Wrestling 2022-23

It's about that time!

Incoming freshman Vince Cornella won the U20 Pan Am tournament at 65kg. He'll also be representing the US at the World U20
Championships in August in Bulgaria.

He's looking to be the starter at 141 this coming year.

125: Greg D/Ungar/Lajoie
133: Arujau
141: Cornella/Saunders
149: Yianni
157: Yapoujian
165: Ramirez/Gibson (the best backup around, unless he can drop to 157 and challenge Colton)
174: Foca
184: Loew
197: Cardenas
285: Fernandes

At the U20 championships, Cornella has won his first 3 matches (8-0 over KAZ, 10-0 over BUL, 6-5 comeback win in the QF over IRI) and will be in the semis. That session starts at 11am. Favorite has to be Sujeet (IND) who beat Yianni at a Senior level tournament last month.

ugarte
At the U20 championships, Cornella has won his first 3 matches (8-0 over KAZ, 10-0 over BUL, 6-5 comeback win in the QF over IRI) and will be in the semis. That session starts at 11am. Favorite has to be Sujeet (IND) who beat Yianni at a Senior level tournament last month.

Cornella list the semi 4-0 and will wrestle for bronze tomorrow in a session that starts at 11. Sujeet list in the semis also, but on the other side of the bracket so he'll be wrestling for the other bronze. Deep weight class.

ugarte

ugarte
At the U20 championships, Cornella has won his first 3 matches (8-0 over KAZ, 10-0 over BUL, 6-5 comeback win in the QF over IRI) and will be in the semis. That session starts at 11am. Favorite has to be Sujeet (IND) who beat Yianni at a Senior level tournament last month.

Cornella list the semi 4-0 and will wrestle for bronze tomorrow in a session that starts at 11. Sujeet list in the semis also, but on the other side of the bracket so he'll be wrestling for the other bronze. Deep weight class.

O No

Roy 82

ugarte

ugarte
At the U20 championships, Cornella has won his first 3 matches (8-0 over KAZ, 10-0 over BUL, 6-5 comeback win in the QF over IRI) and will be in the semis. That session starts at 11am. Favorite has to be Sujeet (IND) who beat Yianni at a Senior level tournament last month.

Cornella lost the semi 4-0 and will wrestle for bronze tomorrow in a session that starts at 11. Sujeet list in the semis also, but on the other side of the bracket so he'll be wrestling for the other bronze. Deep weight class.

O No

yeah; tough loss on an overturned call as time expired. got a takedown to take a 5-4 lead but after review the judges ruled that he also gave up an exposure to go down 6-5 and his reversal at the end to tie it at 6-6 wasn't enough since criteria favor the wrestler with three 2-point scores over 2-2-1-1.

He's going to be real hard to keep out of the starting lineup at 141.

Future freshman starter at 149 next year, Meyer Shapiro, wins Who's Number One at 152.

He is very good.

Senior Nationals in Belgrade start at 4:30 with Greco but Yianni's weight class (65kg) isn't for another week.

Kyle Dake won his 4th world championship in Belgrade. This is his second championship at 74kg after a pair at 79kg.

Interestingly, Dake went up to 79 to avoid Jordan Burroughs (who repeatedly beat him in the Team USA qualification finals), then went back to 74 to qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo because 79 is not an Olympic weight. Dake finally beat Burroughs at the 2020 Olympic Team Trials* and won bronze in Tokyo.

Burroughs bumped up to 79 for the 2021 World Championships to avoid Dake, and has now won back to back world championships at 79 himself.

* The team trials and Olympics were both held in 2021 because of the pandemic. They usually don't hold a World Championship during an Olympic year but because the Olympics were bumped back, they held the 2020 Olympics in 2021 and the 2021 World Championship as previously scheduled.

And Yianni has made it to the finals at 65kg, breaking a long streak of US wrestlers failing to medal at 65kg at the world championships. He avenged a loss from the 2021 World Championships in the opening round 4-0 and then won three straight matches by technical superiority, 10-0. His win clinched the team title for the US. Up tomorrow is Rahman Amouzad, a 20-year-old Iranian who has looked incredible as well.

Yianni started hot but after a wild scramble that gave him a small early lead, Amouzad scored all 7 post-scramble points and won 13-8. Still a very good, if unsatisfying, tournament.

Cornell commits Mason Gibson and Michael Dellagatta are competing in Super 32 this weekend. It's one of the toughest HS tournaments.

Vito and Jacob Cardenas are competing next week in the World U23 championships in Freestyle, and Phil Moomey is in GR.

Moomey is not on the Cornell roster at the moment, although he was listed at 133 in Mike Grey's recent email. Taking the semester off?

klehner
Cornell commits Mason Gibson and Michael Dellagatta are competing in Super 32 this weekend. It's one of the toughest HS tournaments.

Vito and Jacob Cardenas are competing next week in the World U23 championships in Freestyle, and Phil Moomey is in GR.

Moomey is not on the Cornell roster at the moment, although he was listed at 133 in Mike Grey's recent email. Taking the semester off?

Moomey is also at U23 for Greco so maybe.

Kingsley Menifee is also at Super 32. Don't know if there's any others but Gibson, Dellagatta and Menifee are the three that caught my eye when I took a quick scan of the list.

If you feel like waking up at 4:30 eastern, Moomey's weight class kicks off at U23 tomorrow morning live at flowrestling.com

ugarte
If you feel like waking up at 4:30 eastern, Moomey's weight class kicks off at U23 tomorrow morning live at flowrestling.com

Moomey down 5-0 gets the feet-to-back for 4, a penalty point and a TD to win 7-5 and move to the 1/4s.

He wrestled at around 7am ET.

klehner

ugarte
If you feel like waking up at 4:30 eastern, Moomey's weight class kicks off at U23 tomorrow morning live at flowrestling.com

Moomey down 5-0 gets the feet-to-back for 4, a penalty point and a TD to win 7-5 and move to the 1/4s.

He wrestled at around 7am ET.

In the QF his opponent gave him a hip toss for 4 about 25 seconds into the match, then rolled him over twice for a quick 8-0 tech. Moomey looked like he was concerned about his shoulder after the match and I was worried that he wouldn't be able to wrestle in repechage. That problem was solved when the guy who beat him lost in the semis.

Really rough performance for the US in Greco. Nobody made the finals, only one wrestler even lost to the eventual finalist to qualify for repechage and he lost his first repechage match.

Women's freestyle is going better. 2 in the finals, 4 in the bronze match and 1 in repechage, needing a win to get into the bronze medal match.

Men's freestyle starts tomorrow early in the morning. I think Arujau's weight class starts tomorrow and Cardenas's on Saturday.

ugarte
Men's freestyle starts tomorrow early in the morning. I think Arujau's weight class starts tomorrow and Cardenas's on Saturday.

Arujau went up 5-0 then got too aggressive and it cost him. At the break he was only up 6-5 and the second period went poorly. Down 11-6 and the guy who beat him lost in the SF, so he doesn't go to repechage for bronze.

After the men went 0-for-Greco, the US women's freestlye won a gold, a silver and two bronzes. Day one of the men's freestyle ended with one wrestling for gold tomorrow and two for bronze, along with the final set of weights (including Jacob Cardenas at 92kg).

klehner
It's about that time!

Incoming freshman Vince Cornella won the U20 Pan Am tournament at 65kg. He'll also be representing the US at the World U20
Championships in August in Bulgaria.

He's looking to be the starter at 141 this coming year.

125: Greg D/Ungar/Lajoie
133: Arujau
141: Cornella/Saunders
149: Yianni
157: Yapoujian
165: Ramirez/Gibson (the best backup around, unless he can drop to 157 and challenge Colton)
174: Foca
184: Loew
197: Cardenas
285: Fernandes

Greg D. is out for the season getting shoulder surgery. I think Cornella is the likely starter at 141 but it's going to be close - both are very good, with international freestyle experience.

There is a wrestling gossiphound claiming that Gibson might be leaving Cornell but until it's official idk. The rumored landing spot is Penn State, though, and since his younger brother is the more significant recruit, they may be waving NIL possibilities in front of the brothers that we can't.

since NIL is not a school thing not sure they can waive much.. But there is nothing stopping an NIL for Cornell kid is there? do they have some additional rules stopping NIL in the Ivies?

upprdeck
since NIL is not a school thing not sure they can waive much.. .

lol

But there is nothing stopping an NIL for Cornell kid is there? do they have some additional rules stopping NIL in the Ivies?

there is definitely NIL in the Ivies; Yianni is definitely getting NIL money.

i guess now it seems more clear that cornell has lost the gibson brothers.

As Mineo points out in the attached article, they are PA kids, they trained with David Taylor's gym and Dake has left Ithaca for State College as well, so... damn.

ugarte
there is definitely NIL in the Ivies; Yianni is definitely getting NIL money.

As is Jameson Wang, according to Brown announcers.

Jacob Cardenas goes 3-0 at 92kg and will wrestle in the U23 finals tomorrow. Congrats to him on medaling in his first world team event.

George64

ugarte
there is definitely NIL in the Ivies; Yianni is definitely getting NIL money.

As is Jameson Wang, according to Brown announcers.

[www.google.com]

abmarks

George64

ugarte
there is definitely NIL in the Ivies; Yianni is definitely getting NIL money.

As is Jameson Wang, according to Brown announcers.

[www.google.com]

Great article. Thanks.

It's one that shows how NIL can have a silver lining -- it's not just about money-grubbing.

Cornell should be proud of what Wang is accomplishing: "Any Person, Any Study, Any Sport."

Swampy

abmarks

George64

ugarte
there is definitely NIL in the Ivies; Yianni is definitely getting NIL money.

As is Jameson Wang, according to Brown announcers.

[www.google.com]

Great article. Thanks.

It's one that shows how NIL can have a silver lining -- it's not just about money-grubbing.

Cornell should be proud of what Wang is accomplishing: "Any Person, Any Study, Any Sport."

There isn't really a comprehensive site to track NIL deals (well, at least not a free one), but based on what I've found in the past there are a few dozen Cornell athletes getting a small amount (possibly in merchandise and not cash). There's basically no NIL money going to hockey, lacrosse and wrestling athletes, which cuts out a lot of the most prominent Cornell athletes. Like, if Rory Guilday was on Team USA for volleyball instead of hockey, she'd probably have a pretty good NIL deal. (She also wouldn't be at Cornell.)

klehner
It's about that time!

Incoming freshman Vince Cornella won the U20 Pan Am tournament at 65kg. He'll also be representing the US at the World U20
Championships in August in Bulgaria.

He's looking to be the starter at 141 this coming year.

125: Greg D/Ungar/Lajoie
133: Arujau
141: Cornella/Saunders
149: Yianni
157: Yapoujian
165: Ramirez/Gibson (the best backup around, unless he can drop to 157 and challenge Colton)
174: Foca
184: Loew
197: Cardenas
285: Fernandes

Couple of early changes as Greg D. is out for he season to get shoulder surgery (surely a bummer that he isn't wrestling in his brother's final season but I expect Yianni to stick around and coach/train at the RTC) and Gibson hasn't officially changed his commitment but the rumor is that he and his younger brother are decommitting and heading to Penn State.

Still, we've got potential national qualifiers at every weight, potential AAs at (very generously) everything but 125 and realistically at 7 and will probably get 4-5. Plus Yianni (likely) and Arujau (possible) as potential national champs. It's going to be a fun year.

