Wrestling 2024-25

It's still summer, so there's no Cornell wrestling for a while but I may as well start the thread now anyway because there's news.

First, Kyle Dake is back in the Olympics and that starts soon. The Russians are out, so his chances of bringing home gold, which were already decent, are now even better than decent.

Second, we have a great incoming class of at-least-greyshirts in 2025. Some of them may be coming straight to campus next year but I have to admit that I don't know who is going to do that. Without a full preview, I can say this: the big Freestyle Nationals in Fargo just wrapped up and Cornell's recruits had a great showing.

At 138, Sergio Vega (AZ) bumped up from 132 and took first place. Alessio Perentin (NJ) won at 165 with a 10-0 tech in the final. Rocco Dellagatta (NJ) survived a flurry at the end to win by a point. Cash Henderson (UT) finished in third place at 285, giving us an incredible pair of heavyweights on the way. Elijah Diakomihalis - a name you might remember - finished in 6th place at 190 (an odd change of pace from his brothers who came in wrestling at 125 and 141). Gabriel Bouyssou (RI) had a solid tournament and a great final match to finish in 7th place. Six placewinners including three titles is a damn good tournament.

ugarte
... Cash Henderson (UT) finished in third place at 285, giving us an incredible pair of heavyweights on the way.

Elijah Diakomihalis - a name you might remember - finished in 6th place at 190 (an odd change of pace from his brothers who came in wrestling at 125 and 141).

A great name for the era of NIL versus, say, "Olivia Dunne"

Better maternal nutrition.

bad memory for me. cash finished 4th.

Nice Intermat article on Cornell wrestling: [rokfin.com]

Al DeFlorio
Nice Intermat article on Cornell wrestling: [rokfin.com]

[url=https://rokfin.com/article/17793
the article[/url]

Keep in mind they cannot use the transfer portal to replace such talent like much of their competition – due to Ivy League rules.

Huh?? Is this a sport specific Ivy rule?

this is not true? you can transfer.. you cant grad transfer

upprdeck
this is not true? you can transfer.. you cant grad transfer

true, though you do tend to see ivy guys using up eligibility and going elsewhere and not much transfer in, so it feels like a one-way ticket.

In other news, the World Team Trials for non-Olympic weights is this weekend. Vito Arujau, 2024 61kg World Champ, is ready to go and will be defending his title. He gets a bye to the best-of-three final as a 2024 medalist. Nahshon Garrett, who lost to Arujau at Final X last year, is also competing at 61kg.

Philip Moomey, a Team USA age group representative in Greco, will be trying to make his first Senior world team, at 63kg, and is seeded 4th.

Additionally, Isaiah Cortez '30 (i think) took silver at 55kg in U20 Greco. He'll be joined by his twin brother and (unlike Moomey) they are not just greco specialists and may get substantial mat time.

ugarte

In other news, the World Team Trials for non-Olympic weights is this weekend. Vito Arujau, 2024 61kg World Champ, is ready to go and will be defending his title. He gets a bye to the best-of-three final as a 2024 medalist. Nahshon Garrett, who lost to Arujau at Final X last year, is also competing at 61kg.

Philip Moomey, a Team USA age group representative in Greco, will be trying to make his first Senior world team, at 63kg, and is seeded 4th.

Vito won in a pair of boring matches because rising high school senior Marcus Blaze spent 12 minutes of action backing up. The first match was a trade of passivity points before Vito got a step-out point to win 2-1. In the second match, Vito received two passivity points in addition to winning a step-out point before conceding a step-out point with 8 seconds remaining to win 3-1 and defend his USA championship and win the place in the world championships in Albania.

Moomey won his first match but lost the next two and finished tied for 5th.

Flo hosted the annual "Who's #1" HS all-star showcase today. Cornell had two commits going: Anthony Knox (126) and Sergio Vega (138), both HS seniors. Both won their matches.

Vega, who came in ranked #1 beat #2 Gorman 12-5 and looked incredible. Fast, flexible, an array of moves like Shapiro.

Knox, who also came in #1, was trailing 2-0 in the closing seconds but with 12 seconds left, got the score he needed to beat #2 Seidel 3-2. It is his record 4th Who's Number 1 title. Especially great to see because I'm pretty sure Knox got injured during junior World Team Trials but I can't seem to find any info about it.

Unclear if either/both will take a grayshirt year to train up while taking classes at TC3 or if they will come in as frosh like Yianni and Meyer Shapiro did.

Jacob Cardenas '24 is wrestling for gold tomorrow at the U23 World Championships in Albania at 92kg. He won silver in '22 and bronze in '23. Due to the Ivy rules regarding grad students, Cardenas is wrestling for Michigan this year.

Also, Joshua Saunders '25 starts his tournament at 65kg tomorrow at 4:30am. Saunders came in as a highly touted recruit, having made Team USA at both the U17 and U20 levels as well as a pair of Fargo tournament championships but between injuries and other issues he hasn't made an impact in college. This season he's slotted as a backup at 141 but I could see him challenging for the starting role there or at 149 if he puts it all together.

Saunders loses his first match 9-2 and is eliminated when his opponent loses his next match.


In the gold medal match, Cardenas briefly held a 4-3 lead, but the rest of the match was dominated by his Iranian opponent and he falls 11-4. His third medal at U23, Silver, Bronze and Silver again.

The Senior Worlds are in progress in progress, with two Cornellians in the mix.

61kg: Vito Arujau, defending world champ, started his tournament today. After a pair of wins, he lost in the semi 12-0, to Japan's Masanasuke Ono. Ono also won the U20 this year, and will be a force to be reckoned with for a while. Arujau was thoroughly thrashed in all phases. He is alive for the bronze and due to the structure of the tournament, Arjau has a bye to the bronze medal match but his top competitors (RUS/CHN) will have to win two matches while he stays fresh.

92kg: I didn't remember that Ben Honis qualified for Worlds on behalf of Italy at 92kg. He got a great draw and won his first three matches (China, Mongolia, Hungary) before falling 9-2 in the semi to Miriani Maisuradze of Georgia. No offense to any of the people he beat, but three wrestlers in the other half of the bracket would probably have treated him similarly to Maisuradze. Honis drops straight into the bronze medal match where he'll face the winner of IND/SVK.


As is standard, we did very poorly in Greco, going 1-5 and not placing anyone as high as 5th. Our women finished in third as a team, with two bronzes and a 5th.

The rest of our men's team fared poorly, especially in light of our reputations, but age is finally catching up to our legends.

70kg: James Green (2017 world silver; 2015 world bronze) went 1-1 and wasn't pulled back into repechage.
79kg: Jordan Burroughs (2012 Olympic gold; 6x world gold; 3x world bronze) went 1-1 and wasn't pulled back into repechage.
92kg: David Taylor (2020 Olympic gold; 3x world gold; 1x world silver - but all at 86kg) got a horrible draw, facing a legend in his own right, Abdulrashid Sadulaev, and lost in the first round, 7-0. Fortunately, Sadulaev beat another world champion in the semis, so Taylor was pulled back into repechage. Unfortunately, Taylor will have to win two matches before the bronze medal match, where that 2x 92kg world champ will be waiting.

ugarte
The Senior Worlds are in progress in progress, with two Cornellians in the mix.

61kg:... Arjau has a bye to the bronze medal match but his top competitors (RUS/CHN) will have to win two matches while he stays fresh.

Vito won comfortably over a 2x world champion (at 57kg), despite aggravating a dislocated finger in the middle of the match. Follows up his 2023 gold with bronze.

ugarte
92kg: ... Honis drops straight into the bronze medal match where he'll face the winner of IND/SVK.

Honis was outmuscled for most of the match. An 8-6 final belies how dominant the Slovakian was, as it includes a meaningless takedown as time expired.

With the first dual meet of the season tomorrow at Buffalo, I may as well write the season preview. First, where the individual wrestlers stand in the latest rankings:

		Flo	WIN	Intermat OpenMat AWN	WSt
125: Greg D. 	10	20	 9	 13 	 12 	  5
133: Ungar	18	18	20	 20	 12	 16
141: Cornella	15	15	17	 19	 15	 20
149: Fernandez	32	NR	14	 NR	 19	 18 	
157: Shapiro	 2	 2	 2  	  2	  2	  1 	
165: Ramirez	 7	 4	 4	 NR*	  7	  4 	
174: Ruiz	11	12	14	 19	 17	 52	
184: Foca  	15	 9	 8	 NR*	  5	  7 	
197: Mike D.	26	NR	25	 NR	 NR	 24	
285: Davis 	NR	NR	31	 NR	 NR	 40	
TEAM NCAA:	15	12	 8	 20	 xx	  6	
TEAM DUAL:      xx	xx	11	 13	 xx	  8

WIN, The Open Mat and AWN only rank to 20; Flo and Intermat rank to 33. WrestleStat ranks by ELO.

The first thing to know is that there are two seniors taking off the fall semester to preserve eligibility for spring: Julian Ramirez (165) and Chris Foca (184). They are two of our stronger All-American contenders, so their absence will affect the results for a couple of months. Second, we are already dealing with some injuries. Vince Cornella (141), Meyer Shapiro (157) and Ashton Davis (285) are all missing this weekend's action. With that out of the way, here we go.

125: Greg Diakomihalis is back for what is apparently his junior year, since eligibility in wrestling is very confusing given how extra years seem to be freely granted for injury, and especially with the long tail of COVID. This is Greg D's first season as a starter after backing up Arujau in '22, sitting with injury in '23 and backing up Ungar in '24. He has some solid wins in his history already. He is a likely National Qualifier who can hopefully get himself into AA consideration as he builds his resume. Marcello Milani has a gaudy record as a backup but without quality opponents my gut tells me that we're very thin beyond Greg D.

