Wrestling 21-22

New season, new thread.

No preview yet but new HC Mike Grey announced that the first dual meet of the season will be at Stanford against his mentor and Cornell's last coach, Rob Koll.

Pretty sure the Stanford dual is in Ithaca.

Is there enough runway at ITH for the Stanford Athletics Boeing Business Jet?

ugarte
New season, new thread.

No preview yet but new HC Mike Grey announced that the first dual meet of the season will be at Stanford against his mentor and Cornell's last coach, Rob Koll.

At Cornell to open the new Friedman Arena (built by Koll).

Classy move.

billhoward
Is there enough runway at ITH for the Stanford Athletics Boeing Business Jet?

They can fly into SYR and hire limos.

billhoward
Is there enough runway at ITH for the Stanford Athletics Boeing Business Jet?

Larry72 could give an authoritative answer to that question. We can all do the approximate arithmetic.

[jetadvisors.com]

The BBJ, despite its size and its maximum takeoff weight of 171,000 pounds, can take off from a sea level runway in 5,885 feet. At an altitude of 5,000 feet and a temperature of 77°F, the required runway distance increases to 9,645 feet.

ITH is at 1099' altitude and has a 6977' runway. [airnav.com].

It's too late at night to do anything but scale the runway need linearly. 5885 + (1099/5000)*(9645-5885) = 6711 feet

6711 < 6977, so, there appears to be enough runway. There's another 150' feet of grooved pavement beyond that.

whoops gotta read closer. thanks for the correction.

In coaching news, 2x NCAA champion and 2x world Bronze medalist Nick Gwiazdowski has joined the Cornell coaching staff as a volunteer assistant while training with Spartan RTC.

In other Spartan/coaching news, Spartan RTC has brought Frank Perrelli '12 back to Ithaca as its head coach.

Donnie Vinson will be joining the wrestling staff as Associate Head Coach. Vinson comes from the NC State University program. He formerly was an assistant at Cornell from 2014-17.

Ken711
Donnie Vinson will be joining the wrestling staff as Associate Head Coach. Vinson comes from the NC State University program. He formerly was an assistant at Cornell from 2014-17.

Vinson is one of the few with a decision over Dake, 5-3 at 149 in 2011.

Ken711
Donnie Vinson will be joining the wrestling staff as Associate Head Coach. Vinson comes from the NC State University program. He formerly was an assistant at Cornell from 2014-17.

Vinson was also an All-American at Binghamton, finishing in third as a senior. And, as Al noted, his signature college win was a special one. He's from Whitney Point so if he was the same weight class as Dake in High School they probably faced each other then as well.

Also joining the staff is Kellen Russell, a 2x national champion at 141 for Michigan followed by 7 years coaching for his alma mater and the local RTC.

A couple of really good pickups for Grey, along with Gwiz (who probably is close to Vinson from NC State and Binghamton) and the return of Perrelli. A concentration of low weight guys, I suppose, but if Dake is still working with us and Gwiz is in the room the upper weights are in good hands.

ugarte

Ken711
Donnie Vinson will be joining the wrestling staff as Associate Head Coach. Vinson comes from the NC State University program. He formerly was an assistant at Cornell from 2014-17.

Vinson was also an All-American at Binghamton, finishing in third as a senior. And, as Al noted, his signature college win was a special one. He's from Whitney Point so if he was the same weight class as Dake in High School they probably faced each other then as well.

Also joining the staff is Kellen Russell, a 2x national champion at 141 for Michigan followed by 7 years coaching for his alma mater and the local RTC.

A couple of really good pickups for Grey, along with Gwiz (who probably is close to Vinson from NC State and Binghamton) and the return of Perrelli. A concentration of low weight guys, I suppose, but if Dake is still working with us and Gwiz is in the room the upper weights are in good hands.

Sounds like an exciting staff Mike has put together. Looking forward to seeing what the roster looks like and how recruiting goes.

Yianni going to Tokyo . . . as training partner for Kyle

Paywall?

Swampy
Paywall?

Long article in the Rochester D&C, but here’s the gist . . .

Yianni Diakomihalis didn't make the Olympic team, but he is in Tokyo to help U.S. win gold

While the drive for Yianni Diakomihalis to make the U.S. Olympic wrestling team was stopped, the Hilton graduate is landing in Tokyo anyway for the upcoming Olympics.

Kyle Dake needs training partners.

Diakomihalis, a two-time NCAA champion at Cornell University, plans on joining Team USA in order to help Dake chase a gold medal. Dake and the lighter weight Diakomihalis are teammates at Cornell. 

"If he needs me for an extra workout I want to be there, not because I have to but I want to," Diakomihalis said. "He’s been so helpful to me."

While Diakomihalis has agreed to go to Japan, there remains a cloud over the Olympics, already postponed once due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Japanese and Olympic officials assure the most famous worldwide sporting event is "safe and secure" but coronavirus is taking enough of a toll on the island that parts of the nation are under a state of emergency. 

Whether Diamkomihalis ends up staying briefly or remaining until the completion of the Olympics — the four-time New York high school state champion lives and trains in Ithaca, unless at a Team USA camp — he has plenty of work to do for his own checklist. His plan in simple terms is to keep his career in international wrestling moving upward and forward after falling short of making the United States Olympic team. 

"I understand now what it takes at this level," Diakomihalis, 22, said. "I’ve had success at the high school level. I’ve had success at the collegiate level.

"I’ve had good results at the senior level, just not at the level I want them to be."

Does anyone know when Olympian Kyle Dake will be wrestling and on what channel match can be seen?

George64
Does anyone know when Olympian Kyle Dake will be wrestling and on what channel match can be seen?

Men's 74kg starts Aug. 4 at 10 p.m. ET. Looks like the coverage is all streaming or on the Olympic Channel (you usually need a sports tier on your cable package to get this) until the gold-medal match, which is on USA on Aug. 6.

EDIT: Based on the air time, that USA coverage is taped, so if you want to watch the gold-medal match live, you need to stream it.

[www.nbcolympics.com]

Weder

George64
Does anyone know when Olympian Kyle Dake will be wrestling and on what channel match can be seen?

Men's 74kg starts Aug. 4 at 10 p.m. ET. Looks like the coverage is all streaming or on the Olympic Channel (you usually need a sports tier on your cable package to get this) until the gold-medal match, which is on USA on Aug. 6.

EDIT: Based on the air time, that USA coverage is taped, so if you want to watch the gold-medal match live, you need to stream it.

[www.nbcolympics.com]

Thanks!

If you have the NBC Sports app linked to a cable provider you can watch everything on the app, though it isn't particularly user-friendly. And a ton of commercials that are sometimes inserted at surprising times.

ugarte
If you have the NBC Sports app linked to a cable provider you can watch everything on the app, though it isn't particularly user-friendly. And a ton of commercials that are sometimes inserted at surprising times.