The Wrestling team opened the season, as is customary, with an open tournament in Binghamton. The guys who wrestled the most this summer (Vito, Yianni and World U23 silver medalist Jacob Cardenas) skipped the event. All in all it was a good day. Cornell wrestlers won titles at 133 (Ethan Fernandez, who is Vito's back up), 141 with freshman Vince Cornella, 174 with Chris Foca and 184 with Jon Lowe. Also, Julian Ramirez cruised to the 165 finals, where he got caught and pinned by a returning AA. Also Also, highly-regarded recruit Meyer Shapiro won at 149.

The less good was that neither 125 had a great day, and heavy Fernandes defaulted out after an easy first round win. Here's to hoping it just precautionary.

mountainred
The Wrestling team opened the season, as is customary, with an open tournament in Binghamton. The guys who wrestled the most this summer (Vito, Yianni and World U23 silver medalist Jacob Cardenas) skipped the event. All in all it was a good day. Cornell wrestlers won titles at 133 (Ethan Fernandez, who is Vito's back up), 141 with freshman Vince Cornella, 174 with Chris Foca and 184 with Jon Lowe. Also, Julian Ramirez cruised to the 165 finals, where he got caught and pinned by a returning AA. Also Also, highly-regarded recruit Meyer Shapiro won at 149.

The less good was that neither 125 had a great day, and heavy Fernandes defaulted out after an easy first round win. Here's to hoping it just precautionary.

Neither 125 had a great day, but Ungar's was better than LaJoie's so he gets the start in the upcoming dual with Wisconsin.

Cardenas is back at 197 and apparently Fernandes wasn't planning on more than one match and will also be wrestling at Wisconsin.

Glad to see that 133 is in decent hands with Fernandez until Arujau comes back. Yianni's backups at 149 are ... not great, especially with Saunders taking either a semester or a year off of school and wrestling with the RTC.

Still don't know who gets the start at 157. Expected starter Colton Yapoujian was injured last year and I'm not sure if he's healed up. Gage McClenahan made it to the semis at Binghamton so I figure he earned at least one start over Handlovic if Yapoujian isn't wrestling.

Yianni beaten by #3 Austin Gomez of Wisconsin, 9-3, I think.

Al DeFlorio
Yianni beaten by #3 Austin Gomez of Wisconsin, 9-3, I think.

And lost the dual meet overall 19-13. Nightmare of a day. Team, except for Vito, was pretty lifeless. A real depressing watch after getting home from the football game.

125: Brett Ungar v. #9 Barnett. Ungar hung tough and got a great 4 point turn at the beginning of the second period. Unfortunately, he couldn't get out from bottom and gave up a couple of takedowns and the riding time point made the difference in a 6-5 loss. [W 3-0]

133: #3 Vito Arujau v. #18 LaMont. No competition and Vito rolled to a 17-6 MD. [C 4-3]

141: #21 Vince Cornella, coming off a tournament win in Binghamton, faced #18 Zargo. He got the only takedown of the match and picked up a riding time point for a 4-1 win. [C 7-3]

149: #1 Yianni Diakomihalis v #3 Gomez in the featured match of the night. Yianni seemed off. Wasn't able to finish his shots and Gomez was very creative in getting to his ankles and effective in finishing despite Yianni's flexibility. Shocking 9-3 win for Gomez. First loss for Yianni in over 2 years and his first home loss ever. [C 7-6]

157: Cole Handlovic v. #16 Model. Handlovic never really came close to scoring but he defended faily well. Model with a 6-2 win. [W 9-7]

165: #8 Julian Ramirez v. #5 Hamiti. Hamiti beat Ramirez twice last year, once by fall and once in a 15-11 barn burner. This year, Ramirez was completely stymied by Hamiti's length. 15-4 Hamiti. [W 13-7]

174: #9 Chris Foca v. Rowley. Rowley was never a threat to score and Foca didn't really try to put points on the board. Foca with a dull 6-3 win over someone he should be looking for bonus against imo. [W 13-10]

184: #7 Jonathan Loew v. Dow. Dow tried for a couple of big moves and Loew took him down both times. On the cusp of a major decision with over a minute left, Loew got oddly passive and settled for a 10-3 win at a time when the team really could have used a bonus point. [13-13]

197: #20 Jacob Cardenas v. #21 Braxton Amos. My big problem with Cardenas last year is that against underwhelming competition he opens up and dominates. Against good competition he turtles and the result is a low scoring coin flip. And so it goes. Amos got a quick escape in the second period and rode Cardenas for the entire third period. Amos 2-0. [W 16-13]

285: #9 Lewis Fernandes v. #12 Trent Hillger. Last year Fernandes won this matchup 12-6. Today, Fernandes looked a step slow and Hillger was all over it. In a must-win match, we fell short. Hillger 5-2. [FINAL: WISCONSIN 19-13]

Mason Gibson flips his commitment from Cornell to Penn State as well.

Mason Gibson flips his commitment from Cornell to Penn State as well

📸 tonyrotundo.waw pic.twitter.com/aavCqWNJKC

— Heavyweight Nation (@hwtnation) November 19, 2022

?s=20&t=oW8Scl6BpfXzp7avDlGL7Q

Mostly backups wrestled this weekend at the Mat Town Open in Lock Haven. Colton Yapoujian got his first matches since his 2021 injury and he cruised to three straight wins, including a 16-0 tech, a pin in a minute and a 7-0 win over teammate Cole Handlovic (who wrestled at 141 last year and would wrestle at 149 but for the 600lb gorilla in red) in the final.

The only other notable performance on the Cornell roster was Ethan Fernandez, who won another tournament at 133 in Vito Arujau's absence.

The real notable performance comes from a senior in high school who will probably be on the roster next year at 149: Meyer Shapiro.* Shapiro is spending his senior year in Ithaca competing with the Spartan Compat Regional Training Center instead of wrestling for his high school. He is a Maryland wrestler who went to Pennsylvania wrestling factory Wyoming Seminary for his Junior year and is a 2021 Cadet freestyle world champion. The competition wasn't very deep, but in his four matches he won three by fall and beat future Cornell teammate Owen Finn by major decision. Yianni's going to graduate after this season and it's incredible that we aren't going to see much fall-off from a 4x champ.


* pronounced Sha-PIE-ro

ugarte
Yianni's going to graduate after this season and it's incredible that we aren't going to see much fall-off from a 4x champ.

I believe in Yianni too, but aren't there wrestling gods to worry about?

mountainred

ugarte
Yianni's going to graduate after this season and it's incredible that we aren't going to see much fall-off from a 4x champ.

I believe in Yianni too, but aren't there wrestling gods to worry about?

hmm

ugarte

mountainred

ugarte
Yianni's going to graduate after this season and it's incredible that we aren't going to see much fall-off from a 4x champ.

I believe in Yianni too, but aren't there wrestling gods to worry about?

hmm

If Meyer Shapiro belongs to the tribe his name sounds like, there's just a wrestling god (singular) to worry about.

Swampy

ugarte

mountainred

ugarte
Yianni's going to graduate after this season and it's incredible that we aren't going to see much fall-off from a 4x champ.

I believe in Yianni too, but aren't there wrestling gods to worry about?

hmm

If Meyer Shapiro belongs to the tribe his name sounds like, there's just a wrestling god (singular) to worry about.

that god hasn't cared about a wrestler since jacob

Will wrestling remain a dominant program going forward without Andy as AD?

abkay
Will wrestling remain a dominant program going forward without Andy as AD?

Fair question. Colgate doesn’t have wrestling, while UNC, where Moore worked previously, has a solid program. But hard to imagine she’ll be as invested in wrestling as Noel has been.

scoop85

abkay
Will wrestling remain a dominant program going forward without Andy as AD?

Fair question. Colgate doesn’t have wrestling, while UNC, where Moore worked previously, has a solid program. But hard to imagine she’ll be as invested in wrestling as Noel has been.

Plus, 11 years at Oklahoma, which takes wrestling seriously. I'd hope she would be invested in one of the few Big Red sports with national title aspirations (hockey, lax, wrestling, and ???).

mountainred

scoop85

abkay
Will wrestling remain a dominant program going forward without Andy as AD?

Fair question. Colgate doesn’t have wrestling, while UNC, where Moore worked previously, has a solid program. But hard to imagine she’ll be as invested in wrestling as Noel has been.

Plus, 11 years at Oklahoma, which takes wrestling seriously. I'd hope she would be invested in one of the few Big Red sports with national title aspirations (hockey, lax, wrestling, and ???).

AS invested? idk - Noel was a wrestler himself and also coached the team for a while. That said, I can't imagine she'd come into a situation where the school has a nationally competitive team and a very generous alumni base who have been shoveling cash into the program and screw it up. I suspect she's sharper than that. I also suspect that Noel impressed the importance of the wrestling program upon her during the search process because it's obviously very important to him.

mountainred

scoop85

abkay
Will wrestling remain a dominant program going forward without Andy as AD?

Fair question. Colgate doesn’t have wrestling, while UNC, where Moore worked previously, has a solid program. But hard to imagine she’ll be as invested in wrestling as Noel has been.

Plus, 11 years at Oklahoma, which takes wrestling seriously. I'd hope she would be invested in one of the few Big Red sports with national title aspirations (hockey, lax, wrestling, and ???).

Polo? Crew? Soccer? (The latter might kill 2 birds with 1 stone because we could also call it “football.” After all, A. D. White did spend substantial time in England.)

One thing I’d expect, with considerable legitimacy, is for her to prioritize bringing women’s sports up to substantive (quality) rather than formal (financial) parity with men’s sports. This is already true in ice hockey, but I’m not aware of anything similar in our other more successful men’s sports (lax, wrestling, etc.) Of course, other sports might be viable alternatives, which is why Cornellians might have to learn that ice hockey is one of two forms of hockey played at the intercollegiate level.

Lacrosse and basketball are obvious candidates.

Swampy
One thing I’d expect, with considerable legitimacy, is for her to prioritize bringing women’s sports up to substantive (quality) rather than formal (financial) parity with men’s sports. This is already true in ice hockey, but I’m not aware of anything similar in our other more successful men’s sports (lax, wrestling, etc.) Of course, other sports might be viable alternatives, which is why Cornellians might have to learn that ice hockey is one of two forms of hockey played at the intercollegiate level.

Lacrosse and basketball are obvious candidates.

Women's lacrosse definitely has the potential to be a very strong program and reached the final four in 2002. More recently, they had a nice run of NCAA tournament appearances a few years back. The number of women's lacrosse programs is far higher than the number of men's, and the Ivies have remained relatively strong. Basketball is tougher, but Princeton has shown it's possible to build a nationally relevant program. I feel like the women's rowing team should be stronger, though the balance of power in women's crew has really shifted away from the Ivies and to the big state schools.

Weder

Swampy
One thing I’d expect, with considerable legitimacy, is for her to prioritize bringing women’s sports up to substantive (quality) rather than formal (financial) parity with men’s sports. This is already true in ice hockey, but I’m not aware of anything similar in our other more successful men’s sports (lax, wrestling, etc.) Of course, other sports might be viable alternatives, which is why Cornellians might have to learn that ice hockey is one of two forms of hockey played at the intercollegiate level.

Lacrosse and basketball are obvious candidates.

Women's lacrosse definitely has the potential to be a very strong program and reached the final four in 2002. More recently, they had a nice run of NCAA tournament appearances a few years back. The number of women's lacrosse programs is far higher than the number of men's, and the Ivies have remained relatively strong. Basketball is tougher, but Princeton has shown it's possible to build a nationally relevant program. I feel like the women's rowing team should be stronger, though the balance of power in women's crew has really shifted away from the Ivies and to the big state schools.