133: Junior Brett Ungar moves up from 125 after back-to-back NQ, but finishing short of All-American his first two years. He doesn't quite have the pollsters' respect after making the jump and it will be interesting to see if he is strong enough to hang with the top of the weight class. He was a defense-centric wrestler at 125 with a solid top game but sometimes struggled to escape from bottom. Another wrestler who will be solid all season but needs to prove he is ready to hang with the top of the weight class. A highly regarded freshman in Tyler Ferrara joins the team this year and Ethan Qureshi was a capable fill-in last year when Arujau was out.

141: Junior Vince Cornella is the presumptive starter but he is still recovering from a 2024 season that ended prematurely with an inury at EIWAs, since a very tough schedule meant he didn't have a solid resume for an at-large selection. Given that he is still out, a bid may have gone to waste regardless. Until he returns, I have no idea what his season will be like. Stepping in for him is Josh Saunders, a five-star recruit whose shine has faded significantly. Whether due to injury, losing his spot in the lineup or rumors of academic frustration (not to cast aspersions - i don't know the basis of the rumors), he has not had or held a position in the starting lineup since arriving on campus in 2021, the lost COVID year. His freestyle (olympic-style) record is impressive, making Team USA U17, U20 and U23 teams but it has not yet transferred to folkstyle (NCAA) which has different scoring moves. He can be too defense-oriented and has a tendency to gas out but, thrust into the early-season starting role I am hopeful that he can convert his raw skills into wins. Further depth here seems unlikely but I've been surprised before. For example ...

149: Junior Ethan Fernandez was a solid backup in 2023 as a fill-in splitting time between 133 and 141 but when competition for the spot at 149 opened up last year, he grabbed the reins from Saunders and didn't let go. Fernandez eventually climbed into the rankings, won the conference title and notched a win at NCAAs. He is going to have to prove himself again but I think he's game. If Cornella reclaims his spot at 141, Saunders will either challenge Fernandez or serve as the top backup. Nate Wade is the third man up, though right now he is stepping up to 157.

157: True Sophomore Meyer Shapiro is an almost-flawless wrestler. His only problem is that he is willing to get into very funky positions for advantage and he keeps slamming his head into the mat and making himself dizzy. His only losses last season were in matches where he conked his head or the match immediately after even though he never actually defaulted. Coming off of a 3d place finish at NCAAs - where he got revenge on a guy who beat him twice when he was in a conked state, he lost his first match of this year by injury default after yet another concussion while leading comfortably at the time of the conking. He should be fine going forward but he's taking a little time. As I said, Nate Wade is stepping in which indicates that the coaches don't have a lot of faith in the other backups at 157.

165: Senior Julian Ramirez has been an All-American contender for three straight years and for three straight years he has lost one match shy of All-American. When he returns in the spring he will once again be a solid pick to finish on the podium and it's his last chance to do it. We have capable backups in Evan Canoyer (the starter for now) and Gage McClenahan, but this weight rises or falls on Ramirez's success.

174: Simon Ruiz, a very highly regarded freshman steps right into the starting lineup. As a greyshirt, he took last year's national runner-up to SV (his only loss of the season) and notched a win against an All-American so the potential here is very high. He lost an early season match to a conference rival, but Incontrera is a 3x NQ looking for his first trip to the podium as well. Ruiz is already climbing up the rankings. His primary backup is Christian Hansen who filled in admirably at 184 in the 2023 EIWAs.

184: Senior Chris Foca is the big gun here. In his first three years, Foca finished just off the podium at 174, 4th at 174 and just off the podium at 184. When he returns in the spring I think he will be fit and ready to go at 184 and will finish as an All-American again. Filling in until he does is Colt Barley but it's a pretty significant fall-off. I wouldn't be surprised to see Hansen back up here if Foca gets injured. Matt Furman, younger brother of the recently graduated heavyweight Brendan, joins the long list of brothers on the squad. (In addition to Greg D., Vito's brother George Arujau is on the roster at 141 but not expected to see much time on the mat. Plus, another Diakomihalis is on the way in the coming years.)

197: 2x All-American Jacob Cardenas didn't take advantage of the COVID year and actually finished college in 4 years, so he's off to Michigan to wrestle in his grad school year. Stepping in is freshman Mikey Dellagatta, who started his official career 3-0 including a W over the NC State starter. Pretty big fall-off after the starter here as well.

285: Ashton Davis will start for the first time in his sophomore year. He put up good numbers against a backup's schedule last year so I'm not sure what to expect out of this. He's 3-0 but against weak competition; that was still enough to get him into some rankings. He is sitting this weekend, though I don't know why. His backup, Aidan Compton didn't wrestle at all as a greyshirt so I have no idea what to expect.

The biggest change from last year to this is that the Ivy League is a standalone in wrestling now, ending a 100+ year association with EIWA. The ILT will be a one day tournament in the spring. Based on last year, there probably won't be much of a change in how the conference is rewarded by the NCAAs. Cornell and Lehigh - the best remaining team in EIWA - hogged a lot of what was available anyway and Ivy and non-Ivy teams were similarly responsible for earning allocated spots. I'll miss the rivalry with Lehigh; fortunately the coaches appear to be willing to continue to schedule each other despite the Ivy betrayal.

A final note, though there appears to be a big gap between starters and backups, that's a result of the embarrassment of riches we've had in recent years. We are losing two huge seniors this year to boot. That said, the HS pipeline looks incredible even with the loss of one of the crown jewels from the class of '25. I don't know what's going to arrive on campus next fall but fall '26 should be incredible.

Even with the depleted roster, we're the favorites at home against Buffalo tomorrow. On Sunday, the Big Red hosts a meet with a format too complicated to explain, which allows most of the roster to compete in small round-robin pools so everyone gets at least 3 matches. Binghamton, Brown, Buffalo, Clarion and Sacred Heart are making the trip so it's not the best competition with the exception of a pair of guys from the Bearcats.

ugarte

157: True Sophomore Meyer Shapiro is an almost-flawless wrestler. His only problem is that he is willing to get into very funky positions for advantage and he keeps slamming his head into the mat and making himself dizzy. His only losses last season were in matches where he conked his head or the match immediately after even though he never actually defaulted. Coming off of a 3d place finish at NCAAs - where he got revenge on a guy who beat him twice when he was in a conked state, he lost his first match of this year by injury default after yet another concussion while leading comfortably at the time of the conking. He should be fine going forward but he's taking a little time. As I said, Nate Wade is stepping in which indicates that the coaches don't have a lot of faith in the other backups at 157.

I'd not assume he's going to be fine. Each time you get concussed you end up at higher risk for having the next one, and having it be more severe.

abmarks

I'd not assume he's going to be fine. Each time you get concussed you end up at higher risk for having the next one, and having it be more severe.

obviously. i meant more that i haven't heard that he's out for the season, or even long term. i think the risk of reinjury is there but i also think he'll be back comfortably for the spring at worst.

Injuries up and down the lineup so the trip to Las Vegas for one of the cooler in-season tournaments has been mostly a bust. Starters are out at 125, 141, 157, 197 and 285 with injuries; 165 and 184 are taking the semester off to retain eligibility.

With the depleted lineup, only 1 wrestler (Simon Ruiz at 174) advanced to the third round. Hope this season comes together soon...

The team is allegedly nearly back to full strength. We have a dual meet against NC State on Saturday and then 1/3 at Mizzou. The spring semester starts, for Athletics purposes on Saturday so Julian Ramirez (165) and Chris Foca (184) will both be back in action. The injured include Greg Diakomihalis (125), Vince Cornella (141), Meyer Shapiro (157), Mikey Dellagatta (197) and Ashton Davis (285). I don't know which are expected back for NC State and who is taking the holiday break to finish recovering.

In preparing for their return to action, Foca and Ramirez went to the Patriot Open at George Mason. Foca went 3-1, losing in the finals to a fellow AA contender from Maryland. He also went to SV to beat a wrestler from F&M who stunned him with a last second takedown in the first round of NCAAs last year. Could have started better. Meanwhile, Ramirez went 4-0, dominating his first three opponents before having a lot of trouble with a wrestler from GMU. Ramirez was trailing all the way. Down by 9 with time running out, he took advantage of an awkward position and got a clutch late pin.

This is the state of the rankings heading in to the Spring semester. The only real surprise is that Ungar has some bad losses and, given some general skepticism of his ability to move up to 133, he's barely hanging on to a ranking.

		Flo	WIN	Intermat OpenMat AWN	WSt	CR   RPI
125: Greg D. 	13	19	11	 15 	  9 	  6 	xx   xx
133: Ungar	29	NR	30	 NR	 NR	 32 	xx   xx
141: Cornella	14	15	NR	 19	 13	 22 	xx   xx 
149: Fernandez	23	NR	18	 19	 18	 19 	xx   xx
157: Shapiro	 2	 2	 2  	  4	  2	  1 	xx   xx
165: Ramirez	 5	 6	 5	  4	  5	  4 	xx   xx
174: Ruiz	12	10	11	 10	 11	 10	xx   xx
184: Foca  	14	 9	 9	 12	  7	  6 	xx   xx
197: Mike D.	26	NR	25	 NR	 NR	 27	xx   xx  
285: Davis 	NR	NR	32	 NR	 NR	 47	xx   xx 
TEAM NCAA:	10	11	10	 20	 xx	  8	xx   xx
TEAM DUAL:      xx	 9	10	 12	 xx	  4	xx   xx

Flo ranks to 33.
WIN ranks to 20.
Intermat ranks to 33.
Open Mat ranks to 20.
AWN ranks to 20.
WrestleStat ELO system.
CR and RPI These rankings aren't released for a while. I include the columns so I don't have to redo the spacing.

