 win over Missouri and a loss to Minnesota. Tucker and Darmstadt went 5-0 for the weekend. Womack went 4-0. Unclear if he got hurt during his Missouri match. He spent most of the third period getting called for stalling but had built up a big enough lead that he still won; he sat out against the Gophers later that day.

Our greyshirts from Finger Lakes are in Chattanooga for the Southern Scuffle - the tournament Cornell used to travel to before South Beach was invented. Chris Foca is in the third place match at 174; Jacob Cardenas (197) and Louis Fernandes (Hwt) are in the 5th place match.

ugarte

Our greyshirts from Finger Lakes are in Chattanooga for the Southern Scuffle - the tournament Cornell used to travel to before South Beach was invented. Chris Foca is in the third place match at 174; Jacob Cardenas (197) and Louis Fernandes (Hwt) are in the 5th place match.

Foca lost in OT to #17 Bullard and finished in 4th.

Cardenas was not competitive with #6 Geer and finished in 6th.

Fernandes did a great job against #19 Miller and took 5th.

Cornell's lineup - already taking a massive hit from the Olympic redshirts - has been fraying from injuries and it's possible that things got a lot worse over the weekend. Yapoujian (157) didn't wrestle in South Beach and still isn't back. Womack (174) didn't wrestle the final dual in South Beach after surviving the penultimate match by stalling away most of the cushion he'd built up; someone on another forum said that Womack's arm was in a sling. And now it's possible our best shot at a high podium placement - Ben Darmstadt - is hurt again.

As for the action, Cornell went 1-1 for the day with a win over Columbia and a loss to Lehigh (as expected).

The day started with a surprisingly close loss to Lehigh - particularly in light of the depleted lineup. LaJoie and Baughman both lost by a single point and reversing either result would have given Cornell the win. Cornell also got an encouraging upset when freshman Loew beat #21 Weiler (though Lehigh fans say Weiler was injured early in the match). It's also possible that you can read too much into the close team score since if Jordan Wood needed a major at heavyweight he may have tried to score more aggressively.

Against Columbia, despite a Lions lineup with two ranked wrestlers expected to win their matches, the Big Red almost swept the day. The dual got off to a good start as LaJoie and Baughman both upset their ranked opponents, sandwiched around a comfortable win from Tucker. Cornell's first loss came at 157. Adam Santoro had a late two point lead but rather than give up an escape, he got hit with a second stalling warning, which meant an escape would tie the score and send the match to OT. Trying to hold on, he put himself in an awkward position and Columbia scored a defensive pin (you can see the final position in the Columbia recap. Then at 197, Ben Darmstadt was scoring comfortably when ... something happened with his ribs. He tried to fight through it, and even kept scoring, but he had to stop the match three separate times because of the pain and eventually threw in the towel. Hoping it isn't too serious but I don't expect to see him for a few weeks at least.

#19 Cornell vs. #14 Lehigh
125: #5 Brandon Paetzell (LEH) dec. Dom Lajoie (COR), 5-4 [LEH 3-0]
133: #5 Chas Tucker (COR) dec. #10 Nick Farro (LEH), 6-4 (SV-1) [3-3]
141: Dan Moran (LEH) dec. Noah Baughman (COR), 2-1 [LEH 6-3]
149: Hunter Richard (COR) major dec. JT Cooley (LEH), 13-3 [COR 7-6]
157: #10 Josh Humphreys (LEH) dec. Adam Santoro (COR), 6-2 [LEH 9-7]
165: Brian Meyer (LEH) dec. Jake Brindley (COR), 3-1 (SV-1) [LEH 12-7]
174: #2 Jordan Kutler (LEH) major dec. Milik Dawkins (COR), 9-1 [LEH 16-7]
184: Jonathan Loew (COR) dec. #21 Chris Weiler (LEH), 8-6 [LEH 16 -10]
197: #10 Ben Darmstadt (COR) major dec. #18 Jake Jakobsen (LEH), 8-0 [LEH 16-14]
285: #9 Jordan Wood (LEH) dec. Brendan Furman (COR), 5-0 [LEH 19-14 FINAL]

#19 Cornell vs. Columbia
125: Dom Lajoie (COR) dec. #23 Joe Manchio (COL), 8-5 [COR 3-0]
133: #5 Chas Tucker (COR) dec. Trent Svingala (COL), 8-2 [COR 6-0]
141: Noah Baughman (COR) dec. #23 Matt Kazimir (COL), 3-1 [COR 9-0]
149: Hunter Richard (COR) major dec. Andrew Garr (COL), 8-0 [COR 13-0]
157: Kyle Mosher (COL) def. Adam Santoro (COR), Fall (6:42) [COR 13-6]
165: Andrew Merola (COR) dec. Riley Jacops (COL), 3-2 [COR 16-6]
174: Milik Dawkins (COR) dec. Lennox Wolak (COL), 4-0 [COR 19-6]
184: Jonathan Loew (COR) tech fall Michael Baker (COL), 18-2 [COR 24-6]
197: Sam Wustefeld (COL) by medical forfeit over #10 Ben Darmstadt (COR) [COR 24-12]
285: Brendan Furman (COR) dec. Danny Conley (COL), 7-0 [COR 27-12 FINAL]

Other than Ben's injury, it was a positive Saturday. As they say, "other" is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

The greyshirts had a nice weekend at the Shorty Hitchcock. Jacob Cardenas won at 197 pounds; Ramirez took 2nd at 165 (though he was schooled by a former 4-time AA in the finals); Fernandes took 3rd at 285 (he lost to a stud Penn State recruit in the semis and had 3 one minute pins); and Reinche finished 5th at 174 (losing only to the eventual runner-up in first round).

mountainred
The greyshirts had a nice weekend at the Shorty Hitchcock. Jacob Cardenas won at 197 pounds; Ramirez took 2nd at 165 (though he was schooled by a former 4-time AA in the finals); Fernandes took 3rd at 285 (he lost to a stud Penn State recruit in the semis and had 3 one minute pins); and Reinche finished 5th at 174 (losing only to the eventual runner-up in first round).

Thanks; I saw the Ramirez news (losing to Fittery is not a bad result) but didn't think to check on the rest of the FLWC.

Before we get destroyed by Virginia Tech later today I should mention that we pulled off a huge upset of Rutgers on Friday with a severely depleted lineup.

Forget about the missing Olympic redshirts; since December we've lost our starters at 157 (Yapoujian), 174 (Womack) and 197 (Darmstadt). Still, we got huge wins from Baughman, Santoro and Brindley, Chas Tucker remains undefeated and Hunter Richard had a clutch third period pin which was the difference in a dual where both schools won at 5 weights.

VT dual was much more fun and closer than I expected.

At 125 LaJoie almost beat another ranked opponent. Tucker remained undefeated at 133 with another win against a ranked wrestler. At 141 Baughman held off a major decision against a returning national qualifier.