I wouldn't expect women's basketball to be nationally relevant anymore than I'd expect this of men's basketball. In this century Sweet 16 appearances occur perhaps once per decade, if only we should be so lucky.

But just as we'd be satisfied with an Ivy-competitive football team, being Ivy-League competitive in both women's & men's basketball is a reasonable aspiration.

Swampy

Weder

Swampy
One thing I’d expect, with considerable legitimacy, is for her to prioritize bringing women’s sports up to substantive (quality) rather than formal (financial) parity with men’s sports. This is already true in ice hockey, but I’m not aware of anything similar in our other more successful men’s sports (lax, wrestling, etc.) Of course, other sports might be viable alternatives, which is why Cornellians might have to learn that ice hockey is one of two forms of hockey played at the intercollegiate level.

Lacrosse and basketball are obvious candidates.

Women's lacrosse definitely has the potential to be a very strong program and reached the final four in 2002. More recently, they had a nice run of NCAA tournament appearances a few years back. The number of women's lacrosse programs is far higher than the number of men's, and the Ivies have remained relatively strong. Basketball is tougher, but Princeton has shown it's possible to build a nationally relevant program. I feel like the women's rowing team should be stronger, though the balance of power in women's crew has really shifted away from the Ivies and to the big state schools.

I wouldn't expect women's basketball to be nationally relevant anymore than I'd expect this of men's basketball. In this century Sweet 16 appearances occur perhaps once per decade, if only we should be so lucky.

But just as we'd be satisfied with an Ivy-competitive football team, being Ivy-League competitive in both women's & men's basketball is a reasonable aspiration.

I should add that it’d be nice to see women’s track and cross-country get back to the point they were at a decade or so ago when they were sending a fair number of individual qualifiers to the national championships and in the mix for a team berth. Women’s fencing seems to be on the rise, but the Ivy League is tough.

Swampy

Weder

Swampy
One thing I’d expect, with considerable legitimacy, is for her to prioritize bringing women’s sports up to substantive (quality) rather than formal (financial) parity with men’s sports. This is already true in ice hockey, but I’m not aware of anything similar in our other more successful men’s sports (lax, wrestling, etc.) Of course, other sports might be viable alternatives, which is why Cornellians might have to learn that ice hockey is one of two forms of hockey played at the intercollegiate level.

Lacrosse and basketball are obvious candidates.

Women's lacrosse definitely has the potential to be a very strong program and reached the final four in 2002. More recently, they had a nice run of NCAA tournament appearances a few years back. The number of women's lacrosse programs is far higher than the number of men's, and the Ivies have remained relatively strong. Basketball is tougher, but Princeton has shown it's possible to build a nationally relevant program. I feel like the women's rowing team should be stronger, though the balance of power in women's crew has really shifted away from the Ivies and to the big state schools.

I wouldn't expect women's basketball to be nationally relevant anymore than I'd expect this of men's basketball. In this century Sweet 16 appearances occur perhaps once per decade, if only we should be so lucky.

But just as we'd be satisfied with an Ivy-competitive football team, being Ivy-League competitive in both women's & men's basketball is a reasonable aspiration.

If only indeed. Our guys in 2010 are the only mens's hoops team to make the Sweet 16 since Penn made the Final Four in '79. I'm not sure any women's team has pulled it off since 2000, but I don't think so. As you say, Princeton is current gold standard for Ivy Women's hoops -- seriously they are very good -- and they've only won their first round game twice.

Cornell went to Las Vegas to compete in the annual Cliff Keen tournament. No Yianni at 149, no Yapoujian at 157 and no Cardenas at 197 so not a full lineup.

Some very good results, including titles for Vito Arujau (133) and Julian Ramirez (165), neither of whom really broke a sweat.

Chris Foca (174) finished in third, with his only loss by one point to a former NCAA champ Mekhi Lewis and wins over three ranked wrestlers.

Brett Ungar (125) finished in seventh. He split a pair of matches with a top 10 wrestler, took another to OT and got himself into the rankings picture.

Vince Cornella (141) had a somewhat disappointing tournament, going 1-2, but tbh all three of his matches were to wrestlers around his own ranking and anything from 0-2 to 3-0 in those matches would be a reasonable outcome.

Lewis Fernandes (285) is a very unique wrestler in that he's on the small side for a heavyweight but despite that is a powerful wrestler on top, wrenching larger guys over. The problem is that he is also kind of a risk taker and that is often an issue. An uncommonly high percentage of his matches end by fall, whether he is winning them or losing them. And so it went in Vegas. He won his first match with a first period pin. In his second match, he had been on top for a minute and a half when he got in a risky position and instead of bailing and giving up one point, he got reversed to his back and lost. In the consolation round, he cruised to a victory (no pin but 3 separate sets of back points) before dropping out of the tournament with a medical forfeit, though the match report from the coach didn't even mention any injury so you can probably put scare quotes around "medical."

Sam Jones (149), Gage McClenahan (157) and Ethan Hatcher (197) filled in for starters and McClenahan and Hatcher even came away with wins, so that's not terrible.

The real bad news from the weekend is that Jonathan Loew (184) was leading in his match 7-4 then got taken down very hard out of bounds and defaulted out of the tournament with a shoulder injury. The match report said that it wasn't as bad as it looked but he's going to take a couple of weeks of R&R, which probably means he'll be back for the next competition, which is in two weeks in New Orleans against Oregon State and Iowa State (and a third team TBD).

As it stands now, all of Cornell's starters but Yapoujian are ranked by Intermat, which means this is a good, deep team. Yapoujian will be ranked as soon as he gets a few more matches under his belt. Half are ranked high enough to finish the season as All-Americans (Arujau (3), Yianni (1), Ramirez (7), Foca (6) and Loew (6)). Good start.

Didn't mention it here but Cornell's had four dual meets since Las Vegas. The team went 2-1 in New Orleans, with wins over Oregon State and North Carolina and a close loss to #6 Iowa State. This week, Cornell went to Flo's HQ in Austin for a neutral site dual against #3 Arizona State and (though both teams were missing starters) won. We have another big dual starting at 7pm tonight (on ESPN+) against #8 Virginia Tech.

Here's the recap by weight.

125: Brian Ungar has worked his way into the rankings (Flo 17/Intermat 21) and continues to solidify his place as the starter. His trip to New Orleans was strange, as he beat #10 Kaylor of Oregon State then followed it up by losing to Iowa State's unheralded backup. He followed it up with a win against North Carolina and a game loss to ASU's former national finalist, #6 Courtney.

133: #3 Vito Arujau remains undefeated, including a pair of wins over #4 McGee. The rematch in Austin was a little close for comfort, as it took a last second takedown (literally) to avoid overtime.

141: Vince Cornella has a similar climb to Ungar (16/22). He had a wobble against North Carolina against another talented freshman but rebounded with a quality win against Arizona State. No bad losses and some top-20 wins.

149: After an early season loss to Austin Gomez, #1 Yianni Diakomihalis hasn't lost again and has wins over the only wrestler to beat Gomez and a 2x All-American.

157: This has been a shaky weight. Expected starter Colton Yapoujian - plagued by injuries his first two years on the hill - had a pair of losses on the first day of the New Orleans duals and hasn't wrestled since. McClenahan has wrestled the last two for us and has lost both close. We'll see how this develops.

165: Julian Ramirez has solidified his spot in the top 10 (9/7) with a great season to date. His only loss since the last update was to a 2x AA / former national champ.

174: #5 Chris Foca continues to impress. His only loss on the year was by one point to a former national champion. He's also been racking up bonus points along the way with dominant victories.

184: Starter (and returning AA) Jonathan Loew hasn't come back since injuring his shoulder in Las Vegas. He's still in the top 10 (9/6). His return was originally expected in New Orleans but now? Who knows. The first fill-in, Canoyer, went 0-3 and Ethan Hatcher has since dropped down from 197. Hatcher dropped his first match at the weight on Wednesday against Arizona State, but aside from giving up a 6 point move early in the match, fought back hard and clearly had more in the tank at the end than his top 20 opponent.

197: Jacob Cardenas is in the top 20 (18/17) and is quite underrated by the rankers imo. He hasn't wrestled much, though, and is only 3-2, so I guess I understand. His losses are to a fellow top 20 guy in Wisconsin's Amos and Iowa State's top 5 at 184, who bumped up for the dual.

285: Lewis Fernandes is also sticking around the top 20 (16/18), though he's had an odd season. He's 4-4, but his wins are unimpressive while his losses are all to top 10-ish wrestlers. He has no matches against anyone in between. Brendan Furman, a senior who was Cornell's starter before the pandemic (and Fernandes' arrival), is back and 2-0 but I think pretty clearly the backup regardless.

As I'm typing this, the guys are stretching for their match against Virginia Tech. Word is that two of VT's best guys (at 157 and 174) are out, which obviously improves our chances considerably. Here's how it looks on paper, based on Intermat, and updating the scoring as the match goes on:

     CU VT
157: UR UR McClenahan drops a close one. 4-2. VT 3-0.
165:  7 22 Ramirez with a workmanlike 3-0 win. Never threatened. Tied 3-3
174:  5 UR Foca dominates. Up 15-0, he'd have won by tech fall but he made a slight adjustment to the hold and got the pin. CU 9-3
184: UR  7 Hatcher was game but Bolen was too much. Keeping it to a 4-0 loss is a quality appearance. CU 9-6
197: 17 23 Cardenas almost got the major but had to settle for a 10-3 W. CU 12-6
285: UR 23 Surprise (to me) start for Furman. Couldn't generate any offense and gave up a pair of takedowns in a 6-1 loss. CU 12-9
125: 21 18 After trading escapes, Ungar spent SV playing for rideouts. He escaped but his opponent didn't 2-1 OT win. CU 15-9
133:  3  8 Vito no longer undefeated. Never really shot and kept giving up his legs. Usually fought it off but gave up one takedown to lose 3-2. CU 15-12
141: 22 14 Incredible performance from Cornella. Not just an upset, a 12-4 Major Decision. CU 19-12 and that's locks up the team W.
149:  1 11 Yianni with a comfortable 6-2 W. CU 22-12

Other than the first loss for Vito, a heck of a night, especially on the road. LGR.

These rankings will change this week, but heading into tonight, this is where our guys were ranked:

		WIN	Flo	Intermat   WrestleStat (ELO)
125: Ungar 	17	16	18         18	
133: Arujau	 3	 3	 3          3
141: Cornella	13	12	14         17
149: Yianni D.	 1	 1	 1          1
157: Yapoujian	NR	NR	NR         36
165: Ramirez	 8	 9	 7          8
174: Foca	 4	 4	 4          7
184: Loew	 8	 9	 6         10
197: Cardenas	NR	18	17         22
285: Fernandes	18	15	18         14
TEAM DUAL:	 4	 4	 7          5
TEAM NCAA:	 9	 5	 3          6

Our guys had a somewhat desultory 18-15 win over Lehigh tonight, with both teams having starters out.