The Peacock interface is the worst sports media UI I've ever seen, and I've used the Ivy League Digital Network.

obviously you dont bet on DRF then

USA Today article on Kyle Dake

Gene Nighman named EIWA executive director. EIWAs at Cornell in 2022.

[bigredbears.com]

Kyle Dake's first match is scheduled for 10:51 eastern time tonight against an Iranian opponent. I don't know if that gets moved up if prior matches end in a fall.
If he wins, he would be in the second quarterfinal and the quarterfinals are scheduled to start at 11:26, immediately after the first round ends.

jkahn
Kyle Dake's first match is scheduled for 10:51 eastern time tonight against an Iranian opponent. I don't know if that gets moved up if prior matches end in a fall.
If he wins, he would be in the second quarterfinal and the quarterfinals are scheduled to start at 11:26, immediately after the first round ends.

It should be on the Olympic channel and also internet streamed on nbcolympics.com

Dake wins his opening match 4-0 vs. the #4 seeded Iranian.
See weight class preview:
[www.teamusa.org]
Dake's next match will be against a wrestler from Belarus who beat Garzon of Cuba 12-8.

jkahn
Dake wins his opening match 4-0 vs. the #4 seeded Iranian.
See weight class preview:
[www.teamusa.org]
Dake's next match will be against a wrestler from Belarus who beat Garzon of Cuba 12-8.

wouldn't worry too much about seeds; Dake isn't going to be seeded because he's been wrestling at 79kg, which isn't an Olympic weight, so he had to cut to 74. I don't think he was able to compete much to get seeding points due to the pandemic.

That said, this weight class is stacked. Chamizo and Sidakov are both 2x world champions and Otoguro has an incredible resume as well. Abdurakhmanov not quite at their level but also very good.

Dake got bullied. 11-0 tech. Looked weak, tbh, so the weight cut may have really affected him.

Dake gets beat in 2nd round match by tech fall.
He'll only get a chance at the repechage if the Belarus wrestler beats the #1 seeded Italian in the semis.

jkahn
Dake gets beat in 2nd round match by tech fall.
He'll only get a chance at the repechage if the Belarus wrestler beats the #1 seeded Italian in the semis.

His opponent looked MUCH better than Chamizo but Chamizo is a hard guy to figure out. Incredibly flexible and his style is to do just enough to win instead of piling on points. Dake has a real chance at repechage.

So when will we know if he’s done or not?

CU2007
So when will we know if he’s done or not?

The Belarus guy did beat Chamizo, so Dake will wrestle Garzon of Cuba at 10 eastern tonight for a chance to get back to a bronze medal match.

dake looked pretty tired in the first match.

Do you guys think he will take another shot at gold in 3 years?

I would think so. At 33 would almost surely be his last shot.

blackwidow
Do you guys think he will take another shot at gold in 3 years?

i think he'll take another shot but i don't know if three years from now dake will be the favorite to be our representative. glad that he's still in the running for bronze though. he beat chamizo in an exhibition last year, though it was not really representative of much and i think it may have been at a relaxed weight. and, as mentioned earlier, he's got to beat the cuban to get to chamizo and he's going to have to do better than he did against BLR.

ugarte

blackwidow
Do you guys think he will take another shot at gold in 3 years?

i think he'll take another shot but i don't know if three years from now dake will be the favorite to be our representative. glad that he's still in the running for bronze though. he beat chamizo in an exhibition last year, though it was not really representative of much and i think it may have been at a relaxed weight. and, as mentioned earlier, he's got to beat the cuban to get to chamizo and he's going to have to do better than he did against BLR.

I feel terrible for him. Never been a competitive athlete so i cant imagine how it must feel.. hopefully he can turn things around and win a medal.

Dake gets a takedown a three gut wrench exposures early in the first for an 8-0 lead and then another takedown just before the end of the first period for a 10-0 tech. He'll wrestle Frank Chamizo for bronze in the 5am-ish session. Looked much stronger.

Dake dominates the Cuban 10-0 on technical superiority. Finished him off at the end of the 1st period.

Goes for the bronze tomorrow, I believe at 6:30 a.m. ET

Dake takes Bronze with a convincing 5-0 win over Chamizo of Italy. Terrific job coming back from the shocking 2nd round loss. Congrats to Kyle!

scoop85
Dake takes Bronze with a convincing 5-0 win over Chamizo of Italy. Terrific job coming back from the shocking 2nd round loss. Congrats to Kyle!

Except for that loss, Dake won all his other matches without giving up a point.
Kadzimahamadeau, who beat Dake, was shut out 7-0 by Sidakov of Russia in the final.
In the heavyweight final, Gable Stevenson, this year's NCAA champion, took the gold with a takedown in the last second of the match.

scoop85
Dake takes Bronze with a convincing 5-0 win over Chamizo of Italy. Terrific job coming back from the shocking 2nd round loss. Congrats to Kyle!

Im more impressed with his mental fortitude. Hope his biohacking works and he returns to the next Olympics.

jkahn

scoop85
Dake takes Bronze with a convincing 5-0 win over Chamizo of Italy. Terrific job coming back from the shocking 2nd round loss. Congrats to Kyle!

Except for that loss, Dake won all his other matches without giving up a point.
Kadzimahamadeau, who beat Dake, was shut out 7-0 by Sidakov of Russia in the final.
In the heavyweight final, Gable Stevenson, this year's NCAA champion, took the gold with a takedown in the last second of the match.

he had 2 takedowns in the last 10 secs..

upprdeck

jkahn

scoop85
Dake takes Bronze with a convincing 5-0 win over Chamizo of Italy. Terrific job coming back from the shocking 2nd round loss. Congrats to Kyle!

Except for that loss, Dake won all his other matches without giving up a point.
Kadzimahamadeau, who beat Dake, was shut out 7-0 by Sidakov of Russia in the final.
In the heavyweight final, Gable Stevenson, this year's NCAA champion, took the gold with a takedown in the last second of the match.

he had 2 takedowns in the last 10 secs..

Still insane how badly Pietrashvili biffed the end of that match. If you watch the 65kg final, Otoguro ran around the ring like he was at Pamplona for the last 20 seconds and got hit with only 2 penalty points and had the same lead and he's probably still wearing his gold medal.

the Dake story in the paper makes it pretty clear that he was not near 100% for much of his time over there.

upprdeck
the Dake story in the paper makes it pretty clear that he was not near 100% for much of his time over there.

link? but also... i don't care if someone claims they were hurt after losing! he's already saying that he's going to worlds in october!

i can find the story that was in the paper.. it said there was some issue and that finding the right medication took time..

watching how hard he was breathing it may be that he needed something to help that but they needed to make sure it was something that would pass the drug test?

Not the article you’re looking for, but interesting . . .

Lansing wrestler captures bronze medal
Kyle Dake, 30, dominates two-time world champ

Andrew Legare
Ithaca Journal USA TODAY NETWORK
Kyle Dake went from disappointment to dominance at the Tokyo Olympics and is coming home with a bronze medal.