Hunter Richard came back from down 5-0 to beat the #22 wrestler at 149 8-7 in sm incredible match. Santoro was so close to a comeback against #13 but couldn't quite get the lady points he needed (and actually ended up giving up 6 when his move didn't work out).

Brindley was facing #3 at 165 and avoided a MD with a stunning late takedown and rideout.

Andrew Berreyesa opted out of his Olympic redshirt year and returned to the lineup for the first time at 174. Right off the bay he hit a great throw for a 6-0 lead that I can't believe wasn't called a pin. He held on to win 8-4. He's still going to go to the Olympic trials.

Loew was able to keep it close against #2 to avoid a major.

Fagen and Furman... lost.

Still, for a dual that looks like a blowout it went much better than I thought it would. Especially good to see Berreyesa back and Richard really improving as the year progresses.

ugarte
VT dual was much more fun and closer than I expected.

At 125 LaJoie almost beat another ranked opponent. Tucker remained undefeated at 133 with another win against a ranked wrestler. At 141 Baughman held off a major decision against a returning national qualifier.

Hunter Richard came back from down 5-0 to beat the #22 wrestler at 149 8-7 in sm incredible match. Santoro was so close to a comeback against #13 but couldn't quite get the lady points he needed (and actually ended up giving up 6 when his move didn't work out).

Brindley was facing #3 at 165 and avoided a MD with a stunning late takedown and rideout.

Andrew Berreyesa opted out of his Olympic redshirt year and returned to the lineup for the first time at 174. Right off the bay he hit a great throw for a 6-0 lead that I can't believe wasn't called a pin. He held on to win 8-4. He's still going to go to the Olympic trials.

Loew was able to keep it close against #2 to avoid a major.

Fagen and Furman... lost.

Still, for a dual that looks like a blowout it went much better than I thought it would. Especially good to see Berreyesa back and Richard really improving as the year progresses.

Thank you for the summary.

What do you think will happen in the dual between Princeton and Cornell? From what I've seen of both programs so far, I think Princeton is the likely winner, with all the injuries and red shirts Cornell has.

Also, do you happen to know when the injured guys are expected to return?

blackwidow

ugarte
VT dual was much more fun and closer than I expected.

At 125 LaJoie almost beat another ranked opponent. Tucker remained undefeated at 133 with another win against a ranked wrestler. At 141 Baughman held off a major decision against a returning national qualifier.

Hunter Richard came back from down 5-0 to beat the #22 wrestler at 149 8-7 in sm incredible match. Santoro was so close to a comeback against #13 but couldn't quite get the lady points he needed (and actually ended up giving up 6 when his move didn't work out).

Brindley was facing #3 at 165 and avoided a MD with a stunning late takedown and rideout.

Andrew Berreyesa opted out of his Olympic redshirt year and returned to the lineup for the first time at 174. Right off the bay he hit a great throw for a 6-0 lead that I can't believe wasn't called a pin. He held on to win 8-4. He's still going to go to the Olympic trials.

Loew was able to keep it close against #2 to avoid a major.

Fagen and Furman... lost.

Still, for a dual that looks like a blowout it went much better than I thought it would. Especially good to see Berreyesa back and Richard really improving as the year progresses.

Thank you for the summary.

What do you think will happen in the dual between Princeton and Cornell? From what I've seen of both programs so far, I think Princeton is the likely winner, with all the injuries and red shirts Cornell has.

Also, do you happen to know when the injured guys are expected to return?

I have to look weight by weight to predict princeton. I've been worried all year.

As for the injuries, I'm taking pulling Berreyesa's redshirt as a bad sign for Womack's return. I don't know what to think about Yapoujian or Darmstadt. Someone said that Yap was in a knee brace. Darmstadt looked like maybe he tore a rib muscle or cartilage? Koll hasn't given an update since December and for obvious reasons he usually doesn't say much about injuries.

ugarte
I have to look weight by weight to predict princeton. I've been worried all year.

After further review I'm more than a little worried. We may even win six matches but Princeton looks much more likely to score bonus points, particularly at 125, 157 and 197. Not impossible to win but we have to keep our losses close.

ugarte

ugarte
I have to look weight by weight to predict princeton. I've been worried all year.

After further review I'm more than a little worried. We may even win six matches but Princeton looks much more likely to score bonus points, particularly at 125, 157 and 197. Not impossible to win but we have to keep our losses close.

Thanks for the closer inspection.

Im a graudate student at princeton now and will be attending the dual if I can get out of my lab that day (most likely i should be able to). I thought princeton was gonna be close last year. This may very well be the year cornell's streak ends.

blackwidow

ugarte

ugarte
I have to look weight by weight to predict princeton. I've been worried all year.

After further review I'm more than a little worried. We may even win six matches but Princeton looks much more likely to score bonus points, particularly at 125, 157 and 197. Not impossible to win but we have to keep our losses close.

Thanks for the closer inspection.

Im a graudate student at princeton now and will be attending the dual if I can get out of my lab that day (most likely i should be able to). I thought princeton was gonna be close last year. This may very well be the year cornell's streak ends.

Hunter keeping up his surge would go a long way. Unless Ben is healthy, it will be hard to win without taking 149.

Cornell had a pair of duals over the weekend, vs Harvard and Brown, and won both handily.

125: Dom LaJoie got his second win over a ranked wrestler and is having a very strong second half of the season, taking out #15 Hellickson in a major decision.

133: Chas Tucker remains undefeated at 133 and is basically stuck at #$ because the top 4 only lose to each other.

141: Noah Baughman with another pair of wins is hoping for a closing run that gets him into NCAA's. He just missed his first two seasons (and was squeezed out of the starting lineup last year by Arjuau, Tucker and Yianni).

149: Hunter Richard was ranked at 33 in the first Coaches' Rankings, placing him inside the tournament bubble. He didn't disappoint in his first action since being recognized.

157: Adam Santoro took a tough loss against a veteran opponent in Harvard's Ladnier and bounced back with a major decision in the Brown dual.

165: Jake Brindley couldn't handle #17 Conigliaro (and got a penalty point for slapping him in the face in the third period - I thought the team might have actually gotten penalized for that) but bounced back with a win against Brown.

174: Andrew Berreyesa's return to the lineup is going very well - for the third straight match he was able to slap a headlock on his opponent and flip him to his back. Against Harvard, he turned it into a pin; Against Brown a major. Womack is #17 in the current coaches' ranking, but he's been hurt and it is unclear how bad it is - and nobody has said anything about what happens when he's ready to return. Ideally, someone would go down to 165 but I have no idea who it would be. Womack's best year was 3 years ago when he was an AA at 165 but I don't know if he can still make the weight. Berreyesa was OK at 165 last year but not great and I can't imagine he wants to make that cut, especially since he wrestles at nearly 170 in Greco and would probably prefer the higher walking-around weight.

184: Jonathan Loew also made an appearance in the coaches' rankings - starting at 29. He pinned his Harvard opponent and Brown did not bother sending out anyone to face him.