141: Tough start. Cornella was passive all match and let his opponent stay close all the way and then beat him with a late takedown. L 4-2. Lehigh 3-0

149: Yianni was going to win this either way, but Lehigh sent out a backup because they wanted to use their usual starter at 149 to replace their injured 157. Lehigh's guy was game and even almost scored but Yianni rolled to a tech. WTF 16-1. Cornell 5-3

157: With both teams starters injured, Lehigh bumped up their 149 and Cornell sent out a backup, Cole Handlovic. In a bit of a shocker, Handlovic piled up riding time and engaged enough to avoid a stall call while mostly avoiding engagement. W 2-0. Cornell 8-3

165: Ramirez was much better than his opponent and proved it. Probably could have pushed for a tech but didn't. 13-2 MD. Cornell 12-3

174: Foca lost last year in a shocker and when he gave up a quick takedown today I thought history was about to repeat itself, but Foca righted the ship. W 9-5. Cornell 15-3

184: With Loew still out, Hatcher got the start again. He's not getting blown out but he isn't scoring either. L 4-0. Cornell 15-6

197: This weight has Lehigh's best wrestler, a returning All-American. Cardenas took an early lead but once Beard scored, Cardenas wasn't strong enough to do anything on bottom. He did keep it close enough. L 6-2. Cornell 15-9

285: Fernandes was out of the lineup again. Furman took the first shot but couldn't convert and then basically ran out of gas. L 9-3. Cornell 15-12

125: Boring match with nobody really trying to score. 1-1 heading to SV where Ungar took a clean shot and converted it. W 3-1 SV CU 18-12

133: Facing a ranked opponent, Ethan Fernandez needed to not get pinned for Cornell to cinch up the W and he didn't. Possibly a winnable match but not tonight. L 4-0.

Final: CU 18-15

I expect to see Cornella drop at least a few spots. I don't know if the rankers are going to keep being so generous with Loew and Fernandes until they start taking the mat regularly. Losing to Beard shouldn't hurt Cardenas.

Conference schedule starts next Saturday with Harvard. If all of our starters go, this should be a walk, with only 174 and Heavyweight competitive. If Yapoujian is still out, 157 becomes a toss-up too. Our backups at 133 and 184 are probably favored over the Harvard starters if Arujau and Loew are still out.

ugarte
Conference schedule starts next Saturday with Harvard. If all of our starters go, this should be a walk, with only 174 and Heavyweight competitive. If Yapoujian is still out, 157 becomes a toss-up too. Our backups at 133 and 184 are probably favored over the Harvard starters if Arujau and Loew are still out.

Conference schedule actually starts Saturday at noon at Brown, now coached by former Cornell NCAA champion Jordzn Leen.

Al DeFlorio

ugarte
Conference schedule starts next Saturday with Harvard. If all of our starters go, this should be a walk, with only 174 and Heavyweight competitive. If Yapoujian is still out, 157 becomes a toss-up too. Our backups at 133 and 184 are probably favored over the Harvard starters if Arujau and Loew are still out.

Conference schedule actually starts Saturday at noon at Brown, now coached by former Cornell NCAA champion Jordzn Leen.

lol how did i miss that i was looking right at the schedule. even with our current injuries, we should shut out Brown unless we go deep into our bench to give some of the backups mat time.

Desultory was a good word. Rarely do you see little action at the lightweights, though you have to think Ethan was told "do not get pinned!"

I remember thinking Loew's injury was bad when it happened, but am really wondering about Fernandes. If those two remain out, the Princeton dual gets really dicey.

Two dual day for the wrestling team. First, Brown. Later, Harvard.

Brown:

125: Ungar takes care of business without a threat W 6-0. Cornell 3-0

133: Ethan Fernandez in for Arujau. Hope it's just because it's a two-dual day and Vito is ready for this evening. No scoring through 2, with Fernandez getting ridden out in the second. In the third, Fernandez gives up the escape but gets a TD with ~7 seconds left to send it to OT but... he gets hit for locked hands with ~3 seconds left. Totally unnecessary (accidental, probably) grip since his positioning was good. Neutral restart but with 2.2 seconds left, no way to score again. L 4-2. Tied 3-3.

141: Vince Cornella, never threatened, kept the pressure on. WMD 11-3. Cornell 7-3.

149: Unlike most, Cabanillas went right after Yianni and got on his legs twice. Unfortunately, all that did was let Yianni score. And score and score. In the third, Cabanillas was gassed and Yianni turned him twice for NF4. WTF 18-2. Cornell 12-3.

157: Yapoujian finally returns. Scoreless first, Yapoujian chooses neutral in the second; Brown gets a TD and over a minute of RT. Brown chooses top to preserve and stretch RT but bad choice: Yapoujian reverses and rides out to go to OT. Quick takedown for McMonagle. L 4-2 SV. Cornell 12-6.

165: Quick TD for Ramirez, Escape. Looked away for a second and ... Ramirez is caught and on his back and ALMOST pinned but only NF2, before he wriggles out and escapes. Another quick takedown for Ramirez to tie and then takes him over to WBF 1:51. Cornell 18-6.

174: Canoyer giving Foca a breather. Canoyer escape in the second, Clearie escape in the third. Canoyer with a slick low double right after the escape to go up 3-1 and runs out a lot of the clock on top. Gives up a late escape but stays out of trouble for his first Cornell W 3-2. Cornell 21-6.

184: Loew is back! Quick TD, turn for 2, readjust for a WBF 1:58. Effortless. Cornell 27-6.

197: Cardenas with an immediate TD, release, TD, NF4 NF4 NF4. WTF 16-1. Cornell 32-6.

285: Furman gets the start. Unclear if it's so Fernandes is fresh for Slavikouski or if Furman gets to go twice today. Slow start but Furman gets it going and is never threatened. W 6-0.

FINAL Cornell 35, Brown 6. See you in Cambridge.

EDIT: I deleted the clips because they were supposed to embed as links but instead made the post unreadable. You can see all of them on Twitter @BigRedWrestling.

Harvard dual was another romp for Cornell but there were some surprises.

125: Brett Ungar is good on top but not so good on bottom and needs to score more on his feet. Today, he gave up an escape but couldn't get one of his own and that was the only scoring. L 1-0. Harvard 3-0.

133: Vito still out, which is worrisome. Ethan Fernandez is a capable backup, though. After a slow start, Fernandez ran away with it. W 8-1. Tied 3-3.

141: Cornella was never really threatened and also fell just short of a major. W 7-1. Cornell 6-3.

149: Yianni took too long trying for back points in the first and ended up running out of time before he could get a major. WMD 15-2. Cornell 10-3.

157: Colton Yapoujian is back but doesn't look back to form. Taken down in the first and packed up quick. LBF 1:13. Cornell 10-9.

165: Josh Ramirez was having a lot of trouble with the ref. A penalty point that I still don't understand in the first period, a lot of stalling that the ref didn't seem to mind... he seemed annoyed with Kim too. Still, W 5-2. Cornell 13-9.

174: To my surprise, Foca didn't wrestle in the late dual meet either. Evan Canoyer returned after his first win in red and got his second. Also just shy of bonus points. Every time his opponent got his feet close together, Canoyer fired at his ankles and got 'em. Harvard kid is going to hate that film. W 10-4. Cornell 16-9.

184: It took a little longer, but Jonathan Loew got his second fall of the day in his return. He gave up an early two but he reversed and had a decent lead when he finished off his opponent. WBF 5:56. Cornell 22-9.

197: Jacob Cardenas with another blowout. WTF 18-1. Cornell 27-9.

285: Brendan Furman got the start again (and the grapevine says that Fernandes is out for the year). Harvard's best wrestler is their heavyweight, and he was too much. L 8-2.

FINAL Cornell 27, Harvard 12.

Next weekend, @Columbia on Saturday and @Army on Sunday.

Nice recap as always, but next weekend we have Army Saturday and Columbia Sunday

scoop85
Nice recap as always, but next weekend we have Army Saturday and Columbia Sunday

getting old...

Rankings for the week of 1/23

		WIN	Flo	Intermat   WrestleStat (ELO)
125: Ungar 	19	14	17         22	
133: Arujau	 3	 3	 3          3
141: Cornella	11	10	16         25
149: Yianni D.	 1	 1	 1          1
157: Yapoujian	NR	NR	NR         61
165: Ramirez	 7	 9	 8          7
174: Foca	 4	 4	 4          7
184: Loew	 8	 8	 6          8
197: Cardenas	NR	17	16         22
285: Fernandes*	17	14	18         16
TEAM DUAL:	10	 4	 4          6
TEAM NCAA:	 4	 5	 4          6

Wrestling at Columbia 1:00 today. Ugarte, are you going?

CAS
Wrestling at Columbia 1:00 today. Ugarte, are you going?

30-3 Cornell, final

CAS
Wrestling at Columbia 1:00 today. Ugarte, are you going?

Yeah, I was there. Didn't check eLF before I left, though. I didn't make my way up to West Point for yesterday's dual against Army. The weekend was a runaway for the Big Red.

125: Ungar had a very low-scoring but ultimately successful weekend against a pair of wrestlers who will be on the margins of qualification for NCAAs. Against Army, Ungar got the only point of the match after 7:15 of wrestling with an escape in the first rideout period. Against Columbia, he got the only takedown of the match in the first period. He chose to start the second period at neutral so he wouldn't be on bottom, then his opponent chose top to start the third so Ungar would have to. Ungar never did escape, and he did give up a point for stalling, but only one despite Columbia fans screaming for another - to ultimately win 2-1.

133: Arujau's Army opponent was unranked and Vito dominated him with a 15-0 Tech. Columbia's (barely) ranked opponent put up a bit more of a fight, but Vito still won 12-3 for a major decision.

141: Cornella also won a pair of matches this weekend. Against his unranked Army opponent, he cruised to a 12-0 major decision. Against the bigger challenge from Columbia, he got two takedowns and gave up two escapes and was penalized for stalling twice (the last with 11 seconds left in the match), but because he had over a minute of riding time, he was awarded the tiebreaking point to win 5-4.

149: Yianni took off the Friday match against Army. In his stead, JJ Wilson lost 7-1. Against Columbia, Yianni rolled to a 17-5 major decision.

157: Handlovic was the starter again this weekend. Against Army, a dramatic last-second takedown pushed the match to SV, but in the extra period, Army scored to take the match 4-2. Against Columbia - and the tougher opponent on paper - he scored at the end of regulation to send the match to SV then scored again in the extra period for a dramatic 6-4 win.

165: Julian Ramirez wrestled against Army on Saturday and after a strange penalty point awarded to his opponent, he wrestled cautiously. He still won 4-2. His match against Columbia was one of the more anticipated of the dual, with Ramirez holding a 3-2* edge in the rivalry with Ogunsanya, but neither wrestled today. In a match of backups, and Benny Baker's first appearance in a dual for Cornell, Baker gave up the first takedown but didn't give up another point in a 5-2 W.

174: Foca had a tough matchup against Army, and I think he gave up the first takedown, but he handled it well and came back for a 6-3 win. Today, his Columbia opponent got to his legs a couple of times but Foca was the only one who scored in the exchanges and won by major, 14-3.

184: On Saturday, Loew defaulted out with a recurrence of his shoulder injury. It remains to be seen how serious it is, but he weighed in against Columbia even though he ultimately didn't wrestle. Hatcher took the mat against Columbia and scored a takedown at the whistle to keep from being shut out but fell 4-2 for Cornell's only L of the dual.

197: Cardenas got the only takedown of the match against Army and won 3-1. Against Columbia he was able to get some back points and won comfortably, 8-2.