Flo Ivy Rankings (out of 6):
125: Greg D - 1
133: Ungar - 1
141: Cornella - 1
149: Fernandez - 3
157: Shapiro - 1
165: Ramirez - 1
174: Ruiz - 2
184: Foca - 1
197: Dellagatta - 2
285: Davis - 3

Huge wrestling get for Cornell.

After being committed to the University of Michigan since November 2023; consensus top-15 national 2025 Big Boarder (#10 by MatScouts; #12 by FloWrestling), Jude Correa re-opened his recruitment recently.

And on Saturday afternoon; he decided that it is much cooler to be a Redman than to be a Wolverine!!! Following the conclusion of his three-peat at the Powerade; the unanimous #1 215-pounder in the land announced his intentions to compete collegiately on behalf of Cornell University.

Unbeaten since his freshman season and surpassing the 100-career victory milestone this weekend per the PA-Wrestling database.

Redman? REDMAN??? Dear lord please dont let this take root.

TimV
Redman? REDMAN??? Dear lord please dont let this take root.

#yellcornell

Trotsky

TimV
Redman? REDMAN??? Dear lord please dont let this take root.

#yellcornell

Earlier today I walked by a car (in Brooklyn) with NY plates having "BIGRED 06"

TimV
Redman? REDMAN??? Dear lord please dont let this take root.

Redman has been the Cornell wrestling mascot for a while now.

ugarte

TimV
Redman? REDMAN??? Dear lord please dont let this take root.

Redman has been the Cornell wrestling mascot for a while now.

Hoping Correa doesn't become the mascot.

ugarte

TimV
Redman? REDMAN??? Dear lord please dont let this take root.

Redman has been the Cornell wrestling mascot for a while now.

15+ years now.

[cornellsun.com]

Not to steal Ugarte's thunder, but the Big Red took a dual at Missouri last night 26-12. Neither team was at full strength, but impressive wins by Meyer Shapiro (17-2 TF), Josh Saunders (late takedown and back points to earn a major) and Chris Foca (largely the same deal). Simon Ruiz is probably kicking himself not getting a tech fall in a dominant 14 point win.

mountainred
Not to steal Ugarte's thunder, but the Big Red took a dual at Missouri last night 26-12. Neither team was at full strength, but impressive wins by Meyer Shapiro (17-2 TF), Josh Saunders (late takedown and back points to earn a major) and Chris Foca (largely the same deal). Simon Ruiz is probably kicking himself not getting a tech fall in a dominant 14 point win.

And Ramirez has to be kicking himself for not getting a major!

Never apologize for beating me to the punch. I'm happy to see other activity in the thread.

Cornell was missing 6 starters in beating #19 Missouri!

CAS
Cornell was missing 6 starters in beating #19 Missouri!

to be fair, Missouri was missing at least three starters, including their two best (#1 Keegan O'Toole and 4x AA Rocky Elam)

In other news, we had some hot recruit action this weekend. At the Doc Buchanan tournament in Clovis, CA, the Cortez Brothers both finished in 3d place at the Doc Buchanan (Isaiah at 129 and Elijah at 141) and Joseph Toscano is wrestling in the title match at 147.

Edinboro hosted a tournament this weekend as well and we had three placers who will be at Cornell next year.

Louie Cerchio finished in 2d at 165, Jaxon Joy finished in 3d at 149 and Cash Henderson finished in 3d at 285. At the same tournament, Ahston Davis - our nominal starting heavyweight - took second place as he works back from injury. Shapiro's backup at 157, Benny Rogers, won his weight with a 16-1 tech fall in the final. Dellagatta was supposed to get some action as well, since he is also recovering from an injury, but he didn't take the mat after being registered so he might have had a setback while preparing to wrestle.

Final bit of news - Vince Cornella, who was supposed to be our starter at 141, is done for the year. He is still rehabbing from the knee injury that ruined the end of his 2024 season. Joshua Saunders, who has been starting in his place, beat a top 20 wrestler from Missouri in his best match since coming to Cornell. Hope he really pulls it all together this year, since it's his last chance.

Here are the rankings from around the internet. The comments below are compared to the prior week but tbh the rankings have been pretty stable but for some dropping due to inactivity. 125, 133, 157, 197 and 285 have all been mostly absent for a month - though Shapiro has recently returned. 165 and 184 were away for the fall semester but have returned with a bang.

                Flo	WIN	IM	TOM	AWN	BEG*	WSt	SHP	CR   RPI
125: Greg D. 	13	NR	13	15 	11	10	 5	18*	xx   xx
133: Ungar	NR	NR	31	NR	NR	23	34	34*	xx   xx
141: Saunders	23	16	26	14	11	12	29	20	xx   xx
149: Fernandez	21	20	18	19	17	15	18	30	xx   xx
157: Shapiro	 2	 2	 2  	 3	 1	 1	 1	xx*	xx   xx
165: Ramirez	 5	 5	 5	 4	 5	 4	 4	15	xx   xx
174: Ruiz	14	NR	12	 9	11	 9	10	13	xx   xx
184: Foca  	 8	 6	 8	 8	 7	 5	 8	 6	xx   xx
197: Mike D.	25	NR	28	NR	NR	19	34	15	xx   xx  
285: Davis 	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	25	56	41	xx   xx 
TEAM NCAA:	10	 9	 9	10	xx	 7	 6	25	xx   xx
TEAM DUAL:      10	10	11	12	xx	 9	 7	16	xx   xx

Flo ranks to 33. Ungar slips out of the rankings, Foca jumps to 8, Saunders enters the rankings and Flo releases its first dual rankings.
Wrestling Insider News ranks to 20. Greg D. falls out, likely due to inactivity. Saunders and Fernandez join the top 20. Still no Ruiz, which is crazy - he's 4-4 against the WIN top 20, 8-0 outside it.
Intermat ranks to 33. Small boost for Saunders.
The Open Mat ranks to 20.
Amateur Wrestling News ranks to 20.
B.E.G. ranks to 33. Cornell fan is part of the team and they tend to rank our guys a little higher than the others.
WrestleStat ELO style. Compton (171) listed starter by WS.
Seton Hall Pirate's Dual Impact Index SHP has a bespoke algorithm that I don't know the secret sauce behind but I also don't know if it's confidential. SHP has Greg D. and Ungar currently considered non-starters due to inactivity, so their rankings have an asterisk to show around where they would fall if they were considered the starter. Milani (31) and Ferrara (20) are the SHP starters. Not sure why Greg D. and Ungar are out of SHP's lineup when Mike D. and Davis are in and have also been MIA. Shapiro doesn't have enough matches yet to show up in SHP's rankings but his rough low-match-count ranking would put him at 12.
Coaches Rank and RPI haven't come out yet but I think the first rankings are soon. Leaving them just to have the columns ready in advance because it's a PITA to set up.

Flo also releases Ivy rankings, which came out yesterday:

125: Greg D - 1
133: Ungar - 1
141: Saunders - 3
149: Fernandez - 3
157: Shapiro - 1
165: Ramirez - 1
174: Ruiz - 2
184: Foca - 1
197: Dellagatta - 2
285: Compton - 5 (Davis was 4 on December 26th - another artifact of the injuries to the lineup and ranking services not knowing who is coming back)

Should also point out that we have a big dual meet against Lehigh on Sunday.

See last week Lehigh added a ranked grad transfer (5 and half yrs at NC State) heavyweight, who will be wrestling Sunday against Cornell.

CAS
See last week Lehigh added a ranked grad transfer (5 and half yrs at NC State) heavyweight, who will be wrestling Sunday against Cornell.

Trephan's transfer was announced in November. NC State's former 197 bumped up to heavyweight for/after his redshirt in 2024. I assume that the transfer took affect with the new semester; I don't know Lehigh's academic calendar, but this is his debut for Lehigh, I think. (Edit: He wrestled at the Sheridan Open - also hosted by Lehigh - in December, but was officially "unrostered".)

Kind of wild that NC State was at Journeymen - a tournament hosted by Lehigh - on November 10; the transfer announcement was on November 19. You have to believe that he already knew he'd lost his starting spot, but when Lehigh's heavyweight was injured at the same tournament and will miss the remainder of the season... discussions regarding mutual benefit were had.

ugarte
Should also point out that we have a big dual meet against Lehigh on Sunday.

23-19 win, but disappointing overall.

Wins at 133 (Ferrara by tech fall), 157 (Shapiro by pin), 165 (Ramirez by tech fall), 174 (Ruiz by major) and 184 (Foca) - all expected Ws but the bonus points were nice. Meanwhile, at 125 (Milani), 141 (Saunders) and 149 (Fernandez) we lost close matches marked by a lack of urgency to score, whether behind or holding a small lead. Foca also showed a lack of urgency but won 2-0 so there is less to complain about. 197 and 285 were against Lehigh's best wrestlers and the back to back tech falls by them weren't much of a surprise.

It's looking more and more like Greg D. (125) won't be returning to the lineup and I'm concerned about Dellagatta too. If Ungar goes back to 125, leaving 133 to Ferrara, that would be great.

ugarte

It's looking more and more like Greg D. (125) won't be returning to the lineup and I'm concerned about Dellagatta too. If Ungar goes back to 125, leaving 133 to Ferrara, that would be great.

Based on the latest from the coach, it's Ungar at 125 and Ferrara at 133. Cornell is sending 6 to an open event at Iowa State this weekend (otherwise open) to build up credentials. I think I saw that both Dellagatta and Hanning were going to wrestle at Iowa State, but if Dellagatta can't go, my pessimistic side says he's done for the season.

mountainred

ugarte

It's looking more and more like Greg D. (125) won't be returning to the lineup and I'm concerned about Dellagatta too. If Ungar goes back to 125, leaving 133 to Ferrara, that would be great.