197: Ben Darmstadt returned to the mat ... sort of. He put on a singlet and shook the refs hand as Harvard forfeited the weight. For Brown, who had a wrestler available, Cornell sent out Jonathon Fagen, who lost by major decision. I suspect Darmstadt's appearance against Harvard was just to get him credit for a match towards NCAA qualification but he wasn't quite ready to return from his rib injury.

285: Brendan Furman wrestled Harvard's best, the frosh Slavouski, and was badly outmatched. Slavikouski is fast and slick - a small heavyweight with very clean technique. In the evening match, Furman got an early takedown and flipped his opponent over for a 43 second pin.

5 wrestlers currently in the top 33 of the Coaches' Rankings, with LaJoie and Baughman probably on the fringes. This is going to be a tough year for the Red in the postseason, though.

cornellbigred.com
#18 Cornell Big Red (7-5, 2-0 Ivy) vs. Harvard Crimson (1-5, 0-1 Ivy)
Jan. 25, 2020 // Friedman Wrestling Center // Ithaca, N.Y.
Final: Cornell wins, 32-9
125: Dom LaJoie (COR) major dec. #15 Nolan Hellickson (HAR), 12-3; Cornell leads 4-0
133: #5 Chas Tucker (COR) dec. Michael Jaffe (HAR), 12-5; Cornell leads 7-0
141: Noah Baughman (COR) dec. Lukus Stricker (HAR), 8-4; Cornell leads 10-0
149: Hunter Richard (COR) major dec. Aaron Kruk (HAR), 12-4; Cornell leads 14-0
157: Hunter Ladnier (HAR) dec. Adam Santoro (COR), 5-3 (SV-1); Cornell leads, 14-3
165: #17 Phil Conigliaro (HAR) dec. Jake Brindley (COR), 6-3; Cornell leads, 14-6
174: Andrew Berreyesa (COR) over Pierce Bausano (HAR), Fall (4:36); Cornell leads, 20-6
184: Jonathan Loew (COR) over Michael Doggett (HAR), Fall (2:54); Cornell leads, 26-6
197: #11 Ben Darmstadt (COR wins by forfeit; Cornell leads, 32-6
285: #9 Yaraslau Slavikauski (HAR) dec. Brendan Furman (COR), 9-3; Cornell wins, 32-9

#18 Cornell Big Red (8-5, 3-0 Ivy) vs. Brown Bears (1-5, 0-1 Ivy)
Jan. 25, 2020 // Friedman Wrestling Center // Ithaca, N.Y.
Final: Cornell wins, 36-4
125: Dom LaJoie (COR) dec. Trey Keeley (Brown), 8-3; Cornell leads, 3-0
133: #5 Chas Tucker (COR) dec. Charlie Faber (Brown), 8-3; Cornell leads, 6-0
141: Noah Baughman (COR) major dec. Jimmy Pawelski (Brown), 12-4; Cornell leads, 10-0
149: Hunter Richard (COR) dec. Ricky Cabanillas (Brown), 5-4; Cornell leads, 13-0
157: Adam Santoro (COR) major dec. Jack Bokina (Brown), 14-3; Cornell leads, 17-0
165: Jake Brindley (COR) dec. Kiran Srikanth (Brown), 8-3; Cornell leads, 20-0
174: Andrew Berreyesa (COR) major dec. Cade Wilson (Brown), 10-0; Cornell leads, 24-0
184: Jonathan Loew (COR) by forfeit; Cornell leads, 30-0
197: Nino Bastianelli (Brown) major dec. Jonathon Fagen (COR), 11-0; Cornell leads, 30-4
285: Brendan Furman (COR) over James Valentino (Brown), Fall (0:43); Cornell wins, 36-4

ugarte

5 wrestlers currently in the top 33 of the Coaches' Rankings, with LaJoie and Baughman probably on the fringes. This is going to be a tough year for the Red in the postseason, though.

Other than Tucker (who will keep every match nerve wrackingly close) and Darmstadt (if healthy), who could make a deep run? Berreyesa, maybe? But the true studs probably stay away from his throws. Possibly Bama, but Berreysa probably keeps his Olympic redshirt if Womack was likely to go.

I'll take an Ivy title, which is far from certain, and be happy from a team perspective. I'd really like to see Tucker AA. He may have me fooled, but he seems like a great all-around person.

mountainred

Other than Tucker (who will keep every match nerve wrackingly close) and Darmstadt (if healthy), who could make a deep run? Berreyesa, maybe? But the true studs probably stay away from his throws. Possibly Bama, but Berreysa probably keeps his Olympic redshirt if Womack was likely to go.

That's basically it. I can see qualifying some other guys but don't see anyone but Tucker and Darmstadt on the podium. Even prime Womack is a longshot. Berreyesa isn't as well-rounded as JJC was and I'm curious how he does against top competition. I really want to see some guys step up and earn AQ slots for EIWA and then hold them.

I'll take an Ivy title, which is far from certain, and be happy from a team perspective. I'd really like to see Tucker AA. He may have me fooled, but he seems like a great all-around person.

Tucker was very nice when my son and I met him at Columbia last year. Ivy title hinges on Darmstadt's health imo. Fingers crossed.

Cornell rolled over Penn, 30-9.

Tomorrow is Doomsday, though. We face Princeton for the Ivy title and for the first time in almost two decades - because of our three Olympic redshirts - we're the underdog. To show that they aren't kidding around, Princeton pulled the Olympic redshirt of Matt Kolodzik, a 2x All-American, in time for him to join the team to try to break Cornell's Ivy title (17) and Ivy dual meet (92) streaks. Kolodzik will face Hunter Richard at 149, probably flipping a match Cornell was favored to win into what could be a bonus point loss. In Kolodzik's return to the mat today he won by technical fall, 17-1. Richard beat the same wrestler 8-0 earlier this season.

ESPN+ at 1, in Princeton. Let's Go Red!

If we win the tossups we can do this.

ugarte
Cornell rolled over Penn, 30-9.

Tomorrow is Doomsday, though. We face Princeton for the Ivy title and for the first time in almost two decades - because of our three Olympic redshirts - we're the underdog. To show that they aren't kidding around, Princeton pulled the Olympic redshirt of Matt Kolodzik, a 2x All-American, in time for him to join the team to try to break Cornell's Ivy title (17) and Ivy dual meet (92) streaks. Kolodzik will face Hunter Richard at 149, probably flipping a match Cornell was favored to win into what could be a bonus point loss. In Kolodzik's return to the mat today he won by technical fall, 17-1. Richard beat the same wrestler 8-0 earlier this season.

ESPN+ at 1, in Princeton. Let's Go Red!

If we win the tossups we can do this.

Princeton recognizes that this year is their window, given what we have coming back and some strong newcomers next year

ugarte

ESPN+ at 1, in Princeton. Let's Go Red!

If we win the tossups we can do this.