285: With an apparent injury to Fernandes, Furman is now the starter for good. Against Army, he bullrushed his opponent to take him down and basically fold him up. He got the pin 25 seconds into the second period. His Columbia opponent made it to the end of the match but didn't score either, with Furman winning 5-0.

Penn and Princeton next weekend up in Ithaca.

Cornell 27, Army 12
125: #17 Brett Ungar (Cornell) won by decision over #33 Ethan Berginc (Army West Point), 1-0 (OT2)
133: #3 Vito Arujau (Cornell) won by technical fall over Richard Treanor (Army West Point), 15-0
141: #16 Vince Cornella (Cornell) won by major decision over Eddie Hummel (Army West Point), 12-0
149: Trae McDaniel (Army West Point) won by decision over JJ Wilson (Cornell), 7-1
157: Nathan Lukez (Army West Point) won by decision over Cole Handlovic (Cornell), 4-2 (sv1)
165: #8 Julian Ramirez (Cornell) won by decision over Dalton Harkins (Army West Point), 4-2
174: #4 Chris Foca (Cornell) won by decision over #20 Ben Pasiuk (Army West Point), 6-3
184: Sahm Abdulrazzaq (Army West Point) won by injury default over #6 Jonathan Loew (Cornell)
197: #16 Jacob Cardenas (Cornell) won by decision over Kyle Swartz (Army West Point), 3-1
285: Brendan Furman (Cornell) won by fall over Kade Carlson (Army West Point), 3:25

Cornell 30, Columbia 3
197: #17 Jacob Cardenas (Cornell) won by decision over Jack Wehmeyer (Columbia), 8-2
285: Brendan Furman (Cornell) won by decision over Billy McChesney (Columbia), 5-0
125: #13 Brett Ungar (Cornell) won by decision over #32 Nick Babin (Columbia), 2-1
133: #3 Vito Arujau (Cornell) won by major decision over #30 Angelo Rini (Columbia), 12-3
141: #16 Vince Cornella (Cornell) won by decision over #26 Matthew Kazimir (Columbia), 5-4
149: #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) won by major decision over #33 Danny Fongaro (Columbia), 17-5
157: Cole Handlovic (Cornell) won by decision over #22 Cesar Alvan (Columbia), 6-4 (OT)
165: Benny Baker (Cornell) won by decision over David Berkowich (Columbia), 5-2
174: #4 Chris Foca (Cornell) won by major decision over #32 Lenox Wolak (Columbia), 14-3
184: Aaron Ayzerov (Columbia) won by decision over Ethan Hatcher (Cornell), 4-2

* This probably overstates the rivalry. Ramirez won the first by Major Decision, lost the second by injury default with a concussion, lost in the conference tournament by 2, the won the two most recent matchups by 11 and 6 points respectively.

rereading that, it's funny to see that Cornell used different sources for the rankings each day (since i copied the scoresheets from the Cornell match reports).

Heading in to the weekend against Penn and Princeton, here are the national rankings for our guys

		WIN	Flo	Intermat   WrestleStat (ELO)
125: Ungar 	19	14	17         22	
133: Arujau	 3	 3	 3          3
141: Cornella	 9	11	17         19
149: Yianni D.	 1	 1	 1          1
157: Handlovic  NR	NR	NR         71
165: Ramirez	 7	12	 9          7
174: Foca	 4	 4	 4          6
184: Loew	12	 7	 6          8
197: Cardenas	NR	17	14         23
285: Fernandes*	17	14	20         18 (Furman 45)
TEAM DUAL:	 8	 4	 4          6
TEAM NCAA:	 4	 5	 4          6

Princeton is ranked 16th for the tournament power rating and unranked for duals, which is to say, they are top heavy. Specifically, Glory is ranked #2 at 125 and Monday is ranked #3 at 165 by WIN and those are their only two ranked wrestlers. Glory has wrestled at 133 for a few weeks, but I suspect he's going to go back down to 125 for the tournament. Don't know what he'll do this weekend but Glory v Arjau is a matchup everyone wants to see. Glory leads 3-2, including a win in the 2022 NCAA semifinals and the 2019 EIWA finals. Vito won at the 2022 EIWA finals and they've split their matches in duals. Monday v. Ramirez is the other top-flight matchup, with 157, 197 and Heavyweight also interesting.

Penn is ranked 23 for dual meets and 29 for the tournament. Deeper, but lower peaks: Colaiocco is #8 at 133, Zapf is #13 at 149, Artalona is #18 at 157 and Incontrera is #13 at 174. We are not a great matchup for Penn, as we have top 5 guys at 133, 149 and 174. 125, 197 and Heavyweight are interesting matchups too.

*Fernandes is out for the year according to my sources (and implied by Coach Grey's emails).

Cornell started the weekend against Princeton. Not as good as some of the recent Tiger teams, but two top-3 guys and decent wrestlers at some of our non-dominant weights. On paper, looked like it could be interesting. On the mat? Cornell started with an upset and rolled to a blowout.

165: The dual starts with the best match of the day, with a pair of top-10 wrestlers. Ramirez gets ther first takedown right off the bat. Monday takes the lead in the second with a takedown, but a penalty point for locked hands and a Ramirez escape ties it again at 4. Monday gets another takedown in the third, but an escape reties the score. With time running out, Ramirez gets a shot which leads to a scramble. He not only comes out on top, but gets Monday in an awkward position with his back exposed for 2 extra points and W 10-6. Cornell 3-0.

174: Chris Foca takes on Grant Cuomo, a NQ from 2020 who isn't in the starting lineup anymore. Foca gets a cradle, and nearly a pin, but can't lock it up. Cuomo is game, and gets a reversal from the cradle and a late TD to make it close but too little too late and Foca W 8-5. Cornell 6-0.

184: Loew is back after sitting out against Columbia following aggravating his shoulder injury against Army. He does not look like he's back at full strength. Tentative. Dugan with the only TD of the match and Loew L 4-3. Cornell 6-3.

197: Cardenas split his two matches with Stout last year, winning at the dual before losing in the conference semis, both matches within a takedown. Today, though, after a scoreless first period, Stout chose bottom and Cardenas quickly torqued him over for 4 and then rode out the period. Cardenas escaped in the third and with time running out, he fired off a double and took Stout down again. With the riding time, WMD 8-0. Cornell 10-3.

285: Furman is now clearly the starter. Travis Stefanik had spent his career at 184 but he's bumped up to Heavy. This match was really sleepy right up until it wasn't. No scoring in the first. Only scoring in the second and third were escapes. Goes to SV tied 1-1. In the extra period, Furman gets underhooks in and takes Stefanik straight to his back and holds him down for the pin. Cornell 16-3.

125: Princeton's best wrestler is their 125, a returning finalist. Ungar is good but not at Glory's level. He only came close to scoring once and by the end of the match Glory was scoring at will. LMD 10-2. Cornell 16-7.

133: Vito Arujau with a takedown clinic. After a takedown and a pair of 4 point turns to take a 10-0 lead in the first, the rest of the match is a takedown clinic. Vito lets him up 5 times and takes him down immediately each time. WTF 20-5. Cornell 21-7.

141: Cornella gets a rest and Fernandez bumps up from 133 and Princeton sends out a backup as well. After two slow periods, Fernandez goes to the third up 1-0. In the third, just as it looks like Martino is going to escape, Fernandez returns him to the mat to his back for 4. He gets another takedown and the riding time W 8-2. Cornell 24-7.

149: Yianni gets a backup from Princeton and makes quick work of it. WTF 15-0. I know it says 17-0 down there but I'm sure the last score was NF2 not NF4 and I'm sticking with what I saw the ref signal. You can't stop me. Cornell 29-7.

157: Handlovic with a big matchup for conference seeding against Ty Whalen. No scoring in the first. In the second, Handlovic held Whalen down for almost two minutes but gave up a late escape. To my surprise, he chose to start the third at neutral. Whalen took the first good shot but Handlovic countered, got the takedown and a turn for 4. With the riding time, W 7-1. Cornell 32-7.

Cornell 32, Princeton 7.
165: #9 Julian Ramirez (Cornell) won by decision over #3 Quincy Monday (Princeton), 10-6
174: #4 Chris Foca (Cornell) won by decision over Grant Cuomo (Princeton), 8-5
184: Nate Dugan (Princeton) won by decision over #6 Jonathan Loew (Cornell), 4-3
197: #14 Jacob Cardenas (Cornell) won by major decision over #20 Luke Stout (Princeton), 8-0
285: Brendan Furman (Cornell) won by fall over #31 Travis Stefanik (Princeton), 6:48
125: #2 Patrick Glory (Princeton) won by major decision over #17 Brett Ungar (Cornell), 10-2
133: #3 Vito Arujau (Cornell) won by technical fall over Anthnoy Clark (Princeton), 20-5
141: Ethan Fernandez (Cornell) won by decision over Christopher Martino (Princeton), 8-2
149: #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) won by technical fall over Marshall Keller (Princeton), 17-0
157: Cole Handlovic (Cornell) won by decision over Ty Whalen (Princeton), 7-1

I noticed that in overtime, they didn't stop it when Furman got the takedown, letting him finish the pinning opportunity.

Is it theoretically possible to score the first points in overtime and then lose, if, while on top, you get pinned from the bottom trying for a pin?

nshapiro
I noticed that in overtime, they didn't stop it when Furman got the takedown, letting him finish the pinning opportunity.

Is it theoretically possible to score the first points in overtime and then lose, if, while on top, you get pinned from the bottom trying for a pin?

good question, and maybe, but i don't think so. they don't give you much continuation - basically only as long as you hold the grip.

ugarte

nshapiro
I noticed that in overtime, they didn't stop it when Furman got the takedown, letting him finish the pinning opportunity.

Is it theoretically possible to score the first points in overtime and then lose, if, while on top, you get pinned from the bottom trying for a pin?

good question, and maybe, but i don't think so. they don't give you much continuation - basically only as long as you hold the grip.

I don't think so either, as the take down should take priority since it is "sudden victory." I hope not to ever see that play out, the arguing would take forever.

ugarte

149: Yianni gets a backup from Princeton and makes quick work of it. WTF 15-0. I know it says 17-0 down there but I'm sure the last score was NF2 not NF4 and I'm sticking with what I saw the ref signal. You can't stop me. 1

Style points?

mountainred

ugarte

149: Yianni gets a backup from Princeton and makes quick work of it. WTF 15-0. I know it says 17-0 down there but I'm sure the last score was NF2 not NF4 and I'm sticking with what I saw the ref signal. You can't stop me. 1

Style points?

that's fair. very elegant.

The wrestling team's success often seems like it's taken for granted, but it's an incredible feat to have such a dominant program at an Ivy school (unless you're talking about an elitist sport like squash or fencing). Cornell has won 19 of the last 20 Ivy titles and is consistently ranked in the national polls, not to mention some of the amazing individual wrestlers who have competed for Cornell. I don't know how much longer Cornell's run will continue, but it's an impressive accomplishment.

Cornell wins the Ivy title 19-15 over Penn with some clutch performances but tbh today really left more questions than answers.