Dake, from Lansing, closed his first Olympics with a 5-0 victory over twotime world champion Frank Chamizo of Italy on Friday morning in one of two bronze-medal matches in the men’s freestyle wrestling 74-kilogram (163 pounds) class.

That followed a 10-0 win against Cuba’s Jeandry Garzon Caballero in the first repechage match late Thursday night (Friday morning Tokyo time).

“I’m feeling pretty good,” Dake told The Associated Press. “A lot of different battles went into it, and a little bit of a gut check to go get a medal.”

Dake tweeted later in the day, “Not what I came for, but glad to bring back some hardware!”

Dake, 30, had been seeking Olympic gold to add to a storied career that includes two New York state titles at Lansing, four national championships at Cornell and two world titles, but he was stunned by Mahamedkhabib Kadzimahamedau of Belarus in the quarterfinals. Kadzimahamedau, the 2020 European champion at 79 kilograms, won by technical fall, 11-0, after building a 9-0 lead through the first period.

Kadzimahamedau, originally from Russia, then beat Chamizo, 9-7, in the semifinals, giving Dake renewed medal hope because opponents of finalists are put into the repechage.

Dake came out with a flurry of eight quick points against Caballero and closed the technical fall with one second to go in the first period.

In the showdown against Chamizo, Dake grabbed a 2-0 lead after forcing two stepouts. A counter throw later in the period made it a 4-0 score.

Dake, the aggressor throughout the match, added a stepout point with 10 seconds remaining in the match.

The most recent meeting between 2016 Rio Olympics bronze medalist Chamizo and Dake prior to Tokyo came in July of 2020. Dake won, 4-3.

In 2018 and 2019 Dake won world championships at 79 kilograms. He beat 2012 Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs, 3-2 and 3-0, at the Olympic Team Trials in Fort Worth, Texas, in April to qualify for Tokyo.

Dake finished with a 3-1 record in Tokyo, opening the tournament with a 4-0 win against Mostafa Hosseinkhani of Iran.

Kadzimahamedau lost to Russia’s Zaurbek Sidakov, 7-0, in the gold-medal match. Bekzod Abdurakhmonov of Uzbekistan won the other bronze-medal match by technical fall, 13-2, over Dani yar Kaisanov of Kazakhstan.

Parade in Lansing for Kyle Dake [ithacavoice.com]

Jonathon Fagen transferred to ASU. What gives?


[thesundevils.com]

blackwidow
Jonathon Fagen transferred to ASU. What gives?


[thesundevils.com]

He has nowhere to go on Cornell's team (Darmstadt, Loew, Cardenas all ahead of him). Maybe he's anti-vaxx as well?

klehner

blackwidow
Jonathon Fagen transferred to ASU. What gives?


[thesundevils.com]

He has nowhere to go on Cornell's team (Darmstadt, Loew, Cardenas all ahead of him). Maybe he's anti-vaxx as well?

Cyber Ninja?

Yianni Diakomihalis to compete in the 65-kilogram division at the 2021 Senior World Team Trials.

George64
Yianni Diakomihalis to compete in the 65-kilogram division at the 2021 Senior World Team Trials.

Vito Arujau was supposed to compete too but he tested positive a couple of weeks ago and it either DQ'd him or messed up his training regimen.

Nahshon Garrett '16 is competing at 61kg IIRC and new assistant coach Nick Gwiazdowski is competing at 125kg.

Nahshon Garrett '16 is competing at 61kg...

Garrett went 1-1 and was eliminated in the QF.

George64
Yianni Diakomihalis to compete in the 65-kilogram division at the 2021 Senior World Team Trials.

only six entrants at 65kg. as the top seed, Yianni got a bye. won the semi on a 10-0 tech. in the best of 3 final he'll face joey mckenna, who he beat for his second ncaa title.

YIANNI US NATIONAL TEAM REPRESENTATIVE

ugarte
YIANNI US NATIONAL TEAM REPRESENTATIVE

Lost the first match 8-7 at the last second but came back to win 5-2 and 12-2 to take the best-of-three final. He'll represent the US at the World Championship in Oslo.

He has always had amazing scrambling ability but looked to me like he's made significant improvements in defense (not letting guys get to his legs) and in taking more controlled shots that put him at a lower risk of someone else throwing funk at him (not withstanding the end of that first match).

cu155
He has always had amazing scrambling ability but looked to me like he's made significant improvements in defense (not letting guys get to his legs) and in taking more controlled shots that put him at a lower risk of someone else throwing funk at him (not withstanding the end of that first match).

Yeah, Yianni was not going to get that call unless McKenna landed on his back and Yianni held him there. The last two matches were all Yianni.

The World Championships are in Oslo so ... blech. The opening matches start at 4:30 am eastern. Semis are at 10:30, which isn't bad.

Be that as it may, great day for Cornell and the United States. Kyle Dake '13 (74kg) won his three matches 11-0, 5-0 and 9-1 to make the finals, which start tomorrow at 2 pm. Also making the finals are Daton Fix (61kg) and David Taylor (84kg). Cornell assistant coach Nick Gwiazdowski is in repechage for Bronze. I don't know his first opponent, but if he wins he'll be facing Turkey's Taha Akgul, who just took Bronze in Tokyo, won Gold in Rio and is a 5x World medalist as well. Tough road.

In tomorrow's 4:30 am session, which I will not be watching, Yianni takes the mat in a tough but not impossible 65kg bracket. His first opponent is former Brown wrestler, Colin Realbuto, who is wrestling for Italy. If the name seems vaguely familiar, his brothers Brian and Dylan wrestled for Cornell. Thomas Gilman (57kg), Jordan Burroughs (79kg) and J'den Cox (92kg) also start tomorrow.

Dake's first match was a blood bath (for the other guy), second match seemed like he shifted styles and reverted to careful no scores allowed Dake, and third match he inexplicably allowed to go 6 minutes as it was 8-0 within the first 2 minutes of action. One gets the sense he was either pacing himself or just trying different things while on cruise control.

Yianni is out and will be coming home without a medal. After a quick tech over Colin Realbuto, he lost 5-1 to Armenia's Vazgen Tevanyan. This wasn't bad, necessarily, as Tevanyan was one of the favorites to make the final. Alas, Tevanyan lost in the QF so Yianni won't get pulled into repechage for bronze at 65kg.

In other weight classes, Gilman blew through the 57kg bracket and will wrestle for gold tomorrow afternoon. At 79kg, 5x gold medalist Jordan Burroughs is back in the gold medal match as well. At 92kg, J'Den Cox lost in the semifinals and will wrestle for bronze tomorrow.

Later today, Daton Fix (61kg), Kyle Dake '13 (74kg) and David Taylor (86kg) will wrestle for gold. Nick Gwiazdowski (125kg) won the first repechage match earlier today and will wrestle this afternoon for bronze.