Probably need them all -- or an unexpected pin -- but a win is doable.

Figure Princeton is the heavy favorite at 125, 157, and, now, 149. Probably favored at 165 too. If Cornell steals any of those 4, things are going well. If the Big Red hold them all to regular decision losses, that works.

Cornell is a heavy favorite at 133, but Tucker just doesn't get bonus points. I'd give the Big Red the nod at 141 and 285 too. If Princeton wins any of those weights, they probably win the dual.

That leaves toss-ups at 174, 184 and 197. Win two of those, and it comes down to bonus points, which favors Princeton. Win all 3 -- and Wrestlestat says Cornell is favored in all 3 -- and the Tigers need to be +6 in bonus points to win the dual. (A pin = 3 bonus points, a tech fall = 2, a major decision = 1).

The only match-up of guys in the top 10, Darmstadt v. Brucki at 197, could very well decide it.

And, LGR!

mountainred

ugarte

ESPN+ at 1, in Princeton. Let's Go Red!

If we win the tossups we can do this.

Probably need them all -- or an unexpected pin -- but a win is doable.

Figure Princeton is the heavy favorite at 125, 157, and, now, 149. Probably favored at 165 too. If Cornell steals any of those 4, things are going well. If the Big Red hold them all to regular decision losses, that works.

Cornell is a heavy favorite at 133, but Tucker just doesn't get bonus points. I'd give the Big Red the nod at 141 and 285 too. If Princeton wins any of those weights, they probably win the dual.

That leaves toss-ups at 174, 184 and 197. Win two of those, and it comes down to bonus points, which favors Princeton. Win all 3 -- and Wrestlestat says Cornell is favored in all 3 -- and the Tigers need to be +6 in bonus points to win the dual. (A pin = 3 bonus points, a tech fall = 2, a major decision = 1).

The only match-up of guys in the top 10, Darmstadt v. Brucki at 197, could very well decide it.

And, LGR!

Dominance has come to an end

blackwidow

mountainred

ugarte

ESPN+ at 1, in Princeton. Let's Go Red!

If we win the tossups we can do this.

Probably need them all -- or an unexpected pin -- but a win is doable.

Figure Princeton is the heavy favorite at 125, 157, and, now, 149. Probably favored at 165 too. If Cornell steals any of those 4, things are going well. If the Big Red hold them all to regular decision losses, that works.

Cornell is a heavy favorite at 133, but Tucker just doesn't get bonus points. I'd give the Big Red the nod at 141 and 285 too. If Princeton wins any of those weights, they probably win the dual.

That leaves toss-ups at 174, 184 and 197. Win two of those, and it comes down to bonus points, which favors Princeton. Win all 3 -- and Wrestlestat says Cornell is favored in all 3 -- and the Tigers need to be +6 in bonus points to win the dual. (A pin = 3 bonus points, a tech fall = 2, a major decision = 1).

The only match-up of guys in the top 10, Darmstadt v. Brucki at 197, could very well decide it.

And, LGR!

Dominance has come to an end

Oh, please. The goofball Princeton coaches pranced around like they just won the NCAAs, after beating a team wrestling without a national champion, a runner-up, and an All-American. BFD.

Al DeFlorio

blackwidow

mountainred

ugarte

ESPN+ at 1, in Princeton. Let's Go Red!

If we win the tossups we can do this.

Probably need them all -- or an unexpected pin -- but a win is doable.

Figure Princeton is the heavy favorite at 125, 157, and, now, 149. Probably favored at 165 too. If Cornell steals any of those 4, things are going well. If the Big Red hold them all to regular decision losses, that works.

Cornell is a heavy favorite at 133, but Tucker just doesn't get bonus points. I'd give the Big Red the nod at 141 and 285 too. If Princeton wins any of those weights, they probably win the dual.

That leaves toss-ups at 174, 184 and 197. Win two of those, and it comes down to bonus points, which favors Princeton. Win all 3 -- and Wrestlestat says Cornell is favored in all 3 -- and the Tigers need to be +6 in bonus points to win the dual. (A pin = 3 bonus points, a tech fall = 2, a major decision = 1).

The only match-up of guys in the top 10, Darmstadt v. Brucki at 197, could very well decide it.

And, LGR!

Dominance has come to an end

Oh, please. The goofball Princeton coaches pranced around like they just won the NCAAs, after beating a team wrestling without a national champion, a runner-up, and an All-American. BFD.

First ivy title since 1986. So painful :'(

mountainred

ugarte

ESPN+ at 1, in Princeton. Let's Go Red!

If we win the tossups we can do this.

Probably need them all -- or an unexpected pin -- but a win is doable.

Figure Princeton is the heavy favorite at 125, 157, and, now, 149. Probably favored at 165 too. If Cornell steals any of those 4, things are going well. If the Big Red hold them all to regular decision losses, that works.

Cornell is a heavy favorite at 133, but Tucker just doesn't get bonus points. I'd give the Big Red the nod at 141 and 285 too. If Princeton wins any of those weights, they probably win the dual.

That leaves toss-ups at 174, 184 and 197. Win two of those, and it comes down to bonus points, which favors Princeton. Win all 3 -- and Wrestlestat says Cornell is favored in all 3 -- and the Tigers need to be +6 in bonus points to win the dual. (A pin = 3 bonus points, a tech fall = 2, a major decision = 1).

The only match-up of guys in the top 10, Darmstadt v. Brucki at 197, could very well decide it.

And, LGR!

so close. it all came down to loew not quite getting a takedown at the end. incredible scramble by stefanek to come out on top not to mention the cradle. if it mattered I think Darmstadt gets the bonus for the win. stefanek deserves all the props.

ugarte

mountainred

ugarte

ESPN+ at 1, in Princeton. Let's Go Red!

If we win the tossups we can do this.

Probably need them all -- or an unexpected pin -- but a win is doable.

Figure Princeton is the heavy favorite at 125, 157, and, now, 149. Probably favored at 165 too. If Cornell steals any of those 4, things are going well. If the Big Red hold them all to regular decision losses, that works.

Cornell is a heavy favorite at 133, but Tucker just doesn't get bonus points. I'd give the Big Red the nod at 141 and 285 too. If Princeton wins any of those weights, they probably win the dual.

That leaves toss-ups at 174, 184 and 197. Win two of those, and it comes down to bonus points, which favors Princeton. Win all 3 -- and Wrestlestat says Cornell is favored in all 3 -- and the Tigers need to be +6 in bonus points to win the dual. (A pin = 3 bonus points, a tech fall = 2, a major decision = 1).

The only match-up of guys in the top 10, Darmstadt v. Brucki at 197, could very well decide it.

And, LGR!

so close. it all came down to loew not quite getting a takedown at the end. incredible scramble by stefanek to come out on top not to mention the cradle. if it mattered I think Darmstadt gets the bonus for the win. stefanek deserves all the props.