Based on the latest from the coach, it's Ungar at 125 and Ferrara at 133. Cornell is sending 6 to an open event at Iowa State this weekend (otherwise open) to build up credentials. I think I saw that both Dellagatta and Hanning were going to wrestle at Iowa State, but if Dellagatta can't go, my pessimistic side says he's done for the season.

yeah the word from another poster on the wrestling forum said that the tournament was acting as a wrestle-off for 197. Since this is kind of a no-contest in terms of baseline ability,* it has to be a test of Dellagatta's recovery.

As for 125/133, big bummer that Greg D. is out for the year. His four years have been sitting behind Vito, a season-ending injury and a season behind Ungar after he got Pipped during his medical leave. This was his first real chance - as a senior - to start for Cornell, and he's losing it to injury again. I don't know if he'd be a starter next year even if he can get a medical redshirt and come back since recruit Anthony Knox is a candidate to bypass the gap year and start right away.

It's probably better for Ungar's sake for him to go 125, though. I don't think Ungar has looked strong enough at 133. He's 5-3 and his wins are unimpressive. He's slated to make his 2025 debut at 125 at Iowa State as well. Ferrara has been a credible 133 during Ungar's recovery. No big wins but also no bad losses.

Ivy season starts on 1/25. I'll be heading to Columbia for the dual meet on 2/2.

* No offense to Hanning.

mountainred

ugarte

It's looking more and more like Greg D. (125) won't be returning to the lineup and I'm concerned about Dellagatta too. If Ungar goes back to 125, leaving 133 to Ferrara, that would be great.

Based on the latest from the coach, it's Ungar at 125 and Ferrara at 133. Cornell is sending 6 to an open event at Iowa State this weekend (otherwise open) to build up credentials. I think I saw that both Dellagatta and Hanning were going to wrestle at Iowa State, but if Dellagatta can't go, my pessimistic side says he's done for the season.

Not great news from Iowa State but it could be worse.

GOOD:

197 - Dellagatta went 3-0 to finish in first. A relief even though the competition wasn't all that steep. Meanwhile, Hanning went 5-1, losing to the wrestle that Dellagatta beat in the semi. Dellagatta back and grabbing the starting job is good news going forward.

MEH:

285 - Davis lost his opening match then went on a winning streak, finishing 5-1.

BAD:

125 - Ungar didn't compete as expected. No reason given, but it would have been nice to hit the ground running at the new weight.

WORSE:

133 - Ferrara won his opening match then defaulted his second match with an injury, forfeiting out of the consolation matches. Have to hope it isn't serious. If it is serious, Ungar probably stays at 133 and Milani stays the starter at 125 and my expectations are low at both weights.

Duals against Harvard (noon) and Brown (5:30) on the road. Ungar is still a week away at 125 and Ferrara is a maybe at 133. The rest of the team is expected to go. There are a couple of backups traveling but I think whether they play is dependent on what weights the match starts at and the score when their weight comes up. Neither dual is expected to be close.

ugarte
Duals against Harvard (noon) and Brown (5:30) on the road. Ungar is still a week away at 125 and Ferrara is a maybe at 133. The rest of the team is expected to go. There are a couple of backups traveling but I think whether they play is dependent on what weights the match starts at and the score when their weight comes up. Neither dual is expected to be close.

1 down, 1 to go. Ferrara wrestled, wrestled well. Cornell won 9 of 10 weights and had bonus points in most of them. 39-3, good guys.

Didn't think of it until after the fact but we didn't give up a single takedown, even in the one match we lost.



Results
125 | Milani L 3-6 to #16 Sotelo [H 3-0]
133 | Ferrara WMD 8-0 over Brzozowski [C 4-3]
141 | #25 Saunders W 7-3 over Frinzi [C 7-3]
149 | #20 Fernandez WMD 10-2 over Pepe [C 11-3]
157 | #2 Shapiro WTF 18-3 over #30 Harrington [C 16-3]
165 | #5 Ramirez WBF over Berg (165) [C 22-3]
174 | #14 Ruiz WTF 17-1 over Bottiglieri [C 27-3]
184 | #8 Foca WTF 16-1 over Walsh [C 32-3]
197 | #25 Dellagatta W 4-0 over Skove [C 35-3]
HWT | Davis WMD 11-2 over Crooks [C 39-3]

ugarte
Didn't think of it until after the fact but we didn't give up a single takedown, even in the one match we lost.


[/b]
Results
125 | Milani L 3-6 to #16 Sotelo [H 3-0]
133 | Ferrara WMD 8-0 over Brzozowski [C 4-3]
141 | #25 Saunders W 7-3 over Frinzi [C 7-3]
149 | #20 Fernandez WMD 10-2 over Pepe [C 11-3]
157 | #2 Shapiro WTF 18-3 over #30 Harrington [C 16-3]
165 | #5 Ramirez WBF over Berg (165) [C 22-3]
174 | #14 Ruiz WTF 17-1 over Bottiglieri [C 27-3]
184 | #8 Foca WTF 16-1 over Walsh [C 32-3]
197 | #25 Dellagatta W 4-0 over Skove [C 35-3]
HWT | Davis WMD 11-2 over Crooks [C 39-3]

Don't take bottom against Sotelo. Milani looked OK on his feet.

Brown dual was more of the same. 27th straight win over the Bears, who have Cornell great Jordan Leen as their coach.


125: Milani WMD 14-2
133: Qureshi L 4-1
141: Saunders W 16-15
149: Fernandez W 4-1 (OT)
157: Shapiro W 5-2
165: Ramirez WMD 13-2
174: Ruiz WTF 22-7 (6:40)
184: Foca WMD 8-0
197: Dellagatta WBF (4:40)
285: Davis W 4-1 (OT)
Cornell 35 Brown 3

The skill gap between Cornell and this weekend's opponents was pretty massive. In a lot of ways, the best news is that no one looked to have been injured.

Really proud of Davis, especially, with a great takedown in SV. Two really big guys scrambling and rolling around and Davis finished on top, in a mild upset (according to Flo, but not the computers).

The Saunders match was a wild, back and forth seven minutes, with Saunders pulling off an incredible takedown and nearfall in the third period after a similarly great pinning move in the closing seconds of the second by the Brown wrestler that didn't get called but could have without a lot of controversy.

This team is a little weaker than it has been at the lower weights after having Yianni and Vito in there - anyone would be - but damn if we aren't killing it from 157 through 184. I really hope Ungar can compete at 125 because Ungar/Ferrara at the top really strengthens us a lot.

Two more dual meets this weekend. At Binghamton on Saturday and at Columbia on Sunday at 2. I'll be at the latter. They've started holding the wrestling meets in the hoops gym instead of in the Blue Room underneath the students' indoor track/fitness center.

Some interesting matches both days but probably not a lot of mystery in terms of the final result.

ugarte
Two more dual meets this weekend. At Binghamton on Saturday and at Columbia on Sunday at 2. I'll be at the latter. They've started holding the wrestling meets in the hoops gym instead of in the Blue Room underneath the students' indoor track/fitness center.

Some interesting matches both days but probably not a lot of mystery in terms of the final result.

As expected, Cornell steamrolled Binghamton, 29-9.

Nice win for Milani at 125, beating a guy who beat the Harvard guy who beat him last week, and by a major decision. Fernandez took a surprising loss at 149 but otherwise we won the matches we were supposed to. Davis lost a close one at Heavyweight, 3-2 to a returning national qualifier, but all of his scoring was from stalling points because his opponent took a lead then stopped engaging.

The biggest disappointment was that Binghamton's best wrestler, Brevin Cassella, didn't go. It kind of looks like he was ducking Ruiz because Ruiz beat him earlier this season and it could screw up his top 10 ranking. I am at a loss as to why Cassella is ranked ahead of Ruiz. Not just the H2H, Ruiz's full season resume is better than Cassella's. They have roughly the same four losses and Ruiz has more good wins. Whatever! With Cassella sitting out, Ruiz beat his backup 16-0.

ugarte
Two more dual meets this weekend. At Binghamton on Saturday and at Columbia on Sunday at 2. I'll be at the latter. They've started holding the wrestling meets in the hoops gym instead of in the Blue Room underneath the students' indoor track/fitness center.

Some interesting matches both days but probably not a lot of mystery in terms of the final result.

As expected, Cornell blew out Columbia. This went about as poorly as it could have for the Lions, with Cornell winning 40-0 despite Columbia nearly winning two matches by pin.

125: Milani started again and I'd be surprised if we see Ungar at all at this point. It appears that he's outgrown 125 without the strength to compete at the top level at 133. Milani got the first takedown and held on for a 4-2 win. He was within inches of giving away the match with 30 seconds left but the action was just barely out of bounds when he conceded a takedown.

133: Ferrara took the weekend off. He's been a bit banged up over the year, so I hope it's nothing significant. In his place, Qureshi got another start and ran with it, dominating his opponent and winning by tech fall 19-3.

Next weekend we have a pair of home duals against Princeton and Penn to close out the conference regular season. Cornell is the favorite in both, but it's closer than I expected because Princeton matches up surprisingly well against us. Their strongest weights are the lightest and heaviest guys, whereas our dominant run is from 157-197. WrestleStat's computer puts the matches at 5-5 with the good guys winning 18-15 on bonus points. I think the computer is conservative on the bonus points for us but the match total isn't unreasonable. It'll be a fun one.

141: Saunders is finally being assertive. He scored off the whistle and kept scoring. Ran out of time before he could get a tech but did get a 15-3 major decision.