In the team race, Iran had an incredible day today and have moved into first place. We sit in second with Russia in striking distance.

Dake finished off his run for gold but Iran went on a tear and has taken the team lead. Of the Americans going for medals today, he was the only one who succeeded. Fix, Gwiz and (sort of but not totally surprisingly) Taylor all fell short.

Highlights from World Wrestling Championships in Oslo, including Kyle Dake.

Wrestling vs. Stanford (and Rob Koll) starting now on espn+.

Great performance by Cornell, including a freshman Ramirez upsetting Stanford's national champ at 165. Possible injury to our heavyweight, and I thought some terrible work by the ref in general. I am sure a better recap will be coming soon.

OK! Here we go! Welcome back, officially, Cornell Wrestling!

We actually started unofficially last week with a massive squad heading to Binghamton "unattached" to get some matches in without it counting against whatever the limit is for competition. We got tournament wins from Chris Foca (174) and Jonathan Loew (184) and some other good results, including Cole Handlovic finishing in second at 141 and edging out Jonathan Saunders for the start today.

Yianni Diakomihalis and Vito Arujau skipped Binghamton and the likely eventual starters at 149 (Hunter Richard) and 197 (Ben Darmstadt) are both hurt to start the season. The only other stories are injuries: Dom LaJoie (133) got accidentally kneed in the head and dropped out of the tournament and Lewis Fernandes (Hwt) tweaked his knee at the end of a dominant tech fall win and decided to drop out as well. Fernandes came back to wrestle today; LaJoie did not but I don't know if that was an injury precaution or a strategic lineup choice.

And that takes us to today.

125: Yianni's little brother Greg Diakomihalis got the start at 125. I don't know if this will hold for the season, since I expect Vito to go 125 later in the year, but with LaJoie potentially injured at 133, Greg goes 125 and Vito goes up to 133. Greg D. was the more aggressive wrestler but he wasn't able to break through. The only scoring for most of the match was an escape for each wrestler. Stanford got a takedown as time wound down and that was all he needed. 3-1 loss and Stanford goes up 3-0.

133: Vito Arujau goes up to 133 for the day. No contest, Vito runs away with a 14-3 Major Decision and Cornell is up 4-3.

141: Cole Handlovic gets the start against Stanford's returning starter Jason Miranda. It's a competitive but low-scoring match with a lot of scrambling and Handlovic comes out on top for a 4-0 win. Cornell 7-3.

149: Yianni D. is back! Wrestling up at 149 against a top 10 wrestler in Jaden Abas, he got a stall point, an escape point and a penalty point (Abas grabbed his shoelace). Some uncharacteristic flexing after the match from Yianni after a 3-1 win. Cornell 10-3.

157: Colton Yapoujian faced Frosh Charlie Darracott. Late in the match, tied at 2 and with Darracott building enough riding time to win if he held on for the period, Yapoujian got a reversal with 20 seconds left to take a 4-2 lead and held on to the end (barely) without giving up an escape point for a 4-3 win. Cornell 13-3.

165: Promising frosh Julian Ramirez had the stiffest competition of the evening: returning NCAA champion and current #1 Shane Griffith. Griffith took the first shot, but Ramirez not only countered, he came out on top to take a 2-0 lead before giving up an escape. Ramirez took bottom and got out to stretch his lead to 3-1. Quick escape for Griffith to make it 3-2. Scramble with 30 seconds or so left in the period. A plausible takedown for Griffith but the refs don't give it to him, and in the splits for almost 20 seconds, Ramirez holds on for the win! Former Cornell coach Rob Koll challenged the call but after video review the refs didn't change it. Incredible 3-2 win. Cornell 16-3.

174: Chris Foca is already ranked in the top 10 as a freshman off of his dominant run at Binghamton (and a very good greyshirt year in 2019-20). He dominated early but had a rough third period where he couldn't get off of bottom. Didn't need to, though, and won 6-4. Cornell 19-3.

184: Jonathan Loew also had a dominant Binghamton tournament. He didn't let up today, with a first-period takedown that he turned into a pin in 1:38. Cornell 25-3.

197: With Darmstadt out, Jacob Cardenas takes over at 197. He was a huge recruit and has really good results so far - his only loss in Binghamton was to a 2x All-American - and had a very good greyshirt year as well. He came out attacking and never let up. With under 10 seconds left he let his opponent up and took him back down immediately; with the riding point awarded at the end he gets an 18-3 tech fall. Cornell 30-3.

Hwt: Lewis Fernandes was cruising in Binghamton but apparently tweaked his knee at the end of a dominant tech fall win and opted out of the rest of the tournament. Today, he got in an early scramble with an unheralded Heavy from Stanford and appeared to have tweaked the knee again. He walked off but didn't continue, losing by injury default. Not great! Our other quality heavyweight, Brandon Furman, is recovering from surgery and won't be back for a while. Have to hope this isn't serious. With the injury default, Stanford gets a 6 point win, making the final Cornell 30, Stanford 9.

Great start to the season... unless Fernandes is seriously hurt.

Here's the official Cornell writeup.

Cornell is going to Las Vegas for the annual Cliff Keen Invitational. You get one entry per weight, as opposed to a tournament like the Bearcat Open in Binghamton,* and because of injuries and rest we've got a kinda strange lineup.

125: Greg Diakomihalis. Is he holding the position while Vito Arujau gets down to 125? Time will tell but that's my guess.
133: Dom LaJoie comes back after getting an accidental knee to the head in Binghamton.
141: Cole Handlovic may similarly be holding the spot at 141 until Yianni comes down and Hunter Richard comes back from injury at 149.
149: Yianni. Will probably go back to 141 after Richard heals up. He's at #1 and #2 Sammy Sasso will be in Vegas too. Fun.
157: Adam Santoro. Moderate surprise as #23 Colton Yapoujian is the likely long-term starter here. If Yap's hurt, Cornell hasn't said.
165: Julian Ramirez in his first match since beating the defending national champ and popping into the top 20 at #17.
174: Chris Foca gets his first real competition after breaking into the top 10 as a freshman at #8.
184: Jonathan Loew, who has also come out on fire and up to #16, will face his first substantial test.
197: Jacob Cardenas, maybe filling in for Ben Darmstadt? Wally Pipping him? He jumps into the top 20 at #18 as Darmstadt hasn't wrestled yet.
285: With the injury to Fernandes - allegedly not serious - Drew Flynn gets unexpected mat time as the only healthy heavyweight on the roster. He is likely to go 0-2 but I'm rooting for him anyway.

* didn't write about it. not gonna, really, except to say that fernandes showed the first sign of an injury there, dropping out after winning in the QF by tech fall but limping off the mat. foca and loew looked great. cardenas looked great and his only loss was by one point to an all-american. yianni and vito skipped it.