Agreed. Hunter and Santoro did a great job of keeping their matches close, but we needed two of three toss-ups.

It looks like the scouting report on Berreyesa is out - stay away from his throws.

Ben looks ready for a deep run.

mountainred

ugarte

mountainred

ugarte

ESPN+ at 1, in Princeton. Let's Go Red!

If we win the tossups we can do this.

Probably need them all -- or an unexpected pin -- but a win is doable.

Figure Princeton is the heavy favorite at 125, 157, and, now, 149. Probably favored at 165 too. If Cornell steals any of those 4, things are going well. If the Big Red hold them all to regular decision losses, that works.

Cornell is a heavy favorite at 133, but Tucker just doesn't get bonus points. I'd give the Big Red the nod at 141 and 285 too. If Princeton wins any of those weights, they probably win the dual.

That leaves toss-ups at 174, 184 and 197. Win two of those, and it comes down to bonus points, which favors Princeton. Win all 3 -- and Wrestlestat says Cornell is favored in all 3 -- and the Tigers need to be +6 in bonus points to win the dual. (A pin = 3 bonus points, a tech fall = 2, a major decision = 1).

The only match-up of guys in the top 10, Darmstadt v. Brucki at 197, could very well decide it.

And, LGR!

so close. it all came down to loew not quite getting a takedown at the end. incredible scramble by stefanek to come out on top not to mention the cradle. if it mattered I think Darmstadt gets the bonus for the win. stefanek deserves all the props.

Agreed. Hunter and Santoro did a great job of keeping their matches close, but we needed two of three toss-ups.

It looks like the scouting report on Berreyesa is out - stay away from his throws.

Ben looks ready for a deep run.

Hunter really gave Kolodzik a run for his money. The Princeton announcer said Lowe got a takedown late in the match before he was taken down, but the official never called it, so it was a bit confusing what was happening. Tough loss but not for lack of effort.

scoop85
Hunter really gave Kolodzik a run for his money. The Princeton announcer said Lowe got a takedown late in the match before he was taken down, but the official never called it, so it was a bit confusing what was happening. Tough loss but not for lack of effort.

with the cradle it didn't really matter if loew got credit for the takedown. aaaagh so close.

I dont know all that much strategy for wrestling, but wasnt the Hunter match 3-1 and he chose to be up in the 3rd? he already was losing riding time wasn't he? Had he chosen down and go the escape a takedown could have tied the match. But by choosing up he had a bigger battle to fight? Or did i get the order wrong?

upprdeck
I dont know all that much strategy for wrestling, but wasnt the Hunter match 3-1 and he chose to be up in the 3rd? he already was losing riding time wasn't he?

I think he felt that after being ridden out in the first, he'd rather be on his feet needing only 22 seconds on top after a takedown to eliminate riding time. if he takes bottom who knows if he stands up. plus, the way kolodzik was backing up the possibility of more points from stalling was there too as long as he kept attacking. the ref didn't cooperate.

the stalling thing almost saved him. I figured he was worried about getting up, but also seemed like he was the stronger guy late.

Well, time for the sad recap. Not going to recap Saturday's 30-6 win over Penn except to say that Penn has two wrestlers ranked in the top 20, both of them won, and Cornell swept the other eight matches including pins from Loew and Darmstadt.

Sunday's critical dual against Princeton was wild. The match started at 285 - I presume - to ramp up the tension for a final match between #3 and returning AA Patrick Brucki and #10 (as he restores his ranking at 197) and 2018 AA Ben Darmstadt that could potentially decide the match. It almost worked, too.

285: Brendan Furman dominated from whistle to whistle. Cruised to a 9-0 major decision. [CU 4-0]

125: Dom LaJoie had to face #3 Patrick Glory - who beat Arujau in the EIWA final last year - and could not quite keep it to a regular decision, losing 9-0. [4-4]

133: #5 Chas Tucker couldn't quite get one last takedown and won a regular decision, 9-3. [CU 7-4]

141: Shaking off a close loss to a ranked wrestler on Saturday, Noah Baughman defeated Keller 8-4. [CU 10-4]

149: A critical match for Hunter Richard and he damn near pulled it off. 3x All-American Matt Kolodzik came off of his Olympic redshirt to face Richard, kind of because their replacement starter got hurt but come on it was to go for the Ivy title. Kolodzik looked tired after the first period but the ref let him get his one takedown and then move backwards for two periods. The refs called Kolodzik for stalling 3 times but it wasn't enough. His first period takedown and rideout were enough to overcome the backpedaling and Kolodzik beat Richard 4-2. [CU 10-7]

157: Adam Santoro was a huge underdog against #4 Quincy Monday and for the first two periods he looked it. In the third, he had more energy and got a takedown to make it close and nearly got a second one to send it to overtime. 9-7 final. Another valiant effort by Santoro. If he makes a run in the conference tournament that would be very cool. [10-10]

165: Grant Cuomo was just better. Jake Brindley keeps it under a major but loses 8-1. [PU 13-10]

174: Andrew Berreyesa wasn't able to get into any upper body positions and Parker kept getting to his legs. Also not quite a major. 10-3 loss. [PU 16-10]

184: Freshman Jonathan Loew had to wrestle the critical match. Now down by 6, Cornell needs to win the last two matches to have a chance at the dual. Travis Stefanik came out looking stronger and had the lead for most of the match. In the third period, though, Loew got a takedown to take the lead, leaving the match tied at 4 after Stefanik's escape. In the closing seconds, Loew took a shot and looked certain to convert for a takedown, but Stefanik scrambled, rolled underneath and grabbed Loew's leg before the points could be scored. The scramble left Loew in an awkward position with his head too close to his knee and Stefanik was able to cradle him and roll him on to his back for a 2 point takedown and 4 nearfall points (and nearly a pin). The 10-4 win for Stefanik ended a 17 year string of Cornell Ivy championships. Any Tiger fans out there... I can't imagine a better way to seal a title. [PU 19-10]

197: After the tension and excitement of 184, the feature match at 197 was somewhat anticlimactic but still very revealing. Ben Darmstadt has had a strange path. A dominant freshman year that came to an auspicious end when he made it to the NCAA semifinals only to lose three straight matches (including two by fall) to finish 6th, followed by back surgery and a year of medical leave. He returned this year at 184 - incredible when you realize that he is 6'4" - hoping to take even more advantage of his length. It turns out, though, that the suckdown sapped his strength and he was losing to the top competition. His return to 197 was itself rocky, as he has mostly dominated his competition, but injured himself during the Columbia dual and missed a few weeks. Coming back for what might be a do-or-die match at 197 against Brucki was a very cool storyline. The match was only exciting for the folks here: Darmstadt absolutely destroyed Brucki. He took him down early and often and turned him when he was on top. Until the closing seconds of the match Brucki's only points came from calls for illegal holds, which I need to rewatch to see. Sitting on a major decision with 4 seconds left, Darmstadt eased up on the final restart and Brucki got a meaningless reversal to make the final score 11-4. It was great to see and I expect that any of the ratings that didn't already have Darmstadt in the top 5 will move him up to #3 at worst, behind a pair of undefeated wrestlers. [PU 19-13]

On to Binghamton to close conference action, then duals against North Carolina and Lock Haven to finish the regular season.

ugarte
Well, time for the sad recap. Not going to recap Saturday's 30-6 win over Penn except to say that Penn has two wrestlers ranked in the top 20, both of them won, and Cornell swept the other eight matches including pins from Loew and Darmstadt.