125: Ungar v Miller. Ungar has the better ranking but idk if he was really the favorite. Ungar wasn't able to score and Miller was, and that's all she wrote. L 6-1. Penn 3-0

133: Vito was by far the better wrestler, but after a fast start by Vito, Colaiocco slowed the pace and got a takedown of his own kept this under a major. W 13-7. Tied 3-3

141: Fernandez in for Cornella again. Not sure what's going on here, hope Cornella is OK and just taking a weekend off for rest. Fernandez got outmuscled by Ferrara. L 4-1. Penn 6-3

149: Yianni had a game opponent in Zapf but after Yianni got a few takedowns on counters, Zapf stopped shooting and Yianni wasn't able to break through the defense. Another opportunity for bonus points that didn't come through. W 8-3. Tied 6-6

157: Artalona was Penn's best chance at bonus points but Handlovic hung with him the whole time. He gave up a single takedown and that was the difference. Artalona spent the last 30-40 seconds of the match running away but the two stalling calls weren't enough. A third would have sent it to SV. L 3-2. Penn 9-6

Halftime. I admit I was starting to get worried here because Loew is obviously not at full strength, Furman is a slight underdog and Foca, while a favorite, has a tough opponent.

165: Ramirez never really threatened but he wasn't able to get the scoring going. W 4-2. Tied 9-9

174: Foca with an incredible match. After Foca took a 1-0 lead in the second period, Incontrera took a shot. Foca countered by grabbing the back of his ankle and taking him straight to his back, holding him for a 4 point exposure. In the third period, Incontrera reached again, and this time Foca reached across his chest and neck and pulled him straight backwards for a takedown, an exposure, and then settled in on top for the pin. WBF 5:59. Cornell 15-9 and I relax a bit.

184: Loew came out for the match but he's not himself. He's tentative, and when he does shoot, he lacks the strength in his injured right shoulder to finish. Hale wisely chose neutral instead of going underneath and risking a turn and Loew otherwise is ... off. His sprawl defense at the end was enough to prevent a final takedown and a major decision. L 10-3. Cornell 15-12

197: Cardenas taking on Urbas, who he went 2-1 against last year. Urbas is not having nearly as good a year while Cardenas appears to be raising his game. That's how it played out, with Cardenas dominating. Got the only takedowns and a really nice exposure. WMD 12-2. Cornell 19-12, which locks up the dual and with it the 2023 Ivy League Championship.

285: An important match for Furman for conference seeding purposes. Just like last night, no scoring but escapes in the first seven minutes and it goes to SV tied 1-1. The only real action was Goldin trying to get in an underhook and reach across the head for an upper body throw. The first couple, Furman defended. The third, Furman nearly scored on a counter. In SV, though, Goldin was able to get the leverage he needed and pulled Furman over and got behind him and Furman had to barely touch the mat for balance, which is enough to get the takedown called. L 3-1 SV. Cornell 19-15

#5 Cornell 19, #25 Penn 15
125 #24 Ryan Miller (Penn) won by decision over #17 Brett Ungar (Cornell), 6-1
133 #3 Vito Arujau (Cornell) won by decision over #8 Michael Colaiocco (Penn), 13-7
141 Carmen Ferrante (Penn) won by decision over Ethan Fernandez (Cornell), 4-1
149 #1 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) won by decision over #12 Doug Zapf (Penn), 8-3
157 #16 Anthony Artalona (Penn) won by decision over Cole Handlovic (Cornell), 3-2
165 #9 Julian Ramirez (Cornell) won by decision over Lucas Revano (Penn), 4-2
174 #4 Chris Foca (Cornell) won by fall over #20 Nick Incontrera (Penn), 5:59
184 Maximus Hale (Penn) won by decision over #6 Jonathan Loew (Cornell), 10-3
197 #14 Jacob Cardenas (Cornell) won by major decision over #32 Cole Urbas (Penn), 12-2
285 #29 Ben Goldin (Penn) won by decision over Brendan Furman (Cornell), 3-1 (sv1)

dbilmes
The wrestling team's success often seems like it's taken for granted, but it's an incredible feat to have such a dominant program at an Ivy school (unless you're talking about an elitist sport like squash or fencing). Cornell has won 19 of the last 20 Ivy titles and is consistently ranked in the national polls, not to mention some of the amazing individual wrestlers who have competed for Cornell. I don't know how much longer Cornell's run will continue, but it's an impressive accomplishment.

And when we lost the Ivy title it's only because we had 3 wrestlers on Olympic redshirt years, and even then it came down to a single match. Koll built an incredible program and I'm hoping that Grey can keep it going once the team is fully his guys.

dbilmes
The wrestling team's success often seems like it's taken for granted, but it's an incredible feat to have such a dominant program at an Ivy school (unless you're talking about an elitist sport like squash or fencing). Cornell has won 19 of the last 20 Ivy titles and is consistently ranked in the national polls, not to mention some of the amazing individual wrestlers who have competed for Cornell. I don't know how much longer Cornell's run will continue, but it's an impressive accomplishment.

For those of us who follow wrestling less avidly than Ugarte, how does this year's team rank versus Cornell teams of the past decade? What is the best measure of Cornell: Ivy titles? Cornell wrestlers in the national top ten? Finish at EIWAs? Finish at NCAAs?

billhoward

dbilmes
The wrestling team's success often seems like it's taken for granted, but it's an incredible feat to have such a dominant program at an Ivy school (unless you're talking about an elitist sport like squash or fencing). Cornell has won 19 of the last 20 Ivy titles and is consistently ranked in the national polls, not to mention some of the amazing individual wrestlers who have competed for Cornell. I don't know how much longer Cornell's run will continue, but it's an impressive accomplishment.

For those of us who follow wrestling less avidly than Ugarte, how does this year's team rank versus Cornell teams of the past decade? What is the best measure of Cornell: Ivy titles? Cornell wrestlers in the national top ten? Finish at EIWAs? Finish at NCAAs?

Definitely among the better, deeper teams but the peak has to be the Kyle Dake years. In his soph and junior years (2010-11) the team finished in 2nd* at NCAAs; in 2012 the team finished 4th but with three national champions (Dake, Simaz and Bosak). We've been very good for a long time, though. We've had at least two All-Americans every non-COVID year dating back to 2002 and at least one finalist every year back to 2008.

Last year we had three All-Americans and two more who finished one win short. This year we're the favorite for one title and All-American contenders at 5 others - 6 if Loew's shoulder is OK. This is definitely one of our best, deepest teams, but serious injuries have knocked out three starters, all of whom were potential All-Americans, which is going to make 2023 look worse in retrospect.

There really isn't a good single way to pick a "best" team when there are so many different methods. If I had to pick one, though, it would be a combination of team finish at NCAAs, All-Americans and national champs. I prefer 2012 (3 champs, 5 AA, 4th place) to either 2010 (1 champ, 4 AA, 2d place) or 2011 (1 champ, 5 AA, 2d place) but YMMV. We scored more as a team in 2012 than the two prior years but the talent was so concentrated that we still finished behind three other teams.

We've been so dominant in Ivy and EIWA for the last 20 years - and it's been so much weaker than the Big 10 anyway - that the conference/Ivy stuff is cool but we swim in deeper waters.


* Penn State won in 2011 because they brought in Andrew Long, who had been kicked off of the team at Iowa State after being a national finalist for multiple disciplinary infractions. After finishing in 3rd for Penn State, and providing the difference in winning the team title over us, he was kicked off of Penn State as well, this time for sexual assault.

The rankings are slowly starting to take note of the injuries in the starting lineup.

		WIN	Flo	Intermat   WrestleStat (ELO)
125: Ungar 	NR	20	24         28	
133: Arujau	 3	 3	 3          3
141: Cornella	 9	10	18         20
149: Yianni D.	 1	 1	 1          1
157: Handlovic  NR	NR	NR         66
165: Ramirez	 7	 7	 8          7
174: Foca	 4	 4	 4          4
184: Loew	NR	20	20         17
197: Cardenas	NR	19	14         18
285: Fernandes 	16	13	NR         17
285: Furman     NR      NR      30         34
TEAM DUAL:	 8	 4	 4          8
TEAM NCAA:	 5	 5	 5          4

Ungar and Loew fall out of the WIN rankings. UPDATE: Loew is out for the year.
Fernandes moves up? At least Intermat has started ranking Furman.
Cardenas still not ranked by WIN and falls in Flo after dominating Urbas and Stout?

Coming this Friday, a very cool dual meet. Cornell is facing Binghamton at a semi-neutral site: Hilton High School, outside of Rochester, alma mater of Yianni Diakomihalis. Only semi-neutral, though, as it is also the alma mater of Binghamton senior, All-American Louie DePrez (and the younger brothers who followed Yianni and Louie to their respective schools.) In something of a letdown, DePrez suffered a career ending injury earlier this year. Still, a great idea from whoever came up with it and kudos to the schools for agreeing to it.

dbilmes
The wrestling team's success often seems like it's taken for granted, but it's an incredible feat to have such a dominant program at an Ivy school (unless you're talking about an elitist sport like squash or fencing). Cornell has won 19 of the last 20 Ivy titles and is consistently ranked in the national polls, not to mention some of the amazing individual wrestlers who have competed for Cornell. I don't know how much longer Cornell's run will continue, but it's an impressive accomplishment.

FWIW, the team loses only Yianni and Furman (seems like Loew is returning for yet another year). While that seems terrible to be losing Yianni, possibly the number one recruit in the country will be taking his place at 149: Meyer Shapiro. He's taking his senior HS year at Spartan Combat RTC (which trains at Cornell), and is currently 14-0 *competing in collegiate open tournaments*. He's really that good.

Fernandes if healthy and Loew if healthy should mean the team will be pretty much the same next year, and possibly even better if Greg Diakomihalis returns healthy from shoulder surgery and continues to improve. Every other starter returns.

Well, it's official - if a dad commenting on a facebook post is official enough for you - Jonathan Loew is out for the season. He's coming back next year, though. He has eligibility remaining and the continued ripple effects from the COVID year apparently let him use it in grad school. He'll be back in January 2024. I assume his place in the lineup will be taken by Ethan Hatcher. Hatcher was a promising prospect and his 2-6 record this season belies how competitive most of his losses have been. He is going to have to step it up.

billhoward

dbilmes
The wrestling team's success often seems like it's taken for granted, but it's an incredible feat to have such a dominant program at an Ivy school (unless you're talking about an elitist sport like squash or fencing). Cornell has won 19 of the last 20 Ivy titles and is consistently ranked in the national polls, not to mention some of the amazing individual wrestlers who have competed for Cornell. I don't know how much longer Cornell's run will continue, but it's an impressive accomplishment.

For those of us who follow wrestling less avidly than Ugarte, how does this year's team rank versus Cornell teams of the past decade? What is the best measure of Cornell: Ivy titles? Cornell wrestlers in the national top ten? Finish at EIWAs? Finish at NCAAs?

Until I checked for sure, I thought oso had written this post

abmarks

billhoward

dbilmes
The wrestling team's success often seems like it's taken for granted, but it's an incredible feat to have such a dominant program at an Ivy school (unless you're talking about an elitist sport like squash or fencing). Cornell has won 19 of the last 20 Ivy titles and is consistently ranked in the national polls, not to mention some of the amazing individual wrestlers who have competed for Cornell. I don't know how much longer Cornell's run will continue, but it's an impressive accomplishment.

For those of us who follow wrestling less avidly than Ugarte, how does this year's team rank versus Cornell teams of the past decade? What is the best measure of Cornell: Ivy titles? Cornell wrestlers in the national top ten? Finish at EIWAs? Finish at NCAAs?

Until I checked for sure, I thought oso had written this post

it's all in the sincerity of the person asking the question. also, the presumption that we're *good* but how do we compare to other teams in a long run of being good.