149: In what I expected to be one of the more competitive matches, Fernandez came out on fire. After losing 2-0 at Binghamton because he wasn't aggressive enough, Fernandez also scored right off of the whistle. He probably should have had a major decision, but after scoring with 17 seconds left and needing 7 more seconds on top to get a point for Riding Time, he let his opponent escape immediately and won 10-3.

157: Shapiro ripped through this poor kid. 16-0 tech fall.

165: Match of the night. Ramirez nearly lost when Alvan threw him directly to his back before he slipped out. I've seen matches where a pin was called in that situation, but not only was the pin not awarded, Alvan didn't even get credit for a takedown. Columbia challenged and they still didn't give it to him. I was sitting with the Cornell crew and we were all stunned. Then Alvan threw him down AGAIN and got credit this time. Once he escaped, though, the rest of the match was all Ramirez, and he ended up with a 14-5 major decision.

174: Ruiz was facing a wrestler coming off of a huge win against a top 10 guy. Ruiz scored first, and it looked like he might cruise, but just like at 165, our guy got caught and whipped to his back and nearly pinned. And once again, as the match wore on, skill and conditioning won out and Ruiz got the takedowns he needed to win 10-8.

184: Foca won comfortably, 8-2, but his opponent showed some slick defense to keep it from being worse.

197: Dellagatta started slow, but never trailed. In the second period, he got a clean takedown, turned his opponent and got the pin.

285: Davis didn't have much trouble, rolling to a 9-1 major decision.

I highly recommend watching the 157-197 stretch because the action was wild. Starts at around 40:05.

ugarte

ugarte
Two more dual meets this weekend. At Binghamton on Saturday and at Columbia on Sunday at 2. I'll be at the latter. They've started holding the wrestling meets in the hoops gym instead of in the Blue Room underneath the students' indoor track/fitness center.

Some interesting matches both days but probably not a lot of mystery in terms of the final result.

As expected, Cornell blew out Columbia. This went about as poorly as it could have for the Lions, with Cornell winning 40-0 despite Columbia nearly winning two matches by pin.

125: Milani started again and I'd be surprised if we see Ungar at all at this point. It appears that he's outgrown 125 without the strength to compete at the top level at 133. Milani got the first takedown and held on for a 4-2 win. He was within inches of giving away the match with 30 seconds left but the action was just barely out of bounds when he conceded a takedown.

133: Ferrara took the weekend off. He's been a bit banged up over the year, so I hope it's nothing significant. In his place, Qureshi got another start and ran with it, dominating his opponent and winning by tech fall 19-3.

Next weekend we have a pair of home duals against Princeton and Penn to close out the conference regular season. Cornell is the favorite in both, but it's closer than I expected because Princeton matches up surprisingly well against us. Their strongest weights are the lightest and heaviest guys, whereas our dominant run is from 157-197. WrestleStat's computer puts the matches at 5-5 with the good guys winning 18-15 on bonus points. I think the computer is conservative on the bonus points for us but the match total isn't unreasonable. It'll be a fun one.

141: Saunders is finally being assertive. He scored off the whistle and kept scoring. Ran out of time before he could get a tech but did get a 15-3 major decision.

149: In what I expected to be one of the more competitive matches, Fernandez came out on fire. After losing 2-0 at Binghamton because he wasn't aggressive enough, Fernandez also scored right off of the whistle. He probably should have had a major decision, but after scoring with 17 seconds left and needing 7 more seconds on top to get a point for Riding Time, he let his opponent escape immediately and won 10-3.

157: Shapiro ripped through this poor kid. 16-0 tech fall.

165: Match of the night. Ramirez nearly lost when Alvan threw him directly to his back before he slipped out. I've seen matches where a pin was called in that situation, but not only was the pin not awarded, Alvan didn't even get credit for a takedown. Columbia challenged and they still didn't give it to him. I was sitting with the Cornell crew and we were all stunned. Then Alvan threw him down AGAIN and got credit this time. Once he escaped, though, the rest of the match was all Ramirez, and he ended up with a 14-5 major decision.

174: Ruiz was facing a wrestler coming off of a huge win against a top 10 guy. Ruiz scored first, and it looked like he might cruise, but just like at 165, our guy got caught and whipped to his back and nearly pinned. And once again, as the match wore on, skill and conditioning won out and Ruiz got the takedowns he needed to win 10-8.

184: Foca won comfortably, 8-2, but his opponent showed some slick defense to keep it from being worse.

197: Dellagatta started slow, but never trailed. In the second period, he got a clean takedown, turned his opponent and got the pin.

285: Davis didn't have much trouble, rolling to a 9-1 major decision.

I highly recommend watching the 157-197 stretch because the action was wild. Starts at around 40:05.

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

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

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

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

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

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

No update to the Flo Ivy rankings.

* BEG has only posted through 157.
** Shapiro and Foca did not have enough matches at weight as of 1/23 to qualify (minimum 8) for the first CR but do now. I don't expect Milani to crack the top 33.
^ I've added the estimated RPI from WrestleStat, for guys that meet the 15-match minimum. You can see the injury history from how few of our starters qualify for an RPI this late in the season. Davis' RPI is a big surprise but to be honest, most guys who have wrestled 15 matches have faced a starter's schedule or have taken more losses, whereas he has a lot of matches (and wins) at low-tier second semester tournaments for backups to get work that he attended to knock off the rust and get his match count up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

165: #5 Ramirez also ripped up his opponent, winning by tech 15-0 in 2:57.

174: #11 Ruiz ruined the streak by needed to go to the second period but kept a different streak up by winning by tech 17-2 in 3:40.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

George64
Cornell wrestling claims its 44th Ivy League title in program history after Sunday's 26-10 victory over Penn.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2/6/25 Ivy rankings:

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

everything OK?

No update this week from the Ariz st match?

upprdeck
everything OK?

No update this week from the Ariz st match?

Think he's on vacation. Look here instead: [bigredbears.com]

We take vacations from sports now?

What have we become.

upprdeck
We take vacations from sports now?

What have we become.

Well adjusted

Al DeFlorio

upprdeck
everything OK?

No update this week from the Ariz st match?

Think he's on vacation. Look here instead: [bigredbears.com]

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

Will they let Knox in now?

underskill
Will they let Knox in now?

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

ugarte

underskill
Will they let Knox in now?

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

Update: Knox still coming. He's also suing for an injunction that would let him compete at NJ States but I'm not doing the research on likelihood of success; all I know is that judges grant injunctions in cases like this that boggle my mind.

OK, sports fans. The final official pre-conference tournament rankings are out and with them, the number of automatic bids each conference has earned. We earned spots for the conference at eight weights (not 125 or 285). The Ivies get an AQ at 285 anyway and while he's hardly a lock, Ashton Davis went 5-0 in conference, so 9 is a realistic result. I don't know if Milani has the juice at 125, though he'll probably be the 4th seed in a 3-bid conference. He was 2-3, with losses to all of the wrestlers who earned automatic bids.

                Flo	WIN	IM	TOM	AWN	BEG	WSt	SHP	CR   RPI
125: Milani 	NR	NR	NR	xx 	NR	NR	74	36	NR   26
133: Ferrara	27	NR	30	20	NR	24	27	30	31   28
141: Saunders	22	NR	30	19	18	23	29	26	26   30
149: Fernandez	21	NR	20	NR	NR	20	29	29	23   23
157: Shapiro	 3	 2	 2	 1	 1	 1	 1	 2	 2   xx
165: Ramirez	 5	 5	 5	 3	 5	 5	 5	13	 5   16
174: Ruiz	11	10	 9	 6	 7	 6	10	10	12   15
184: Foca  	 8	 7	 6	 8	 8	 5	 5	 6	 8    4
197: Mike D.	27	NR	24	NR	NR	24	28	20	21   23  
285: Davis 	NR	NR	33	NR	NR	31	56	36	NR   32 
TEAM NCAA:	11	 9	10	 5	xx	 5	 8	13	 9   --
TEAM DUAL:       9	 9	10	 9	xx	 8	 9	11	--   --

Flo ranks to 33. Ruiz drops 2 spots for the loss to Takats. We go from 9 dual/10 NCAA to the reverse. Not that dual rankings still matter.
WIN ranks to 20. Fernandez rejoins the rankings.
Intermat ranks to 33. Saunders jumps after his dominating win over Chappell. Ruiz takes a small hit here as well. Davis falls out after NC's heavy had a run of good wins to join the rankings and push Davis off the edge.
Open Mat ranks to 20. Ghost of Ungar finally gone. Ferrara falls out of the rankings. Ruiz drops from 6 to 9.
AWN ranks to 20. Saunders drops out? Weird. Dellagatta joins the rankings at 20.
BEG Rank to 33. *TK.
WrestleStat ELO updated.
SHP DII (explainer)
CR and RPI 3d CR and 2d RPI from 2/27. NCAA team coaches' poll from 2/23.

2/18 Flo Ivy rankings with (AQ allocations):
125: Milani - 4 (3) (Sotelo, Gallagher, McGowan)
133: Ferrara - 1 (2) (Ferrara, Miller)
141: Saunders - 2 (4) (Oswalt, Saunders, Composto, Rivera)
149: Fernandez - 3 (3) (Fernandez, Wasilewski, Whalen)
157: Shapiro - 1 (3) (Saito, Shapiro, Swisher)
165: Ramirez - 1 (2) (Alvan, Ramirez)
174: Ruiz - 1 (2) (Ruiz, Incontrera)
184: Foca - 1 (4) (Fine, Foca, Hale, Mulhauser)
197: Dellagatta - 2 (2) (Dellagatta, Stout)
285: Davis - 1 (1) (Nobody)

ILT is Sunday, 3/9, starting at 10am at Princeton's Jadwin Gym. If you want to sleep in a little, 9 of Cornell's 10 wrestlers earned a top-2 seed and have byes to the semis (at noon). Tickets here and brackets here.