Really looking forward to seeing how the team shakes out in Vegas. The prevailing wisdom seems to be Vito eventually goes to 125, but Greg D's upside seems to me so much greater than Dom's, and Vito will compete for a title at either weight (IMHO he's the only one who has a shot at Lee at 125). Of course, if Vito says he wants to wrestle at 125, let him. He's earned that choice.

And 197 is going to be interesting. Ben has always been a favorite of mine to watch, but Jacob has looked amazing so far.

Other than Yianni, a slow start. Yianni blew through his opponents with a pair of effortless tech falls.

Ramirez, Loew and Cardenas are also in the QF but had closer matches than expected.

LaJoie, Santoro and Foca are still around. Foca had a very disappointing second-round loss. Let a lesser opponent dictate the pace.

Greg D., Handlovic and Flynn are out. Handlovic lost to a multi-AA in Sudden Victory and damn near won it.

On the final day, a full report:

125: Greg D. 0-2. His first match was apparently very exciting and he nearly pulled off a big upset. I'll watch it soon. His second match was close but no cigar. Some excitement when he almost advanced on a scoring error.

133: Dom LaJoie 2-2. A pair of pins over unranked wrestlers and losses to wrestlers who will probably be at NCAAs.

141: Cole Handlovic 0-2. Nearly beat a 2x AA in the first round, falling in SV, and then loses to a much less-heralded wrestler in the second round because he couldn't escape off of bottom.

149: Yianni Diakomihalis 5-0, 1st place. After a pair of easy tech falls, Yianni entered the "worth watching" part of the tournament. He won easily over #26 but without fireworks; won in SV over an under-ranked #12 (scary finish that he won with a classic Yianni scramble when it looked like he was dead to rights; Yianni also didn't get a call he deserved at the end of regulation which would have prevented OT); in the final match of the night he dominated 2020 NCAA finalist Sammy Sasso and rolled to a 7-2 win.

157: Adam Santoro 2-2. Easy wins over the unranked wrestlers, losses to the ranked ones. Unclear why Yapoujian wasn't wrestling.

165: Julian Ramirez 4-2, 4th place. Only losses were to #9 (and rising). A win over #10. Good weekend.

174: Chris Foca, 7-1, 3rd place A loss to a defensive wrestler in the second round followed by a run through the consolation bracket with wins over three ranked wrestlers and a win by medical forfeit over the guy who beat him. Solid performance, even if the loss was hard to watch.

184: Jonathan Loew, 4-1, 3rd place Three wins over top 20 wrestlers. The one loss was real bad but the overall performance was great.

197: Jacob Cardenas, 1-2. Both losses were to ranked wrestlers. Not great but not embarrassing.

285: Drew Flynn, 0-2. Fernandes coming back is critical to the team performance next semester.

Team finished in 7th, which is right around where chalk put them.

Good little tournament in Florida. We went into the week as the #11 dual meet team* were in a three-team pool with #2 Penn State and #22 Northern Iowa. We beat Northern Iowa 27-9 then lost 21-16 to Penn State. Finishing in second got us a matchup with #8 Virginia Tech, who we beat 18-15. Really solid work from everyone and we came really close to some incredible upsets, including nearly pulling off the win against Penn State. We used the same lineup in all three duals, so I'll just go by weight.

125: Vito Arujau had an incredible tournament. He came into the weekend ranked #5 at 133, but everyone expected him to eventually come down to 125. This was his first action at the weight. He beat #10 Teske (UNI) 18-7, pinned Campbell (PSU) in under a minute, then beat #7 Latona (VT) 10-2. A pair of major decisions over top 10 opponents will be a good introduction to the 125 rankings next week. Can't imagine lower than #4.

133: Dom Lajoie had a really tall order this weekend: #31, #1, #4. He handled himself very well. First, he beat #31 Biscoglia (UNI) 5-2. Then, against #1 Bravo-Young (PSU) he was able to keep the match to 21-9, so he lost by only a major decision. Finally, against #4 Meyers (VT), he wrestled an incredible third period, essentially a net 0, to keep the score 9-3 and lost a regular decision. Lajoie isn't likely to be an All-American but if he can keep wrestling like this, he'll make the tournament and maybe score some points for the team.

141: Cole Handlovic also had to face a couple of ranked wrestlers and a freshman who stole the starting spot from a ranked wrestler and will be in the rankings this week for sure and went 0-3. He lost a major decision to #26 Happel (UNI), another to #1 Lee (PSU) (impressive that this wasn't a tech) and a regular decision to Gerardi (VT). Not the best weight for us.

149: #1 Yianni doing Yianni things. Two major decisions and a tech. Not the stiffest competition but he did major #22 Bartlett (PSU). There was a big anticipated matchup with #6 Andonian (VT) but he didn't weigh in and Yianni destroyed his backup.

157: #25 Colton Yapoujian beat a pair of unranked wrestlers on Monday. On Tuesday, facing #22 Brady (VT), he lost 2-1 in a match where neither wrestler could find a way to score from neutral.

165: #9 Julian Ramirez picked up a pair of wins against ranked wrestlers and three total wins on the weekend. Unspectacular but consistent and his defense was great.

174: #12 Chris Foca had a very tall order. After beating an unranked UNI opponent, he had defending champ, #1 Starocci from Penn State. He did a hell of a job keeping it close, and even scored the only takedown of the match, but he wasn't able to get out from bottom in the third period, so he still lost 3-2, giving up two escapes and a point for riding time. On Tuesday he had to face #4 Lewis (VT) - another former NCAA champion. He lost this one in a heartbreaking and silly way. Tied at 1-1 after an extra sudden victory period, the match went to rideouts - a pair of 30 second periods where each wrestler gets to choose starting position once. Foca won the coin flip and, intending to defer choice, accidentally chose top, which nobody really does because it's more valuable to get an escape point than (best case) 30 seconds of riding time. So Lewis escaped on Foca's choice, then chose bottom and escaped again, to win 3-1. Brain fart. Looked great on defense, though, and those two close losses may help his ranking more than hurt it.

184: #15 Jonathan Loew had to face *three* top-ten opponents. He lost 6-2 to #4 Keckeisen (UNI), then a 13-3 MD to defending champ #1 Brooks (PSU) before facing #9 Bolen (VT). Against Bolen, he scored a takedown with 4 seconds on the clock to send the match to SV, then scored again early in SV for an incredible 7-5 win. Signature win of his career so far.

197: #19 Jacob Cardenas won his first match by fall before facing former Cornellian #3 Max Dean (PSU). Cardenas got the first takedown of the match and looked like he might get another for the win in the third period, but Dean was able to scramble and end up on top for the 4-2 win. Cardenas finished his tournament with another W that was instrumental in winning the VT dual.

285: #18 Lewis Fernandes had a tough slate too. After winning his opening match, he had to face #4 Kerkvliet (PSU) and he couldn't get through Kerk's defense, falling 5-0. In the final match of the tournament for Cornell, Fernandes faced #14 Traxler (VT). Traxler scored twice in the first period. In the third period, Fernandes went all-out for a comeback but just barely missed a couple of takedowns and couldn't make the climb.