Sunday's critical dual against Princeton was wild. The match started at 285 - I presume - to ramp up the tension for a final match between #3 and returning AA Patrick Brucki and #10 (as he restores his ranking at 197) and 2018 AA Ben Darmstadt that could potentially decide the match. It almost worked, too.

285: Brendan Furman dominated from whistle to whistle. Cruised to a 9-0 major decision. [CU 4-0]

125: Dom LaJoie had to face #3 Patrick Glory - who beat Arujau in the EIWA final last year - and could not quite keep it to a regular decision, losing 9-0. [4-4]

133: #5 Chas Tucker couldn't quite get one last takedown and won a regular decision, 9-3. [CU 7-4]

141: Shaking off a close loss to a ranked wrestler on Saturday, Noah Baughman defeated Keller 8-4. [CU 10-4]

149: A critical match for Hunter Richard and he damn near pulled it off. 3x All-American Matt Kolodzik came off of his Olympic redshirt to face Richard, kind of because their replacement starter got hurt but come on it was to go for the Ivy title. Kolodzik looked tired after the first period but the ref let him get his one takedown and then move backwards for two periods. The refs called Kolodzik for stalling 3 times but it wasn't enough. His first period takedown and rideout were enough to overcome the backpedaling and Kolodzik beat Richard 4-2. [CU 10-7]

157: Adam Santoro was a huge underdog against #4 Quincy Monday and for the first two periods he looked it. In the third, he had more energy and got a takedown to make it close and nearly got a second one to send it to overtime. 9-7 final. Another valiant effort by Santoro. If he makes a run in the conference tournament that would be very cool. [10-10]

165: Grant Cuomo was just better. Jake Brindley keeps it under a major but loses 8-1. [PU 13-10]

174: Andrew Berreyesa wasn't able to get into any upper body positions and Parker kept getting to his legs. Also not quite a major. 10-3 loss. [PU 16-10]

184: Freshman Jonathan Loew had to wrestle the critical match. Now down by 6, Cornell needs to win the last two matches to have a chance at the dual. Travis Stefanik came out looking stronger and had the lead for most of the match. In the third period, though, Loew got a takedown to take the lead, leaving the match tied at 4 after Stefanik's escape. In the closing seconds, Loew took a shot and looked certain to convert for a takedown, but Stefanik scrambled, rolled underneath and grabbed Loew's leg before the points could be scored. The scramble left Loew in an awkward position with his head too close to his knee and Stefanik was able to cradle him and roll him on to his back for a 2 point takedown and 4 nearfall points (and nearly a pin). The 10-4 win for Stefanik ended a 17 year string of Cornell Ivy championships. Any Tiger fans out there... I can't imagine a better way to seal a title. [PU 19-10]

197: After the tension and excitement of 184, the feature match at 197 was somewhat anticlimactic but still very revealing. Ben Darmstadt has had a strange path. A dominant freshman year that came to an auspicious end when he made it to the NCAA semifinals only to lose three straight matches (including two by fall) to finish 6th, followed by back surgery and a year of medical leave. He returned this year at 184 - incredible when you realize that he is 6'4" - hoping to take even more advantage of his length. It turns out, though, that the suckdown sapped his strength and he was losing to the top competition. His return to 197 was itself rocky, as he has mostly dominated his competition, but injured himself during the Columbia dual and missed a few weeks. Coming back for what might be a do-or-die match at 197 against Brucki was a very cool storyline. The match was only exciting for the folks here: Darmstadt absolutely destroyed Brucki. He took him down early and often and turned him when he was on top. Until the closing seconds of the match Brucki's only points came from calls for illegal holds, which I need to rewatch to see. Sitting on a major decision with 4 seconds left, Darmstadt eased up on the final restart and Brucki got a meaningless reversal to make the final score 11-4. It was great to see and I expect that any of the ratings that didn't already have Darmstadt in the top 5 will move him up to #3 at worst, behind a pair of undefeated wrestlers. [PU 19-13]

On to Binghamton to close conference action, then duals against North Carolina and Lock Haven to finish the regular season.

:'(. Hope we get the title back next year

blackwidow

:'(. Hope we get the title back next year

it would be fairly shocking if we did not.

ugarte

125: Dom LaJoie had to face #3 Patrick Glory - who beat Arujau in the EIWA final last year - and could not quite keep it to a regular decision, losing 9-0. [4-4]

Very true, but as a fan of Vito, I would like to add that Arujau dominated Glory in dual meet (2nd period WBF) and finished higher at the NCAA's (4th v. 6th).

This ends this unpaid announcement of Vito Arujau fan club.

mountainred

ugarte

125: Dom LaJoie had to face #3 Patrick Glory - who beat Arujau in the EIWA final last year - and could not quite keep it to a regular decision, losing 9-0. [4-4]

Very true, but as a fan of Vito, I would like to add that Arujau dominated Glory in dual meet (2nd period WBF) and finished higher at the NCAA's (4th v. 6th).

This ends this unpaid announcement of Vito Arujau fan club.

i mean... i know... which you know... i was just trying to give a sense of where glory stacked up against lajoie. i was hoping dom could keep it to a major and so was pretty excited after the match and not turn each weight into a discursive essay.

blackwidow

mountainred

ugarte

ESPN+ at 1, in Princeton. Let's Go Red!

If we win the tossups we can do this.

Probably need them all -- or an unexpected pin -- but a win is doable.

Figure Princeton is the heavy favorite at 125, 157, and, now, 149. Probably favored at 165 too. If Cornell steals any of those 4, things are going well. If the Big Red hold them all to regular decision losses, that works.

Cornell is a heavy favorite at 133, but Tucker just doesn't get bonus points. I'd give the Big Red the nod at 141 and 285 too. If Princeton wins any of those weights, they probably win the dual.

That leaves toss-ups at 174, 184 and 197. Win two of those, and it comes down to bonus points, which favors Princeton. Win all 3 -- and Wrestlestat says Cornell is favored in all 3 -- and the Tigers need to be +6 in bonus points to win the dual. (A pin = 3 bonus points, a tech fall = 2, a major decision = 1).

The only match-up of guys in the top 10, Darmstadt v. Brucki at 197, could very well decide it.

And, LGR!

Dominance has come to an end

Dude, show some class. You go with the team you have, and Cornell did well with what they had. Princeton can only compete against whoever shows up, and they won.

just thinking about tiebreakers and "all other things equal" scenarios...