I did a summary of the situation for our guys heading into the tournament for the Cornell wrestling forum so here it is (with corrections):

125: Marcello Milani - Seed: 4 | AQ:3 - Longshot to get an at-large if he doesn't pull off at least one upset and if he pulls off an upset... he doesn't need it. I don't remember if he could even qualify for consideration. I think maybe he would have RPI and near-miss if he finished in fourth but probably no quality wins.

133: Tyler Ferrara - Seed: 1 | AQ: 2 - If he gets upset, his chance at at-large is slimmer than I expected. .722 if he goes 2-1 and finishes in 3d, also earning the near-miss criteria. Probably keeps a top-33 RPI but falls out of the CR if he gets upset before the final. Miller probably going to the final and would be a quality win. I don't know if there's another QW on his resume. I thought it was basically a guaranteed at-large but now idk. Shouldn't come to that.

141: Joshua Saunders - Seed: 2 | AQ: 4 - Same as Ferrara, but even less likely that he falls short with 4 slots. He'd have to go 0-2 for this even to be an issue. If he goes 0-3 it gets really hairy for him. He has quality wins but he falls under 70%, loses CR and might even lose RPI. If he doesn't finish top four I can't complain if he doesn't get an at-large.

149: Ethan Fernandez - Seed: 2 | AQ: 2 - 2 seed is nice. Still, probably Whalen in the semi, which is a very tough matchup. Won't be at .700 if he doesn't get an AQ. Does have a couple of potential quality wins (Buesgens, Vasquez) and should finish third even if he loses to Whalen, so that's another at-large criteria. He stays in the top-33 for CR and RPI unless he loses to someone other than Whalen/Wasilewski. High likelihood of at-large unless the ILT goes pair shaped.

157: Meyer Shapiro - Seed: 1 | AQ: 3 No jinx. Easy at-large.

165: Julian Ramirez - Seed: 1 | AQ: 2 No jinx. Easy at-large.

174: Simon Ruiz - Seed: 1 | AQ: 2 No jinx. Easy at-large.

184: Chris Foca - Seed: 1 | AQ: 4 No jinx. Easy at-large.

197: Mikey Dellagatta - Seed: 2 | AQ: 2 No jinx. There's a lot of separation between the top 2 and the rest of the field. He stays above .700 in overall (but not D1) even if he goes 0-3. Probably keeps top-33 CR and RPI barring disaster. Possible QW over Knop. Shouldn't be an issue.

285: Ashton Davis - Seed: 1 | AQ: 1 - 5-0 but didn't dominate all the matches. If he doesn't win it all, his only QW is over the conference champ. If he doesn't win his semi it gets even more interesting because he loses the near-miss criteria. The 4 seed was Flo's #1 until Davis beat him in OT, so it's a tough match. Davis's RPI is surprisingly high (16), so he'll hold that. He would finish over .700 whether he finishes in 2d or 3d. So he'd be in the mix unless he totally crashes out... but it will be touch and go. The top four Ivy heavies are all close and none of them were good enough to earn the bid; it was allocated to the conference automatically, which is not a great sign for at-large chances.

Abbreviations: QW is quality win; AQ is either automatic qualifier(s).

Criteria for an at-large (need at least 2) based on post-conference tournament record, minimum 8 matches:
.700 against D-1 wrestlers at your weight.
.700 against any NCAA wrestler
QW: Win against a wrestler who earned an AQ at their conference tournament
Top 33 RPI (minimum 15 matches at weight for qualifying RPI)
Top 33 Coaches Rating (minimum 8 matches at weight for qualifying CR)
Near miss (finishing one spot below AQ at the conference tournament)

I was in a hotel in Syracuse and there were a lot of kids and parents in town for NYS wrestling championships (I assume middle school) this weekend. I imagine quite a few of them will be at Cornell in 5-10 years if that's the natural order of things

Iceberg
I was in a hotel in Syracuse and there were a lot of kids and parents in town for NYS wrestling championships (I assume middle school) this weekend. I imagine quite a few of them will be at Cornell in 5-10 years if that's the natural order of things

More Jersey guys these days, but we'll probably see a few of the NY kids.

scoop85

Iceberg
I was in a hotel in Syracuse and there were a lot of kids and parents in town for NYS wrestling championships (I assume middle school) this weekend. I imagine quite a few of them will be at Cornell in 5-10 years if that's the natural order of things

More Jersey guys these days, but we'll probably see a few of the NY kids.

When we do take a New York kid it tends to work out very well. Dake (4x champ), Yianni (4x champ), Vito (2x champ, 4x AA), Nickerson (1x champ, 4x AA). And Hunter Richard came to Cornell from a lower NY division (IIRC) and came so close to AA his senior year. I'm sure I'm forgetting others.

ugarte

scoop85

Iceberg
I was in a hotel in Syracuse and there were a lot of kids and parents in town for NYS wrestling championships (I assume middle school) this weekend. I imagine quite a few of them will be at Cornell in 5-10 years if that's the natural order of things

More Jersey guys these days, but we'll probably see a few of the NY kids.

When we do take a New York kid it tends to work out very well. Dake (4x champ), Yianni (4x champ), Vito (2x champ, 4x AA), Nickerson (1x champ, 4x AA). And Hunter Richard came to Cornell from a lower NY division (IIRC) and came so close to AA his senior year. I'm sure I'm forgetting others.

Speaking of Syracuse, Ben Honis would be another one. After losing his appeal for a 5th year he went to SU and played football.

ithacat

ugarte

scoop85

Iceberg
I was in a hotel in Syracuse and there were a lot of kids and parents in town for NYS wrestling championships (I assume middle school) this weekend. I imagine quite a few of them will be at Cornell in 5-10 years if that's the natural order of things

More Jersey guys these days, but we'll probably see a few of the NY kids.

When we do take a New York kid it tends to work out very well. Dake (4x champ), Yianni (4x champ), Vito (2x champ, 4x AA), Nickerson (1x champ, 4x AA). And Hunter Richard came to Cornell from a lower NY division (IIRC) and came so close to AA his senior year. I'm sure I'm forgetting others.

Speaking of Syracuse, Ben Honis would be another one. After losing his appeal for a 5th year he went to SU and played football.

100%. They bounced him around the upper weights his whole career depending on who was injured and when he finally got a starting role he made a crazy back side run to AA after being upset in the first round.

Npwthat you've got me thinking, Realbuto (3X AA) and Palacio (2X AA) were NYers as well.

I am so pissed - ESPN+ says coverage is starting at 11:00

fun matches so far. 8 of 10 into the finals

Stout is too good for the Ivies it seems

upprdeck
Stout is too good for the Ivies it seems

Didn't seem that way before this year! He's having a great year.

Almost perfect so far. Small disappointment that Milani (125) lost in SV in the first round and big disappointment that Saunders lost in SV in the semi. Both losses were to guys they beat at the duals.

Pins in under a minute from both Ramirez (165) and Dellagatta (197). Dominant starto finish wins from Shapiro (157), Ruiz (174) and Foca (184). Thrilling SV takedown from Davis (285) when his opponent tried for a big upper-body move. Workmanlike W from Ferrara (133).

MVP, though, is Fernandez (149) with a late takedown for a big upset to move into the finals and clinch his NCAA bid.

Saunders and Davis still have work to do. Saunders is probably the favorite here but it's must-win. Davis had his path greased (on paper) by a backup at heavy for Princeton and a surprise pin by Columbia over Penn, but the Columbia heavy sat out our dual and has two straight pins to reach the final so i bet he's feeling pretty good.

Consolation matches start at 2:30.

2 late matches that matter now. I wish it was better explained what time the matches to come would be on appx

upprdeck
2 late matches that matter now. I wish it was better explained what time the matches to come would be on appx

they roll straight through the consolation rounds. After the 285 consi semis they'll go to Milani's 3d place match.

Milani with an upset over Sotelo and he's got a rematch with Columbia for an NCAA bid.

Saunders didn't really try to score on his feet at all but in the tiebreaker rounds he scored 2 on a reversal from bottom and a takedown on a counter to win 6-1 and punch his ticket to NCAAs.

Milani and Davis both have winnable matches to get the whole team to Nationals.

I just watch this stuff and wait for Ugarte to explain it to me.

But this has been a fun day with some outstanding scrambling to save matches.

the fernandez match was interesting. would love to know the replay rules.

amazing day. in two weeks should be fun

Oh baby. What a day. All that jibber-jabber about at-large analysis? WHO CARES! Wrestlers at 10 weights and we qualified everyone for NCAAs. Our worst finish was third place. We won five out of ten weights outright. Cornell took the team title, clinching at 184 with a win in Sudden Victory over second place Penn (but we would have won outright anyway after winning at Heavyweight). So, let's talk about it.

125: Marcello Milani came in as the [4] in a 3-bid weight. He had lost earlier in the season to the top three wrestlers and won by the skin of his teeth against [5] Sulayman Bah, of Columbia. In the past, Milani had gone 2-0 against Bah but both were close (6-3 SV and 4-2, with Bah nearly scoring at the end). It was another close match in the opening round, with Bah scoring the only TD in SV to win 4-1. That sent Milani to the consolation bracket, where he'd need two wins to finish in third. He started against Sotelo, [3] Harvard, who beat him 6-3 at the dual by dominating on top. Milani scored first and it turned out to be the only TD of the match. Unlike the dual, Milani escaped from bottom. Final score 4-2. Waiting in the third place match, Bah. He caught a break early in the match when Bah asked for injury time; the penalty for asking for a stoppage is that your opponent can choose position. Milani chose bottom and escaped. Bah tied the match with an escape to start the second period and, rather than try to ride for a full period, elected to give Milani the lead by conceding an escape to win it on his feet. Didn't work; Milani added a takedown with 45 seconds left in the match. A late escape wasn't enough for Bah, and Milani won 5-2.