Overall a great weekend for the squad. I don't think any of the ranked wrestlers lost a single match to a lower-ranked wrestler and we got a couple of upsets and a few more near-upsets. Very nice performance especially in light of how young the team is.


* As distinguished from tournament team rankings, where we're #9. Dual meets reward top-to-bottom consistency, whereas tournaments disproportionately reward individual high placement, so the expectation that Yianni and Vito will place very high along with a bunch of other guys who can credibly make a run at the podium, moves us up a little.

Thanks for this succinct and thoughtful summary. I watched the matches but had the sound muted most of the time so did not have all of the relevant context [which opponents were highly ranked, etc.] I particularly liked the energy I saw from the Cornell wrestlers. Every one of them looked invested, even in those matches when they were losing by a lot. Kudos to the coaching staff for setting a high standard.

dag14
Thanks for this succinct and thoughtful summary. I watched the matches but had the sound muted most of the time so did not have all of the relevant context [which opponents were highly ranked, etc.] I particularly liked the energy I saw from the Cornell wrestlers. Every one of them looked invested, even in those matches when they were losing by a lot. Kudos to the coaching staff for setting a high standard.

seriously! they fought extra hard at the bonus point margins and it paid off.

biggest problem the team had was on bottom, but really only against the top guys who are going to be beasts to begin with.

ugarte

dag14
Thanks for this succinct and thoughtful summary. I watched the matches but had the sound muted most of the time so did not have all of the relevant context [which opponents were highly ranked, etc.] I particularly liked the energy I saw from the Cornell wrestlers. Every one of them looked invested, even in those matches when they were losing by a lot. Kudos to the coaching staff for setting a high standard.

seriously! they fought extra hard at the bonus point margins and it paid off.

biggest problem the team had was on bottom, but really only against the top guys who are going to be beasts to begin with.

Has there been any talk of taking away the use of an arm or leg during OT periods so that they'd be wrestling 3 on 3. If so would it cost an arm or a leg?

Cornell's rankings on Intermat after the Florida duals:

125: #3 Vito Arujau A former national champ at 133, Nick Suriano, is coming back next semester and is expected to wrestle at 125.
133: #30 Dom Lajoie Nice to see him get recognition. Leapfrogged the UNI wrestler he beat in Florida.
141: UR Cole Handlovic Crazy that Joshua Saunders isn't the starter. He was a top-flight recruit and can't crack the lineup at the weakest weight.
149: #1 Yianni Diakomihalis Going 149 is great so far. Also not nearly as deep a weight as 141 tbh.
157: #24 Colton Yapoujian Solid start. Really has to start looking for more opportunities to score.
165: #9 Julian Ramirez Really great run to start the season.
174: #11 Chris Foca Once he improves on bottom he is going to really start giving the top of the weight class fits.
184: #13 Jonathan Loew Fantastic win against Virginia Tech is rewarded.
197: #19 Jacob Cardenas What might have been if he could have finished his third period shot on Dean. Also looking formidable.
Hwt: #18 Lewis Fernandes His third period against Traxler showed real fire. It may take a year or two to adjust to the NCAA's best but he will.

Team (Tournament): #8
Team (Dual): #9

It's going to be a fun season if Omicron doesn't ruin it.

Out of curiosity, decided to see what the wrestlestat.com algorithm thinks. (Don't take it seriously. It's not like ELO for chess.)

125: Vito #3
133: Dom #55 not much respect from the computer for his SOS.
141: Handlovic #97; interestingly, Saunders is #58. I'm really not sure what's going on with Saunders. He was a Team USA rep at cadet and juniors.
149: Yianni #1
157: Yapoujian #21
165: Ramirez #5
174: Foca #10
184: Loew #16
197: Cardenas #19
285: Fernandes #26 probably overweights his injury default loss from the Stanford dual

ugarte
Out of curiosity, decided to see what the wrestlestat.com algorithm thinks. (Don't take it seriously. It's not like ELO for chess.)

125: Vito #3
133: Dom #55 not much respect from the computer for his SOS.
141: Handlovic #97; interestingly, Saunders is #58. I'm really not sure what's going on with Saunders. He was a Team USA rep at cadet and juniors.
149: Yianni #1
157: Yapoujian #21
165: Ramirez #5
174: Foca #10
184: Loew #16
197: Cardenas #19
285: Fernandes #26 probably overweights his injury default loss from the Stanford dual

I may not take it seriously, but the rankings don't differ all that much. Dom has a nice win over the Bingo starter, but otherwise his claim is that he's kept it closer than expected against some studs. That's encouraging, but not something a computer is going to weigh heavily. Lewis only has 7 matches (4-3) since he missed Vegas and had two medical forfeits at the Bingo tournament. That means the Stanford injury loss is getting overweighted. You and I know he was going to win without the injury, he looked much better than the Cardinal, but the computer doesn't.

Still not sure the team is set at 141. Are we limited to 10 entries at the Scuffle? I have a vague memory of Cornell sending a couple extra in the past. Could be one last chance for Saunders to assert himself.

mountainred

Still not sure the team is set at 141. Are we limited to 10 entries at the Scuffle? I have a vague memory of Cornell sending a couple extra in the past. Could be one last chance for Saunders to assert himself.

my understanding is yes, one per weight

Looks like the Scuffle is letting teams enter more than one per weight. Here is a list of current entrants. (I hope that's not behind oaywall). Perhaps they are loading up brackets in case some teams cancel.

Many Cornell non-starters listed, but no Darmstadt. I'm getting a distinct feeling that we've seen the last of Ben. If so, I wish him well and good health. He was a lot of fun to watch.

mountainred
Looks like the Scuffle is letting teams enter more than one per weight. Here is a list of current entrants. (I hope that's not behind oaywall). Perhaps they are loading up brackets in case some teams cancel.

Many Cornell non-starters listed, but no Darmstadt. I'm getting a distinct feeling that we've seen the last of Ben. If so, I wish him well and good health. He was a lot of fun to watch.

Oh man...he is my favorite wrestler. I loved watching him

mountainred
Looks like the Scuffle is letting teams enter more than one per weight. Here is a list of current entrants. (I hope that's not behind oaywall). Perhaps they are loading up brackets in case some teams cancel.

Many Cornell non-starters listed, but no Darmstadt. I'm getting a distinct feeling that we've seen the last of Ben. If so, I wish him well and good health. He was a lot of fun to watch.

came here just to post this.

definite bummer about darmstadt if he's still hurt, which i think he is. also really hard to crack the lineup on the way back because there's really someone top-flight in his way when he's not at 100%.