1) if you change the loew match so that he converts the single and gets the win 6-4 and Darmstadt match stays the same, we win the total points tiebreaker criteria by one.
2) if you change the loew match so that he converts the single but Stefanik escapes so he wins 6-5 and the Darmstadt match stays the same, we win the first takedown tiebreaker criteria.
3) if you give loew the win in any way, and Darmstadt is effectively up by 9 with a restart coming with 4 seconds left, a major decision would win the dual without resort to tiebreakers and the easiest course is to simply give an escape and start on your feet and dodge for 4 seconds.

One perfect scramble and counter by Stefanik broke a 92 match winning streak. Very hard to feel bad - his face was euphoric.

ugarte
One perfect scramble and counter by Stefanik broke a 92 match winning streak. Very hard to feel bad - his face was euphoric.

I don't feel bad. Great move by Stefanik...sort of a Yianni last few seconds snatching victory from the jaws of defeat move. Coming that close to winning the dual with a team missing three of its--and the nation's--best wrestlers, was a helluva showing.

Al DeFlorio

ugarte
One perfect scramble and counter by Stefanik broke a 92 match winning streak. Very hard to feel bad - his face was euphoric.

I don't feel bad. Great move by Stefanik...sort of a Yianni last few seconds snatching victory from the jaws of defeat move. Coming that close to winning the dual with a team missing three of its--and the nation's--best wrestlers, was a helluva showing.

It's a moment Stefanik will remember forever and you could sense this dual was just vitally important to Princeton. That's not a criticism of our guys effort, just a nod that the Tigers knew yesterday was their chance and they better find a way to win.

ugarte

mountainred

ugarte

125: Dom LaJoie had to face #3 Patrick Glory - who beat Arujau in the EIWA final last year - and could not quite keep it to a regular decision, losing 9-0. [4-4]

Very true, but as a fan of Vito, I would like to add that Arujau dominated Glory in dual meet (2nd period WBF) and finished higher at the NCAA's (4th v. 6th).

This ends this unpaid announcement of Vito Arujau fan club.

i mean... i know... which you know... i was just trying to give a sense of where glory stacked up against lajoie. i was hoping dom could keep it to a major and so was pretty excited after the match and not turn each weight into a discursive essay.

I know that you know that I know that you ......{trails off in an endless loop}. I really just wanted to think of happier days!

The NCAA tournament qualification process for wrestling is really complicated - I don't know all of the rules but I'm working on it. A simplified version is that the performance of a conference's wrestlers over the course of the regular season determines the allocation of automatic qualifiers at each weight to that conference's tournament. A few slots at each weight are reserved for at-large bids. The AQ allocation is a combination of RPI*, winning percentage* and coaches' rankings. The NCAA periodically polls the coaches as the end of the season approaches and concurrently releases the top 33 RPI so everyone knows where they stand. Here's where Cornell stands now.

133: Tucker #4 CR, #4 RPI
141: Baughman #21 RPI
149: Richard #29 CR, #29 RPI
174: Womack #23 RPI^
184: Loew #28 CR
197: Darmstadt #3 CR

* figuring out RPI and winning percentage is damn near impossible because college wrestlers enter tournaments with redshirt, D-III, club, JuCo or NAIA opponents and a guy can change weight classes over the course of a season. How those factor into different winning percentages or RPI is like explaining to a person who has never watched baseball all the exceptions to distinguish an at-bat from a plate appearance. I rely on the EIWA SID for these things and even he isn't always positive and thinks the NCAA sometimes gets it slightly wrong but isn't transparent about its calculations.

^ Womack still has an RPI because he has enough matches to qualify (15) but hasn't wrestled since getting injured in December so he isn't eligible to be ranked. His replacement, Berreyesa doesn't have enough matches to qualify for RPI. There is a note in the preview for this weekend's duals (Binghamton and North Carolina) that Womack hopes to return before the end of the season, which would be great because he was wrestling really well before he was hurt and it's his senior year.

Darmstadt or Loew also are under 15 qualifying matches because they swapped weight classes midway through the season. Loew will have enough matches by the end of the weekend. I think Darmstadt and Berreyesa may go to one of the open tournaments held late in the season that let wrestlers get their match count up to get the conference extra qualifying spots.

Cornell faces Binghamton today at 1 and North Carolina tomorrow at 1. More details and match notes here: [cornellbigred.com]

ugarte
The NCAA tournament qualification process for wrestling is really complicated - I don't know all of the rules but I'm working on it. A simplified version is that the performance of a conference's wrestlers over the course of the regular season determines the allocation of automatic qualifiers at each weight to that conference's tournament. A few slots at each weight are reserved for at-large bids. x

Thanks ugarte. I appreciate how, once conference allocations are made, it gets pretty simple and everyone knows what he has to do to qualify. If the EIWA gets 5 qualifiers, you need to finish 5th or better. Of course, the at-large bids are the NCAA at its shadowy worst.

Crazy to think that Cornell may earn the EIWA a possible qualification at only two weights -- 133 and 197.

I'd love to see Womack wrestle again this year, and is it crazy to want to seem him at 165? That's probably a brutal cut, but he only needs to do it for a few weeks and he had a great NCAA Tournament at that weight.

mountainred

ugarte
The NCAA tournament qualification process for wrestling is really complicated - I don't know all of the rules but I'm working on it. A simplified version is that the performance of a conference's wrestlers over the course of the regular season determines the allocation of automatic qualifiers at each weight to that conference's tournament. A few slots at each weight are reserved for at-large bids. x

Thanks ugarte. I appreciate how, once conference allocations are made, it gets pretty simple and everyone knows what he has to do to qualify. If the EIWA gets 5 qualifiers, you need to finish 5th or better. Of course, the at-large bids are the NCAA at its shadowy worst.

Crazy to think that Cornell may earn the EIWA a possible qualification at only two weights -- 133 and 197.

I'd love to see Womack wrestle again this year, and is it crazy to want to seem him at 165? That's probably a brutal cut, but he only needs to do it for a few weeks and he had a great NCAA Tournament at that weight.

the more i've read about the at-large, the less shadowy it seems; i thought baughman probably deserved one his freshman year but after running the numbers i was less surprised that he got squeezed out. i'd also like to see womack wrestle again but not sure when it would happen. he'd have to be fully healthy to cut to 165 or to push out Berreyesa. it would be cool to see him get another match against UNC or Lock Haven, though, even if he's not going to be at EIWA.

Cornell rolled Binghamton 32-8.