The first release of Coaches' Rankings and RPI are out. These two criteria are used to determine how many automatic bids each conference will get at each weight in the tournament. Only the pre-tournament rankings matter, so this is more for tracking. You need 15 eligible D-1 matches at your competition weight to be eligible for a conference allocation, so <15 means the wrestler isn't yet eligible for a qualifying RPI. I think there's only one more, and it comes out right before the conference tournaments at the same time they announce the conference bid allocations.

Here are the Cornell rankings updated with 2/10/13 CR and RPI. Yianni's CR of 3 is obviously low but he has a loss and isn't piling up the bonus points so I guess it's hurting him in the voting. On the other hand, the only guy who beat him probably isn't coming back at full strength, if at all, so ...

		CR   RPI   WIN	Flo	Intermat   WrestleStat (ELO)
125: Ungar      19     2   NR	20	24         28	
133: Arujau	 2     2    3	 3	 3          3
141: Cornella	13     6    9	10	18         20
149: Yianni D.	 3   <15    1	 1	 1          1
157: Handlovic  NR   <15   NR	NR	NR         66
165: Ramirez	 7     5    7	 7	 8          7
174: Foca	 4     2    4	 4	 4          4
184: Hatcher	NR   <15   NR	20	20         17
197: Cardenas	15   <15   NR	19	14         18
285: Fernandes 	NR   <15   16	13	NR         17
285: Furman     NR   <15   NR   NR      30         34
TEAM DUAL:	            8	 4	 4          8
TEAM NCAA:	            5	 5	 5          4

Obviously some guys with fewer than 15 matches wouldn't have made the top 33 regardless, but I wanted to be consistent because in this case consistent is easier than a judgment call. Dropped Loew even though he's ranked because we know he's done for the year. Kept Fernandes because while I believe he's done, there hasn't been an announcement.

Binghamton meet had no surprises. 28-15 win, a lot of rested starters and a disappointing 1 point loss from Furman at heavyweight because both he and the Bearcat are on the fringes of NCAAs and will probably need to qualify at EIWAs.

As of 2/14

		CR   RPI   WIN	Flo	Intermat   WrestleStat (ELO)
125: Ungar      19     2   NR	18	21         28	
133: Arujau	 2     2    3	 3	 3          3
141: Cornella	13     6    9	11	17         20
149: Yianni D.	 3   <15    1	 1	 1          1
157: Handlovic  NR   <15   NR	NR	NR         61
165: Ramirez	 7     5    7	 7	 8          7
174: Foca	 4     2    4	 4	 4          4
184: Hatcher	NR   <15   NR	NR	NR         98        
197: Cardenas	15   <15   NR	19	15         19
285: Fernandes 	NR   <15   16	--	--         17
285: Furman     NR   <15   --   HM      28         37
TEAM DUAL:	            9	 4	 4          7
TEAM NCAA:	            5	 5	 5          5

Cornell - Ohio State dual in Tampa is kind of a joke. Both teams are sending out backup after backup. We sat our starters at 125, 141, 149 and 174. Our starter at 184 is hurt. They also sat their starters at 165 and 174 (at least). Also, the production is terrible: the scoreboard at the arena isn't working so it's all being kept at the scorer's table, so they can't show the clock and the announcers don't know the time either (and are often iffy on the score).

There were a lot of good to great matches that could have happened but the guys who sat are crossed out.

First half
141: #17 Cornella v #19 D'Emelio. D'Emilio beat Fernandez. 3-0 tOSU
149: #1 Yianni v #2 Sasso Jones got hurt and defaulted but probably gets pinned anyway. 9-0 tOSU
157: Handlovic v #24 Gallagher The starters wrestled but it's a big advantage for tOSU. Gallagher beat Handlovic by Major Decision. 13-0 tOSU
165: #7 Ramirez v #12 Kharchla (Kharchla went 3-0 against Ramirez last year, and beat him in the R12 by 1 point on a takedown with 4 seconds left). Ramirez ragdollsthe backup. 13-5 tOSU
174: #4 Foca v #5 Smith Hansen and Wilcox wrestle a fun match that Hansen wins in SV. 13-8 tOSU at "halftime"

Add to that our injuries at 184 (huge dropoff) and Heavyweight (small dropoff).

Hope that we get the starters at 197, Heavy and 133.

The backups at 174 are scrapping though. Both care a lot. Christian Hansen takes the mat for us. Tied 4-4 in the third... going to replay on a takedown on the edge to see if he kept his toe in the cylinder before going out of bounds with 12 seconds left ... no takedown. Going to SV. Low single to a takedown HANSEN with the win! Nice. (Filling in the early matches now.)

Second half

184: Hatcher v #5 Romero Another starter sitting, Bell steps in against our starter-due-to-injury. Another close match - Hatcher gets the only takedown of the first, Bell gets one in the second to go up 4-3. Hatcher starts on bottom and gets turned for 4 before reversing and giving up an escape. 9-5 Bell midway through the period... Hatcher TD, release 10-7... TD, time runs out. 10-9 Bell. 16-8 tOSU

197: #15 Cardenas v #19 Hoffman Ohio sends out a well-regarded frosh, Geog, but a backup all the same. Cardenas got a clean takedown at the end of the first... then I had to stop watching. Rolled to a 7-1 win. 16-11 tOSU

Hwt: Furman v #19 Orndorff Would have been an important win for Furman's resume but it wasn't to be. L 4-1 19-11 tOSU

125: #21 Ungar v #10 Heinselman Sciarrone in for Ungar again. Heinselman wins easily, 8-1 19-11 tOSU

133: #3 Arujau v #8 Mendez The only real-real match of the day. Vito was never threatened and got the only two takedowns of the match. W 6-1.

FINAL Ohio State 19-14

EIWAs are the weekend of March 3 at the Palestra. See you there if you're coming.

ugarte

Hwt: Furman v #19 Orndorff Would have been an important win for Furman's resume but it wasn't to be. L 4-1 19-11 tOSU

125: #21 Ungar v #10 Heinselman Sciarrone in for Ungar again. Heinselman wins easily, 8-1 19-11 tOSU

133: #3 Arujau v #8 Mendez The only real-real match of the day. Vito was never threatened and got the only two takedowns of the match. W 6-1.

FINAL Ohio State 19-14

EIWAs are the weekend of March 3 at the Palestra. See you there if you're coming.

Should probably be 22-11 after 133, and 22-14 final

nshapiro

ugarte

Hwt: Furman v #19 Orndorff Would have been an important win for Furman's resume but it wasn't to be. L 4-1 19-11 tOSU

125: #21 Ungar v #10 Heinselman Sciarrone in for Ungar again. Heinselman wins easily, 8-1 19-11 tOSU

133: #3 Arujau v #8 Mendez The only real-real match of the day. Vito was never threatened and got the only two takedowns of the match. W 6-1.

FINAL Ohio State 19-14

EIWAs are the weekend of March 3 at the Palestra. See you there if you're coming.

Should probably be 22-11 after 133, and 22-14 final

indeed

Yet another Diakomihalis! This from the Rochester D and C —

Elijah Diakomihalis (Hilton)

Sophomore maybe a favorite to win the Division I 189-pound tournament. He is the No. 2 seed in the weight class, owner of a 39-1 record. A third-place finisher in 2022.
.

Updated with the allocations that the conference gets for each weight and where they are seeded for the conference tournament* and it appears in brackets as [Allocation/Pre-seed]. I've updated the pre-tournament CR and RPI with the official numbers and the rankings with changes from WIN, Flo and WS. Intermat didn't release new pre-tournament rankings. The WIN website dated their last rankings 2/21 but there were some changes from my last chart so idk what happened there. I also don't know why WIN still has Fernandes in their rankings but they do.

		      CR   RPI   WIN	Flo	Intermat   WrestleStat (ELO)
125: Ungar      [6/1] 18     4   NR	17	21         29	
133: Arujau	[5/1]  3     1    3	 3	 3          3
141: Cornella	[5/1] 15     7    9	11	17         21
149: Yianni D.	[2/2]  1   <15    1	 1	 1          1
157: Handlovic  [3/8] NR   <15   NR	NR	NR         60
165: Ramirez	[5/1]  7     8    7	 6	 8          6
174: Foca       [4/1]  4     2    4	 4	 4          4
184: Hansen**  [4/17]                                      51         
197: Cardenas	[5/2] 16    30   NR	19	16         18
285: Furman     [6/9] NR   <15   --     HM      28         40
TEAM DUAL:	                  9	 7	 7          8
TEAM NCAA:	                  4	 4	 4          5

* The allocations can be reduced if a wrestler who "earned" the bid for the conference doesn't wrestle at the tournament unless the backup also would have earned a bid (it can happen if they wrestle a lot in open tournaments or while the starter was hurt). As mountainred suggested on the bigredbears wrestling forum, the seeds can be adjusted at the in-person coaches' conference before the tournament to remedy things like Yianni being the 2 seed because he sat out a couple of conference duals behind a Penn wrestler that he beat.

**Looks like Hansen has been bumped to 184 for EIWA over Hatcher since his name appears in the preseeds and it only gets there if Cornell submitted him as the prospective Cornell rep. Hansen went 5-3 at 174 over the course of the season including a fun win in the Ohio State dual over the tOSU backup. His only EIWA matches at 174 were a 6-0 loss to Navy's starter at a small tournament in November and a blowout of that guy's backup at a different one a couple of weeks later. Hansen is still ranked ahead of Sacred Heart's Owen Ayotte whose only non-MFF or INJ win of the season was over a guy from D3 majoring in cassoulet (Johnson & Wales).

Thanks Ugarte. Interesting move at 184, but Grey is probably in a no win situation and just trying to sneak out a point or two in the wrestlebacks.

Feel free to correct me, but I can see a strange pattern of two wrestlers and the goals for the rest of the way.

Win the national title: Yianni and Vito (This is stupid to say because winning a title is so insanely difficult, but Yianni would have to be disappointed with anything less. Vito will have his hands full, but could pull it off.)
Make the podium and AA: Foca and Ramirez (Both studs and could finish high on the podium, but would need a bit of good fortune to win it all)
Make the round of 12: Cornella and Cardenas (either could AA, but just making the R12 would be fantastic)
Make the NCAA and win a match or two: Ungar and Furman (Ungar is a wildcard, but he just doesn't score enough and he isn't Chas Tucker on defense. Yet)
Compete well at EIWA: Handlovic and Hansen. (I just can't see either of these guys making NCAA, but of course would love to see it).

mountainred
Thanks Ugarte. Interesting move at 184, but Grey is probably in a no win situation and just trying to sneak out a point or two in the wrestlebacks.

Feel free to correct me, but I can see a strange pattern of two wrestlers and the goals for the rest of the way.

Win the national title: Yianni and Vito (This is stupid to say because winning a title is so insanely difficult, but Yianni would have to be disappointed with anything less. Vito will have his hands full, but could pull it off.)
Make the podium and AA: Foca and Ramirez (Both studs and could finish high on the podium, but would need a bit of good fortune to win it all)
Make the round of 12: Cornella and Cardenas (either could AA, but just making the R12 would be fantastic)
Make the NCAA and win a match or two: Ungar and Furman (Ungar is a wildcard, but he just doesn't score enough and he isn't Chas Tucker on defense. Yet)
Compete well at EIWA: Handlovic and Hansen. (I just can't see either of these guys making NCAA, but of course would love to see it).

At 184 I have to believe that Hansen won a wrestle-off in the practice room. He probably spent the season at 174 to step in for Foca and the need never arose, then Loew got hurt and Hatcher struggled in his place. Hatcher is talented and has room and time to improve but he's not there yet. If Hansen is better now, Hansen gets the call.