EDIT: WOW. Really good to see some of the names on this list. Cornell is sending 18 and Spartan Combat another two (ie, a pair of Cornell '26 guys)

125: Vito, Greg D. and Ungar (SCRTC)
133: LaJoie and Moomey
141: Handlovic, Saunders and Cornella (SCRTC)
149: Yianni
157: Yapoujian, Richard, Santoro
165: Ramirez, Brindley
174: Foca, Craft
184: Loew
197: Cardenas
285: Fernandes and Furman

Return of Furman and Richard are great for depth. Saunders may be challenging Handlovic for the starting spot. Greg D. staying in game shape and good to see Moomey, Santoro and Brindley getting some mat time just because.

Looks like Vito and Yianni are now not going. Sucks because I was looking forward to watching them, but they don't need the work.

mountainred
Looks like Vito and Yianni are now not going. Sucks because I was looking forward to watching them, but they don't need the work.

not a huge shock i guess.

A lot of Cornell starters ended up staying home for the Southern Scuffle. In fact, the only ones who went down were Lajoie (133), Loew (184) and Fernandes (285). We aren't the only school to send a lot of backups, tbh. We have 2 in the semis and 6 more still alive with one more win for placement on the podium.

SF:
184: Loew v #29 Salazar (Minnesota)
285: Fernandes v Costello (Iowa backup)

R12:
125: Greg Diakomihalis v Daugherty (Buffalo)
133: Lajoie v Oakley (App St backup)
141: Saunders v Miller (Maryland)
157: Richard v Santoro - Cornell on Cornell!
174: Berreyesa v Habisch (NDSU)

Cornell is sitting in 6th in the team standings. Our SCRTC friends have 3 in the blood round: Ungar, Fernandez and Cornella.

Shoutout to Saunders for getting a ranked win against the #22 wrestler in the last round.

ugarte
A lot of Cornell starters ended up staying home for the Southern Scuffle. In fact, the only ones who went down were Lajoie (133), Loew (184) and Fernandes (285). We aren't the only school to send a lot of backups, tbh. We have 2 in the semis and 6 more still alive with one more win for placement on the podium.

SF:
184: Loew v #29 Salazar (Minnesota)
285: Fernandes v Costello (Iowa backup)

R12:
125: Greg Diakomihalis v Daugherty (Buffalo)
133: Lajoie v Oakley (App St backup)
141: Saunders v Miller (Maryland)
157: Richard v Santoro - Cornell on Cornell!
174: Berreyesa v Habisch (NDSU)

Cornell is sitting in 6th in the team standings. Our SCRTC friends have 3 in the blood round: Ungar, Fernandez and Cornella.

Shoutout to Saunders for getting a ranked win against the #22 wrestler in the last round.

Loew and Fernandes both won their semifinal matches but fell in the finals.

Finals:
184: Loew lost in an upset to a Cochrane (Maryland) who put together a fantastic weekend.
285: Fernandes, facing #12 Hendrickson (AFA) got destroyed. Feet to back early for what should have been a pin but was only 6 points then another cradle that was called a pin. Hendrickson looked incredible.

Consolation matches:
125: Diakomilhalis beat Daugherty then lost to #12 Surtin (Missouri) before beating Ventresca (VT backup) for 7th place.
133: Lajoie lost to Oakley and didn't place.
141: Saunders beat Miller, but it cost him. In a scramble at the end of the match when Miller desperately needed a score, Saunders' knee got torqued pretty badly and he forfeited the rest of the tournament, finishing 8th. Someone on another message board said he was wearing a brace. Hope he's OK.
157: Richard destroyed Santoro. He followed it up with two more wins, including one over 2x AA at 149, Brock Mauller (Missouri). In the third place match, he lost another close match to Jacques (Missouri) and finished 4th.
174: Berreyesa won by major decision over Habisch (NDSU) before losing to Brenner (NDSU). His opponent forfeited the 7th place match, so that's where he finished.

Cornell finished in 5th overall. Not bad, given the lineup we sent, though it would have been nice to take a weight or two.

Big dual meet against Lehigh at 2 on Flo today. Posting even though anyone who pays for Flo already knows.

ugarte
Big dual meet against Lehigh at 2 on Flo today. Posting even though anyone who pays for Flo already knows.

Big upsets for Lehigh at 174 and 184 and it's the difference as they win 6 of the 10 matches. Foca and Loew were far too passive and it cost them their matches. Despite bonus points from Yianni and Cardenas, Lehigh wins 18-15.

Going to be a competitive Ivy League season perhaps. "NO. 22 PRINCETON TOPS NO. 6 ARIZONA STATE."

Ken711
Going to be a competitive Ivy League season perhaps. "NO. 22 PRINCETON TOPS NO. 6 ARIZONA STATE."

Arizona State is in injury/COVID crisis and didn't send their starting lineup. ASU had a backup 133 wrestle at 141 (their 141 may have gotten injured against Pitt on Friday), they forfeited at 184 and had a backup 184 wrestle at 197. Also, their best 174 is redshirting and they don't have a good replacement.

On the other hand, Patrick Glory WORKED returning finalist Brandon Courtney. Glory vs Arujau is going to be fun.

Should also mention that we wrestled Army on Saturday. Nothing spectacular. Won 8 of 10 weights, lost at 141 by fall with Moomey (4th string?) and (more troubling) Hunter Richard lost by MD at 157 to Hartman. Hartman's a good wrestler, and Humphreys (imo) is going to be an All-American but after a very solid performance in the Scuffle he's lost badly back-to-back and it has me wondering if Yapoujian is ok since he hasn't wrestled in a while.

Not to steal ugarte's thunder, but wresting hosts Brown and Harvard this weekend. It's hard to imagine any scenario where the Brown dual has much drama, but there are two interesting potential matchups against Harvard. At 165 #8 Julian Ramirez should face #12 Phillip Conigliaro. And at Heavy, Lewis Fernandes (probably) could meet the Ivy's other top heavy in Yaraslau Slavikouski (that is the name of a heavyweight wrestler!). Though I guess Slavikouski hasn't wrestled in a month, so who knows if that one happens.

mountainred
Not to steal ugarte's thunder, but wresting hosts Brown and Harvard this weekend. It's hard to imagine any scenario where the Brown dual has much drama, but there are two interesting potential matchups against Harvard. At 165 #8 Julian Ramirez should face #12 Phillip Conigliaro. And at Heavy, Lewis Fernandes (probably) could meet the Ivy's other top heavy in Yaraslau Slavikouski (that is the name of a heavyweight wrestler!). Though I guess Slavikouski hasn't wrestled in a month, so who knows if that one happens.

He's from Belarus. What, Harvard has to resort to bringing in international ringers and can't recruit Americans for their athletic teams? How gauche.

mountainred
Not to steal ugarte's thunder, but wresting hosts Brown and Harvard this weekend. It's hard to imagine any scenario where the Brown dual has much drama, but there are two interesting potential matchups against Harvard. At 165 #8 Julian Ramirez should face #12 Phillip Conigliaro. And at Heavy, Lewis Fernandes (probably) could meet the Ivy's other top heavy in Yaraslau Slavikouski (that is the name of a heavyweight wrestler!). Though I guess Slavikouski hasn't wrestled in a month, so who knows if that one happens.