141: Noah Baughman faced Anthony Sparacio, an NCAA qualifier from last year. Trailing the whole match, Baughman got a takedown with four seconds left in the match to pull off a 4-3 win. Awesome finish. [CU 3-0]

149: Hunter Richard is looking to get back in the top 25 and faced Matthew Swanson. Comfortable major decision. Bigger challenge tomorrow against #3 O'Connor. [CU 7-0]

157: Binghamton forfeit. Adam Santoro gets his hand raised for Cornell. [CU 13-0]

165: Chris Schoenherr, on Senior Night, gets a surprising start at 165 after a career as a backup at 149. Facing Dylan Wood, he wins 13-5 for a major decision. Feel like we're going to see Milik Dawkins, also a senior, tomorrow. [CU 17-0]

174: Andrew Berreyesa, facing Alex Milikian, made it interesting but pulled away for a 10-5 win. [CU 20-0]

184: Jonathan Loew is also trying to climb the rankings but that's a tall order against #5 Louie DePrez. DePrez dominated this match and won 15-4 for a major. [CU 20-4]

197: Louie's brother Sam took the mat for Binghamton against newly-minted #3 Ben Darmstadt. It was close for the first minute or so, with DePrez almost scoring and seeming to hold off Darmstadt. It looked like he may have been in a position to score again but again Darmstadt fought it off, this time fully throwing DePrez to his back for his 13th pin of the season. [CU 26-4]

Hwt: Backup Seth Janney came out for Cornell against Joe Doyle. Doyle dominated the match, winning by major 11-2. [CU 26-8]

125: Dom LaJoie, shockingly, trailed the entire match against 1-16 Tommaso Frezza (who has lost a lot of close matches and is probably better than his record) but scored late in the third and added a riding time point to win 4-3. [CU 29-8]

133: The feature match of the dual, with a pair of undefeated top 10 wrestlers. #5 Chas Tucker (24-0) vs #9 Zack Trampe (8-0). Tucker got out to an early lead, and was winning late, but, in attempt to pad his lead and/or avoid a second stalling call, gave up a takedown in the closing seconds to send the match to OT. In OT, he scored a takedown in sudden victory to preserve his unbeaten record. [CU 32-8 FINAL]

2020 wrestling was Princeton's 500th Ivy League title, if you're keeping score which apparently they are.

[www.princeton.edu]

nyc94
2020 wrestling was Princeton's 500th Ivy League title, if you're keeping score which apparently they are.

[www.princeton.edu]

What they have done with their wrestling program is really impressive.

Haven't watched it yet but we got beat by North Carolina. Some surprises, both good and bad.

The good news: Tucker is still undefeated, Furman beat a wrestler in the CR and Baughman got his best win of the season plus a major from Loew. Also, Santoro had another close-but-no-cigar match against a ranked opponent. I'd love to see him make a run at EIWA to steal a bid.

The bad news: Darmstadt was beaten pretty handily by an unranked wrestler; Berreyesa is getting handled by unranked opponents if he can't get an upper body throw; and LaJoie got pinned.

Last dual before the conference tournament is next weekend at Lock Haven.

149: #3 Austin O'Connor (UNC) dec. Hunter Richard (COR), 10-3; UNC leads, 3-0
157: #11 A.C. Headlee (UNC) dec. Adam Santoro (COR), 9-7; UNC leads, 6-0
165: Sawyer Davidson (UNC) dec. Chris Schoenherr (COR), 8-4; UNC leads, 9-0
174: Clay Lautt (UNC) dec. Andrew Berreyesa (COR), 6-0; UNC leads, 12-0
184: Jonathan Loew (COR) major dec. Joey Mazzara (UNC), 12-3; UNC leads, 12-4
197: Brandon Whitman (UNC) dec. #3 Ben Darmstadt (COR), 6-2; UNC leads, 15-4
285: Brendan Furman (COR) dec. Andrew Gunning (UNC) 3-1 (SV-1); UNC leads, 15-7
125: Joey Melendez (UNC) over Dom LaJoie (COR), Fall (6:39); UNC leads, 21-7
133: #5 Chas Tucker (COR) dec. Jaime Hernandez (UNC), 4-1; UNC leads, 21-10
141: Noah Baughman (COR) dec. #12 Zach Sherman (UNC), 3-1; UNC wins, 21-13

blackwidow

nyc94
2020 wrestling was Princeton's 500th Ivy League title, if you're keeping score which apparently they are.
[www.princeton.edu]

What they have done with their wrestling program is really impressive.

And Princeton has nascent plans for something nicer, to replace Jadwin Gymnasium, the home to wrestling, basketball, indoor track, fencing, etcetera, I'm hearing. Jadwin is all of 51 years old; Barton Hall is 105. I always liked Jadwin because even when you got a Cornell-basketball-visits size crowd, it didn't ever feel empty.

Interesting goings on in wrestling. Cornell won their last dual meet of the season, beating Lock Haven 23-13. After alternating wins with Lock Haven from 125 through 174, Cornell swept the last 3 weights with bonus points to run away with the meet.

The good:
Chas Tucker stayed unbeaten, avenging his 2019 NCAA tournament loss to DJ Fehlman.
Milik Dawkins got to wrestle again before finishing his senior year, winning 13-6.
Ben Darmstadt rebounded from his surprising loss against the Tar Heels with a 16-0 tech fall.
Bonus point wins from Hunter Richard, Jonathan Loew and Brendan Furman.

The understandable:
Dom LaJoie and Noah Baughman both lost to top 15 wrestlers.

The bad:
Adam Santoro got lit up 14-1 and Andrew Berreyesa lost to an unranked wrestler. Berreyesa started hot but now that it's clear that his game is upper body throws, he is not doing that well.

There was also a tournament on Sunday, hosted by Lock Haven, that serves mostly as an opportunity to get backups and redshirts some tournament action and provide an opportunity for wrestlers who need a match or two to achieve certain NCAA qualification criteria to do that. We sent two guys* - (1) Brandon Womack needed to wrestle in order to be eligible for RPI, since he hadn't wrestled since December and (2) Hunter Richard needed to win at least one match to get his winning percentage over .700. Both did exactly what they needed to do. Womack was slated against fellow Cornellian Remi Pellumbi, pinned him quickly then medically forfeited out of the rest of the tournament. Richard won two matches, brought his winning % up to .7097, then also medically defaulted out. You will not be surprised to hear that medical forfeits do not count against you for NCAA criteria purposes and also nobody checks to see if you are really hurt.

In future Cornellian news, Incoming 197 Jacob Cardenas went 3-0 and took first place when Bucknell's Drew Phipps pulled the ol' MFF for the final and incoming 165 Julian Ramirez went 4-0 to take first place. Mason Reniche, also a future 165er, went 2-2 and didn't place. Not sure if the other FLWC guys are actually Cornell recruits but Romeo McNeil (125) took 4th and Benny Baker (157) went 2-1.

The set of Coaches Rankings and official RPI come out on Thursday along with the number of bids that each conference has earned at each weight.

* we actually sent 4 guys; Pellumbi, who I think was intentionally paired with Womack and I'm not saying he took a dive but I am saying that it's good to know that Womack was healthy enough that the outcome wasn't in doubt.John Stawinski, a sophomore 165 who doesn't get much action also got in and went 1-2.