In his freshman season, after starting the season as a backup, Milani has earned a trip to the NCAAs.

133:[1] Tyler Ferrara came in as the top seed in a two-bid weight. He earned the top seed with a surprising win over Penn's Ryan Miller. I don't really remember much from either of his matches. After a first round bye he earned a trip to NCAAs with a humdrum 4-2 win over [4] Jones (Princeton), then found himself in a rematch with Miller. Miller scored the only takedown of the match and got his revenge.

Like Milani, Ferrara started the season as a backup and earned a trip to NCAAs when he stepped in to a starting role.

141: [2] Joshua Saunders had one of the easier tasks on the team. With a bye in the first round of a 6-man tournament that placed four, he needed a win in either of his first two matches. He opened in the semis against [3] Rivera (Princeton), who he beat in an exciting 11-7 match at the dual. Saunders' biggest flaws are a hesitance to try to score and a tendency to wear down late. The latter is especially rough if your tactics keep the score low and close. So it was again; nobody really tried to score much for the first 7 minutes and Rivera got the winning TD in SV. Dropped into the consolation match, it was more of the same, as he went to SV at 1-1 again. This time, the extra time was kind to him (as I wrote a few posts up) and he won, guaranteeing himself a spot in the top four. In the 3rd place match, he scored two TDs in the first period and rode those points to victory.

Saunders came to Cornell with an incredible pedigree, having made Team USA for U16. From a fan's perspective, his career has been very frustrating. A combination of injuries and very talented people at his ideal weight meant that he had a lot of trouble cracking the lineup. It probably would have been more of the same this year but Vince Cornella's recovery from his 2024 injury opened up a spot in the lineup. In his senior year, his first as a starter, the 5-star recruit will go to NCAAs.

149: [2] Ethan Fernandez was seeded ahead of a wrestler that he was ranked behind, [3] Ty Whalen (Princeton) and that's who he was facing in the semis. Fernandez scored first, slipping out of an attack and winding up behind, with 2NF to boot. Whalen worked his way back to tie the match heading into the third period. In the third period, PAY ATTENTION upprdeck!, Whalen and Fernandez were in a scramble, stretched out, each holding on to the ankle of the other. Fortunately for Fernandez, he got Whalen into a position where he was holding him with his back exposed for a few swipes of the ref's arm - a position called "neutral danger" which is something like a near-fall, but credited like a takedown. Those points were the difference in the match. Wiith the win, Fernandez guaranteed himself a spot in the final. In the final, he lost to the top seed, Wasilewski (Penn) for the second time this year.

In his second season as the starter at 149 - after starting his career as a backup to Arujau at 133 - Fernandez has earned his way into his second NCAA tournament.

The win by Wasilewski was Penn's third straight champion, after losing in the 125 final. The win pushed Penn's team lead to 6 points.

157: [1] Meyer Shapiro is by far the best in the conference and a lot of people's pick to win NCAAs. He won his first match 9-0 despite taking a couple of head-butts to the face which seemed to shake him up a little. In the final, he dominated the [2] Jude Swisher (Penn) who in previous matches appeared content to run away and keep the score close while having no shot of actually winning. Not today; 17-2 tech fall.

With the title, and a bonus for a tech fall, Penn's lead was down to 2.5.

Coming off a third place finish as a freshman, in 2024, Shapiro is heading back to his second NCAA tournament. Did I mention that he was named the Most Oustanding Wrestler* of the ILT by the coaches?

165: [1] Julian Ramirez open his tournament in the semifinals. His opponent tried to use an upper-body move to throw Ramirez to his back, but Ramirez ended up on top, in good position, and ended the match in 35 seconds. A bold move from a wrestler with a losing record, but possibly the result of a match from earlier this season. At the Columbia dual, [2] Cesar Alvan had temporary success with upper-body throws, putting Ramirez on his back twice. A different ref, on a different day, might have given Alvan the pin on the second one. I think you can guess who Ramirez faced in the final. Ramirez came out fast, scoring twice in the opening period. Alvan got one TD back and after the first period, Ramirez led 7-5. That basically finished the scoring for the match and Ramirez won his third straight conference^ championship.

Penn's lead was down to half a point.

This will be the fourth time Ramirez qualified for the NCAAs. His first three times he was defeated in the "blood round" - one win shy of finishing in the top eight for AA. Hoping 4th time is the charm. He's wrestling well and will probably receive a top 5 seed.

174: [1] Simon Ruiz had no issues in his opening match, scoring a takedown and NF2 in the closing seconds to win by tech, 17-2. In his finals match, he faced [3] McGill (Columbia). McGill defeated [2] Incontrera (Penn) for the second time this year; Incontrera was Ruiz's only conference loss. McGill himself gave Ruiz fits at the dual, though Ruiz won 10-8. No such trouble today. McGill went back to some of the upper-body throws that were effective the first time, but Ruiz responded better, rolling to an 8-0 major decision.

With the major, Cornell moved ahead of Penn by two points. While Cornell had finalists at the last three weights, Penn's final wrestler was at 184.

In his freshman season, Ruiz won his first conference title and qualified for his first NCAA tournament.

184: [1] Chris Foca had no trouble with Columbia's [4] Nick Fine in the opening round, taking an 11-2 MD. In the final, against [2] Max Hale. This was the fourth matchup between the two, with Foca winning the prior three - most recently, a 17-0 dismantling at the Penn dual. Scoring was hard to come by, as Hale was backing away. It was kind of insane that he wasn't called for stalling sooner. In any event, after backpedaling for almost five minutes, the ref finally blew his whistle. Shortly after, Hale sprang to life, scoring the first takedown of the match to take a 3-1 lead. Foca worked a reversal to tie the score, followed by a reversal back by Hale and nearly held Foca on his back. It was a little unclear, but I think Hale was given a second stall warning for holding on to Foca's ankles for too long. In any event, that stall call and Foca's escape on the restart sent the match to SV. In SV, Foca locked his arms around Hale's body and started trying to trip him back. As they tumbled to the ground, Foca landed on his back, setting off cheers from the Penn supporters, but Foca rolled through, emerged on top, and held Hale down. The ref raised his hand, awarding three points - and the Ivy title - to Foca. Penn challenged to no avail.

With the win, Cornell moved 4 points ahead of Penn and clinched the first Ivy League Tournament title in history.

This is Foca's second conference^ title and fourth NCAA bid. His first two years, he wrestled at 174. As a freshman, he was expected to wrestle at 184 and had to cut weight right before the season and never felt quite right. As a soph, he won the EIWA title and finished in 3rd at NCAAs. Moving up to 184 as a junior, he sometimes seemed undersized. His talent took him to the tournament again, and for the second time in three years he lost shy of AA. This season, he's looked comfortable and strong. His only loss was back in December against another wrestler in the top 10. Despite a schedule that, through no fault of his own, has been somewhat weak, I'm still feeling good about him heading into NCAAs.

197: [2] Mikey Dellagatta was one of two wrestlers that were far ahead of the rest of the 197s and both earned the conference an allocated bid. The top 2 proved it in the semis, both winning by fall (Dellagatta in under a minute) and clinching a trip to NCAAs. In their first matchup, Dellagatta lost to [1] Luke Stout by tech fall and yesterday it was more of the same. By the end of the match Dellagatta was gassed and, tbh, looked totally defeated in a 20-5 tech fall loss.

Despite the loss, Dellagatta finishes his freshman season with a 14-4 record and his first trip to the NCAAs.

285: [1] Ashton Davis went 5-0 in Ivy competition during dual meet season, locking up the top seed. The Ivies That said, the top four Ivy heavies were clustered together in people's general opinion. In his first round match, Davis faced [4] Alex Semenenko (Brown), who was the top ranked Ivy heavy before Davis beat him in SV at the dual. It was more of the same yesterday, with Davis again winning in SV. At the Columbia dual, the Lions sent out a backup, so [3] Vincent Mueller was a new face. Mueller is a hulking guy, tall and solidly built, compared with Davis's more classic bulky heavyweight look, and he came into the final by way of two first period pins. There's big, though, and there's strong, and Davis is strong. He scored the first points of the match on a second period reversal and stayed on top for over 90 seconds without allowing an escape. In the third period, he lifted Mueller and threw him down in a way that reminded me of Rocky vs Thunderlips. With riding time, Davis won the match 6-1 and with it, the Ivy title.

Davis' sophomore year is his first as the starter and he's had a very solid year. He's spent the last month ranked on the fringes of the top-33, proof that even though the Ivy's bid wasn't "earned" by any one wrestler, he deserves to be at this NCAA tournament.

I'll probably write a short tournament preview before the tourney (in two weeks). For now, I'm proud of this team. It might be the first time that we sent all 10 weights to the tournament by qualifying at the conference tournament. Last year we qualified 10, including an at-large, but we didn't send 10 because Cornella had to decline his at-large bid because of the injury he sustained at the conference tournament. The lowest anyone on Cornell finished yesterday was 3rd place. Great work from everyone.

* Going strictly by results, I thought Luke Stout might win MOW. First, we were in Princeton. Second, he won by fall and tech, whereas Shapiro won by MD and tech. Ultimately, I think the coaches thought it made more sense to give the award to a national title contender rather than a good wrestler who dominated a weight where we are likely not going to put anyone on the podium.