Never worry about stealing my thunder! I'm gonna do my thing either way and don't care about FIRST!!!1!

Two easy wins for the team today even though we rested some guys. Especially easy at Heavyweight where Fernandes won both of his matches by forfeit because Slavikouski is still hurt. Real bummer for Harvard because he's their best (maybe only) shot at AA.

ugarte

mountainred
Not to steal ugarte's thunder, but wresting hosts Brown and Harvard this weekend. It's hard to imagine any scenario where the Brown dual has much drama, but there are two interesting potential matchups against Harvard. At 165 #8 Julian Ramirez should face #12 Phillip Conigliaro. And at Heavy, Lewis Fernandes (probably) could meet the Ivy's other top heavy in Yaraslau Slavikouski (that is the name of a heavyweight wrestler!). Though I guess Slavikouski hasn't wrestled in a month, so who knows if that one happens.

Never worry about stealing my thunder! I'm gonna do my thing either way and don't care about FIRST!!!1!

Two easy wins for the team today even though we rested some guys. Especially easy at Heavyweight where Fernandes won both of his matches by forfeit because Slavikouski is still hurt. Real bummer for Harvard because he's their best (maybe only) shot at AA.

Neither were that competitive -- let me focus on hoops -- but Lewis did win v. Brown by pin in just 1:41. You might have blinked and figured it had to be a forfeit!

mountainred

ugarte

mountainred
Not to steal ugarte's thunder, but wresting hosts Brown and Harvard this weekend. It's hard to imagine any scenario where the Brown dual has much drama, but there are two interesting potential matchups against Harvard. At 165 #8 Julian Ramirez should face #12 Phillip Conigliaro. And at Heavy, Lewis Fernandes (probably) could meet the Ivy's other top heavy in Yaraslau Slavikouski (that is the name of a heavyweight wrestler!). Though I guess Slavikouski hasn't wrestled in a month, so who knows if that one happens.

Never worry about stealing my thunder! I'm gonna do my thing either way and don't care about FIRST!!!1!

Two easy wins for the team today even though we rested some guys. Especially easy at Heavyweight where Fernandes won both of his matches by forfeit because Slavikouski is still hurt. Real bummer for Harvard because he's their best (maybe only) shot at AA.

Neither were that competitive -- let me focus on hoops -- but Lewis did win v. Brown by pin in just 1:41. You might have blinked and figured it had to be a forfeit!

whoops that's right - Brown forfeited at 174 and 197.

One of the funnier moments was during the Harvard lineup introductions, Harvard had already committed to forfeiting Heavyweight so after the 197s met at the center of the mat and shook hands, the announcer called Fernandes and Furman, said that Harvard wasn't sending anyone and the two Cornell guys smiled and shook hands and walked off.

Other thoughts. Vito (125) and Loew (184) both took the day off since neither team result was in doubt (especially in light of Harvard's best two guys missing the dual).

125: Greg D. had a great day subbing in for Arujau. A near-major against Harvard when he got a takedown and a 4 point tilt in the closing seconds and followed it up with a flash pin against Brown.

133: Two major decisions for #30 LaJoie. Good day. He made the top-33 in the first release of the Coaches Rankings* and it would be great if he could use the rest of the season to improve his record and give himself a chance at an at-large bid.

141 is a bit of a mess right now. Moomey is not only wrestling up from 133, but he's a greco specialist. He's a world junior medalist, so, elite in his discipline but he hasn't been competitive in folkstyle up a weight. Hoping we can get Handlovic or Saunders back soon but this is probably still our weakest weight in any scenario other than Yianni cutting again.

149: #1 Yianni got his first two pins of the season. It must have been the focus of some ribbing in the locker room because after the Brown match he clearly looked to someone on the Cornell bench and said "Two." He still has fewer than his little brother, though.

157: Really good day for Hunter Richard. He was having a surprisingly tough time finishing his shots against Harvard but in OT he was able to convert a clean blast double for the W. Against Brown it was never in doubt and he rolled to a major decision. The weight is now firmly his, as Colton Yapoujian announced that he tore his ACL (probably against Virginia Tech) and he's done for the season. Richard didn't make the initial Coaches Ranking but by the time the next one is released, I'd be shocked if he wasn't in the top 33.

165: #9 Ramirez didn't get his expected test. Harvard's #12 Conigliaro hasn't wrestled since December so I assume he's hurt. He teched Conigliaro's backup and majored Brown's representative. Pretty much what you'd expect from a top-10 guy.

174: #12 Foca had a real opponent in #29 Kim against Harvard and handled him fairly easily. Brown didn't send anyone out, so a good day that solidified his ranking.

184: With Loew taking the day off, Ethan Hatcher got his first real competition. Sort of a surprise to see him after Berreyesa placed at the Southern Scuffle. A tough loss to Harvard in the morning followed by a dominant 17-0 tech against Brown.

197: #18 Cardenas rolled through his Harvard opponent 17-0 and Brown didn't send anyone out. Easy day.

285: #18 Fernandes took the W by forfeit against Harvard and then, as mountainred pointed out, got a quick pin against Brown.

Another doubleheader next weekend against an up-and-coming Columbia team and Navy. Going to be some competitive matches in both duals but the team result shouldn't be in doubt in either.

* Coaches Rankings are part of the way that the NCAA assigns automatic bids at the various weights to the different conferences.

ugarte

Another doubleheader next weekend against an up-and-coming Columbia team and Navy. Going to be some competitive matches in both duals but the team result shouldn't be in doubt in either.

lol columbia just lost 32-3 to penn; absolutely nothing went right for the lions.

ugarte

ugarte

Another doubleheader next weekend against an up-and-coming Columbia team and Navy. Going to be some competitive matches in both duals but the team result shouldn't be in doubt in either.

lol columbia just lost 32-3 to penn; absolutely nothing went right for the lions.

So how big a threat will Penn be in our dual with them? IIRC they gave PSU a tough battle too.

scoop85

ugarte

ugarte

Another doubleheader next weekend against an up-and-coming Columbia team and Navy. Going to be some competitive matches in both duals but the team result shouldn't be in doubt in either.

lol columbia just lost 32-3 to penn; absolutely nothing went right for the lions.

So how big a threat will Penn be in our dual with them? IIRC they gave PSU a tough battle too.

shouldn't be that close but Penn is favored at 133 for sure, 141 (by a lot) and probably 157. We're obviously heavily favored at 125 and 149; across the upper weights we're favored but it's closer.

Oklahoma State wrestler AJ Ferrari is lucky to be alive after the driving accident he caused this weekend.. lucky he got pulled out of the care before it caught in fire..