I don't see Yianni losing. I'd be shocked if Gomez is in form after taking such a long break to recover from his injury and nobody else scares me even a little.

133 is such a tough weight at the top. Arujau's loss was shocking but given his illness-related break, I don't think he was in peak form for McGee or Latona and I don't see either of them being an obstacle in a rematch. On the other hand, RBY and Fix are both incredible wrestlers. Sure, Vito can win, but I think all three are toss-ups against each other.

I agree on everyone else. Foca and Ramirez are both great AA candidates and I think they'll both get there - even though 165 is really deep. He should have gotten there last year. I'm still upset about how the blood round match against Kharchla ended last year. Foca is simply a different guy that the one who got rolled in 2022. Both of them spent half of last year in the concussion protocol and have been injury-free in '23.

Cardenas is very good and I expect him to keep improving but tbh his schedule has been kinda soft and I'm curious if he'll retreat into a defensive shell against the better guys like he did last year. He also is way too reliant on the blast double for all of his scoring. Cornella has a similar SOS issue. Very good year but not tested enough for me to feel confident that the podium is in the cards this year - but, like with Cardenas, I think he graduates with hardware.

Ungar's lack of offense makes his matches tense but despite the depth of the weight class garnering six bids, I don't think 125 is all that strong (aside from Glory). The depth has a lot of bottom half of the bracket strength and finishing worse than 6th seems inconceivable. Glory is in a class by himself; Sotelo, Miller and Ungar are the next tier. Then a big drop-off imo, with 2 bids to spare.

I really, really want to see Furman get to the tournament and I think he can. Being seeded 9th is ... harsh? He beat Princeton's Stefanik. he's better than Hofstra's Knighton-Ward. I don't know enough about the guy from Bucknell. 6th would have been reasonable and that would have had him in position for a bid. He earned a trip to NCAAs in 2020 - by beating Knighton-Ward, FWIW - only to have the opportunity taken away from him by the world shutting down.

Handlovic has stepped up as a credible representative for the program and he has a better chance of qualifying than you give him credit for, imo. Humphries and Artalona are by far the favorites to take two of the three available bids. The third bid? Handlovic beat the 3 seed, Columbia's Alvan. The 4 seed, Navy's Cerniglia had a stretch of alternating MFFs with losing by fall in December and has only wrestled twice in 2023 (he's the guy I'm most afraid of though). Handlovic lost to the 5 seed, but it was close throughout. Artalona has some surprising losses, so upsets can happen here. I wouldn't say I'm optimistic but I'm hopeful. He's been a real grinder stepping in for Yapoujian.

I have no idea what to expect from Hansen. He wrestled a great match against the Ohio State backup at 174 before bumping up but that's not much of a resume to give a lot of confidence that he'll be competitive at the higher weight. I assume his seeding isn't far off but if he can catch some good matchups in the wrestlebacks he can get some points for the team. We haven't had an 0-2 at EIWAs since 2010 and I don't think he'll break the streak.

I also have my eye on Berreyesa wrestling for Nickerson at Northern Colorado in the Big 12 tournament and really hope he makes it. The conference is deep but they have 6 bids and though he's not seeded, I can definitely see him getting there - he was 23 in the last coaches poll. I've had the opportunity to talk to him a little and he's a great kid and I know he's still close to his former teammates. Would love this for him.

ugarte
I also have my eye on Berreyesa wrestling for Nickerson at Northern Colorado in the Big 12 tournament and really hope he makes it. The conference is deep but they have 6 bids and though he's not seeded, I can definitely see him getting there - he was 23 in the last coaches poll. I've had the opportunity to talk to him a little and he's a great kid and I know he's still close to his former teammates. Would love this for him.

Do you also root for another former teammate - Max Dean?

nshapiro

ugarte
I also have my eye on Berreyesa wrestling for Nickerson at Northern Colorado in the Big 12 tournament and really hope he makes it. The conference is deep but they have 6 bids and though he's not seeded, I can definitely see him getting there - he was 23 in the last coaches poll. I've had the opportunity to talk to him a little and he's a great kid and I know he's still close to his former teammates. Would love this for him.

Do you also root for another former teammate - Max Dean?

I do not! His noisy exit was very annoying [POLITICS CONTENT REDACTED] and going to Penn State a bonus kick in the ribs. Berreyesa had (1) graduated; (2) his wife got a job with Team USA Wrestling in Colorado; and (3) he would have been a backup to Foca so even if he was Covid-grad-exemption eligible, he chose starting over backing up. I'll root for Foca if they face each other for parochial reasons but otherwise I want to see Berreyesa thrive and won't get too upset if he wins. Foca beat him earlier this year, though, and I think they know each other too well for Foca to get trapped in AB's upper body death throws.

nshapiro

ugarte
I also have my eye on Berreyesa wrestling for Nickerson at Northern Colorado in the Big 12 tournament and really hope he makes it. The conference is deep but they have 6 bids and though he's not seeded, I can definitely see him getting there - he was 23 in the last coaches poll. I've had the opportunity to talk to him a little and he's a great kid and I know he's still close to his former teammates. Would love this for him.

Do you also root for another former teammate - Max Dean?

ugarte can speak for himself, obviously, but personally I am also rooting for Berreyesa to do well because he graduated from Cornell and left because of Ivy rules. I would only root against him if he wrestles Foca. Could not care less about Max Dean.

mountainred

nshapiro

ugarte
I also have my eye on Berreyesa wrestling for Nickerson at Northern Colorado in the Big 12 tournament and really hope he makes it. The conference is deep but they have 6 bids and though he's not seeded, I can definitely see him getting there - he was 23 in the last coaches poll. I've had the opportunity to talk to him a little and he's a great kid and I know he's still close to his former teammates. Would love this for him.

Do you also root for another former teammate - Max Dean?

ugarte can speak for himself, obviously, but personally I am also rooting for Berreyesa to do well because he graduated from Cornell and left because of Ivy rules. I would only root against him if he wrestles Foca. Could not care less about Max Dean.

Very few wrestlers I root against who are not wrestling Cornell guys. Max Dean is one of them.

I admit that i am sotto voce rooting for Stanford and Koll as long as it doesn't hurt Cornell. He did way too much to build and solidify the program for me to begrudge his departure. I'm sure the new gig came with a huge raise not to mention the ability to give scholarships in addition to what I assume is very generous need-based aid. With Andy Noel - his biggest ally at the school - retiring, and a perfect opportunity to build a program that already has a national champion on the roster and to move from Ithaca to Palo Alto ... I get it.

Koll's in his later 50s (his personal NCAA championship year was 1988). He's got a decade to really salt away retirement money. Can't have enough. (Well, once you have $10M invested, you're probably okay.) I thought I was doing okay then I saw classmates, friends who have two houses and one of them is in Manhattan. Didn't see that one coming.

The guy who deserves a good retirement is Schafer. Just not real soon.

Great first session.

125: Ungar 15-0 TF 3:02
133: Arujau 15-0 TF 4:42
141: Cornella WBF 1;52
149: Yianni WBF 2:24
157: Handlovic W 3-0
165: Ramirez WBF 2:26
174: Foca WBF 0:39
184: Hansen WBF 5:54 in the pigtail before LMD 15-4 to the top seed.
197: Cardenas WMD 12-3
285: Furman W 8-3

Tons of bonus points and Cornell is way in front in the team race. QF session at 4.

so it looks like 8 guys got a chance to still get to the ncaas after day 1.

upprdeck
so it looks like 8 guys got a chance to still get to the ncaas after day 1.

Yup. 1 Already in. Everyone else is a win away, most of them even if they lose the semi.

QF
125: Ungar W 5-0 Roes (Binghamton). NCAA qualified! Next v. Sotelo (Harvard) - revenge match.

133: Arujau WTF 16-1 Adrian (Brown). 1 win away. Next v. Ferretti (Navy).

141: Cornella WBF Hoyle (Hofstra) 2:07. 1 win away. Next v. Kazimir (Columbia)

149: Yianni WTF 18-1 Nichter (Drexel). 1 win away. Next v. Fongaro (Columbia).

157: Handlovic L 6-1 to Artalona (Penn).

165: Ramirez W 3-1 over Kim (Harvard). 1 win away. Next v. Cassella (Binghamton).

174: Foca W 6-2 Mulhauser (Princeton). 1 win away. Next v. Wolak (Columbia).

197: Cardenas MD 12-0 Crawford (F&M). 1 win away. Next v. Stout (Princeton).

285: Furman L 7-2 Slavikouski (Harvard)

Consi
157: Handlovic L 5-2 Whalen (Princeton). Out.

184: Hansen LMD 15-7 Abdulrazzaq (Army). Out.

285: Furman (Cornell) W 8-2 Jarrell (American). One win away. Next v. Goldin (Penn).

Only Brendan starts off with a must win match, right?

Okay, I guess Yianni has to win to get a ticket, but I'm not losing sleep worrying on that one.

billhoward
Koll's in his later 50s (his personal NCAA championship year was 1988). He's got a decade to really salt away retirement money. Can't have enough. (Well, once you have $10M invested, you're probably okay.) I thought I was doing okay then I saw classmates, friends who have two houses and one of them is in Manhattan. Didn't see that one coming.

The guy who deserves a good retirement is Schafer. Just not real soon.

That's a good argument for keeping Schafer's is comp as is: below free-market value, but just high enough to keep him from seriously exploring other options.

mountainred
Only Brendan starts off with a must win match, right?

Okay, I guess Yianni has to win to get a ticket, but I'm not losing sleep worrying on that one.

yeah. Heartbreaker to see Brendan lose in extra time. He won his 7th place match but at 9-8 with no signature wins I don't know if he's even eligible for consideration. I'll look at it more closely later.

Will also review the whole tournament closely later but, in summary, HOLY SHIT. Out of 10 weights: 6 champs, 1 second, 1 seventh. Nobody went 0-2. The team won the title by a comical amount. Cardenas won the 197 crown with a furious comeback against the #2 wrestler in the country. I can't even talk from screaming.

Incredible weekend. I also had two chicken sandwiches from Federal Donuts which I can't recommend enough.

I've been poking around to see what Furman's chances are and I'm cautiously optimistic but there are a lot of contingencies.

You have to have 2 of the eligibility criteria to be considered for at at-large bid, and those are:

NCAA guide
- .700 overall winning percentage
- .700 Division I winning percentage at the weight class
- Top 33 RPI (taken after the qualifying tournaments)
- Top 33 Coaches Ranking (Taken after the qualifying tournament)
- One win against a wrestler who qualified for the National Tournament
- Qualifying event placement one below AQ

He is 9-8, so he doesn't meet the win% criteria, and he went 0-8 against NCAA qualifiers. On the other hand, he went 9-0 against non-qualifiers so he has no bad losses (a subjective consideration if he can make it over the first hurdle). According to a website that tries to approximate RPI, he sits in 34th, which is killing me. The calculation may be incorrect because it could count certain matches that the NCAA doesn't (non D-I, ECM, medical forfeits in tournaments, that sort of thing) and if he moves up a slot that would be huge. He also could make it into the final CR because some of the guys at the bottom of the pre-tournament CR didn't perform well at their conference tournaments.

There are 4 at-large bids available and while one is probably accounted for, I don't know how many guys are even eligible for consideration. If Furman can get on the consideration list his chances aren't bad.