^ This was the first ILT, but Ramirez and Foca both won EIWA titles before the Ivies broke away. The ILT crowd was small. It was a shame not to have the large, loud fanbase from Lehigh and the passionate fans from across the conference. I'll miss the EIWA.

My question I think was in the Fernandez match. At the end of the period he had take down with about 2 secs left and then they went OB.

They didn't review it and said Cornell could not challenge it because they had already lost an earlier review?

But Princeton lost a review in a later match and then reviewed another in the same match so maybe thats not the rule?

I was just wondering why a scoring decision was not looked at with a review even if not challenged

They reviewed the same type of play in another match without a coaches challenge.

It was a close play both in timing and control.

Much like the later Cornell one where they had to decide if the takedown happened in play with the strange sideline

I always wonder why these places have locations where the guys can be in bounds but off the mats given the reach and use of toes to stay in bounds .

I see. There are two kinds of reviews: Officials' Review (the on-mat officials look at the replay to make sure they got it right (either on their own initiative or because Cael Sanderson asks them to)) and Coach's Challenge (disinterested matside officials review the call). You only get one coach's challenge.

I'll have to rewatch but I think the incident you're referring to in the Fernandez match had two potentially reviewable (1) did Fernandez's toe stay in-bounds as he completed the takedown and (2) did Whalen touch off the mat at all. The rule in college wrestling is that you are in-bounds if any part of your body is in the cylinder (which extends to the sky, like breaking the plane in the end zone), but the rubber mat is a hard limit because in many places there's a hard floor or other obstruction like the scorer's table. In international wrestling, the hard limit is the edge of the circle, but individual moves that start in the ring can finish outside of it as long as the motion is continuous.(EDIT: The cylinder/off the mat challenge was on a takedown by Davis in the Heavyweight match. It was called a TD on the mat and confirmed after both an Official's review and Coach's challenge.)

They don't announce what they are reviewing, which is very annoying. I thought it was for the toe, a colleague from the wrestling forum who I was sitting near thought it was the off-the-mat call. There was another sideline takedown that we thought was being called OOB but was actually not given because the clock hit 0 in the round (I think in the Foca match? I was sitting next to a very fired up Foca dad, who runs a highly-regarded wrestling gym in NJ. UPDATE: see below.) If you can tell me the time stamp of the match, I can answer better. (Fernandez' semi starts at 2:27:30 here.There's another move at ~9:12:05 in the final here that Fernandez wasn't given credit for because he started the move in bounds but they rolled on the ground and Fernandez didn't get control until they were off the mat.)

UPDATE: I think you mean the call at around 9:19:22 in the finals; that was the call where Fernandez looked like he scored a takedown at the end of the second period. You can see Kellen Russell, a Cornell assistant coach begging the ref to check the clock. In the ref's estimation, Fernandez doesn't have control while Wasilewski is still in the splits, and by the time he fully has control, the round is over. The ref probably doesn't check the call because there is a guy who follows the ref around starting at ~:10 in the round who audibly counts down the clock and says "TIME" when it hits 0. The move I described in the parenthetical above is when they lost the Coach's Challenge brick. The toe-drag on the edge doesn't seem to be a Fernandez match and I don't remember who it was anymore. I think it was in the finals, though.

Ivy automatic qualifiers:

Cornell: 10
Penn: 6
Princeton: 5
Columbia: 5
Brown: 0
Harvard:0

Still some guys who can/will get at-large bids. Incontrera (Penn 174 the most obvious).

So it was the finals vs Wasiewski

First right at he beginning Fernadez took him down and I think they rule no control in bounds or something Cornell challenged and the TV guys though it was good for pts

but the one I questioned was the 2nd one atAt about 9:18 of the finals the end of the 2nd period

I’ve only seen Stoudt against Dellegatta, but I’m surprised (per Ugarte) that Stoudt’s not considered a contender for the podium. He’s looked quite skilled and strong in manhandling Dellegatta both times, so I assume 197 is a deep weight, including our former stud Cardenas who’s doing his 5th year at Michigan and won the Big 10 yesterday.

Cardenas on Cornell this year Would help in the team race

upprdeck
Cardenas on Cornell this year Would help in the team race

Well, yeah, but he graduated! I'm rooting for him to take the national title. He's almost certainly going into the tournament as the top seed after finishing the regular season at #3 and avenging losses against the two wrestlers ranked ahead of him to win the Big 10 title. 2021 champ AJ Ferrari has emerged from the ashes of his own misbehavior in Stillwater wrestling for CSUB and is also in the running for a top seed. All four are incredible wrestlers.


I know you mean your point in the context of Ivy rules but tbh I don't even think about that anymore. Guys graduate then wrestle someplace else. It's the water we swim in and I don't belabor it outside of the context of a specific discussion regarding the utility of the rule itself.

At 184, the ref ruled that Hale had reversed back over Foca (which is why Foca was down on the restart), but Hale did not realize it, and got penalized for locking hands which he is allowed to do in the neutral position, but not when he is on top.

Ugarte, Thanks for your excellent coverage.

nshapiro
At 184, the ref ruled that Hale had reversed back over Foca (which is why Foca was down on the restart), but Hale did not realize it, and got penalized for locking hands which he is allowed to do in the neutral position, but not when he is on top.

THANK YOU! To the extent it was explained at Jadwin, the ref appeared to say "stalling" (which is repeated on Arena) and that just didn't make sense. A lot of confusion in our seats, and I was sitting right in front of Foca's dad while it was going down. He's a well-respected coach and while he is a liiiiiiittle too biased to totally rely on him while a match involving Cornell and especially Chris is going on, that review had us all flummoxed.

The ILT officials do not make good use of the PA to communicate the reasons for a challenge or their rulings, even in the finals when there aren't multiple mats going and it could be distracting.

OK, I've watched this again and it was a stalling call. Hale doesn't lock his hands; he's grabbing his opposite wrist. You can see the ref counting out the swipes for holding on to an ankle to prevent an escape and he blows the whistle to stop action for the stalling. The review was because Penn wanted back points for the time that Foca was upside down from the reversal but even in slow mo it looks like he rolled off his back immediately.

ugarte
Oh baby. What a day. All that jibber-jabber about at-large analysis? WHO CARES! Wrestlers at 10 weights and we qualified everyone for NCAAs. Our worst finish was third place. We won five out of ten weights outright. Cornell took the team title, clinching at 184 with a win in Sudden Victory over second place Penn (but we would have won outright anyway after winning at Heavyweight). So, let's talk about it.

Fun fact: Cornell hosted the 1964 NCAA Wrestling Championships at Barton Hall. I can't recall if any Cornell wrestlers competed, but if any did, they didn’t reach the podium. As I recall, Iowa State had a slew of wrestlers there wearing robes like prize fighters. It was pretty intimidating as they walked in.
.

Chuck Bush at 115 was the 4 seed lost in the quarters to the 5 came in 5th

Geoff Stephens 157 unseeded had a good run got the quarters lost to the 2 seed and came in 6th

we had several others in it

ncaa at cornell

Final subjective/outside rankings of the season.

Leaving the last regular season CR and RPI in place but I'm adding a slash for the post-tournament RPI approximation on Wrestlestat. It's different than their ELO ranking and may give some predictive insight on seeding.

SHP isn't updating his DII until later in the week. WIN and BEG haven't published at the time I decided to do this but I'll update as necessary.

No more Ivy rankings because the ILT is over and we've got all our bids. No more dual rankings because ... who cares! All that's left is the big tournament.

                Flo	WIN*	IM	TOM	AWN	BEG*	WSt	SHP*	CR   RPI
125: Milani 	NR	--	29	NR 	NR	--	62	--	NR   26/30
133: Ferrara	27	--	30	NR	NR	--	32	--	31   28/21
141: Saunders	21	--	23	20	19	--	28	--	26   30/23
149: Fernandez	16	--	16	19	15	--	21	--	23   23/23
157: Shapiro	 2	--	 2	 1	 1	--	 1	--	 2   xx/ 3*
165: Ramirez	 5	--	 4	 3	 4	--	 5	--	 5   16/10
174: Ruiz	11	--	10	 8	 9	--	11	--	12   15/ 9
184: Foca  	 6	--	 5	 6	 6	--	 7	--	 8    4/ 8
197: Mike D.	25	--	24	NR	19	--	27	--	21   23/18  
285: Davis 	NR	--	29	NR	NR	--	45	--	NR   32/14 
TEAM NCAA:	 9	--	T8	 7	xx	--	 8	--	 9   --

Flo ranks to 33. Not much movement, but Foca took a little hop from 8 to 6 and Fernandez moved up a few notches. Flo put the top three Ivy 149s at 15/16/17. Milani doesn't make the top 33, even over the kid from CSUB who he might face in the pigtail. Neither does Davis, but since they don't respect his Ivy competition either... Check out Davis's RPI, though.
WIN ranks to 20. TK?
Intermat ranks to 33. Milani and Davis get nods from IM. Tick up for Foca, Ruiz and Fernandez. Slight pop in tournament projection (tied with Northern Iowa).
Open Mat ranks to 20. Fernandez back in the rankings, Saunders barely hangs on. Little bumps for Fernandez and Ruiz. Team slips a little in the tournament projection.
AWN ranks to 20. Saunders returns to the rankings and Fernandez hops in at 15. One-space moves here and there.
BEG Rank to 33. TK?
WrestleStat ELO updated.
SHP DII (explainer)
CR and RPI 3d CR and 2d RPI from 2/27. NCAA team coaches' poll from 2/23.

Re: all 10 wrestlers NCAA qualifying…has that ever happened at Cornell before? Is it easier to do now that the ivies split from the EIWAs?

Also, that EIWA trophy that Lehigh won is comically large. It looks bigger than the MacNaughton Cup. Can the Ivy tournament make our trophy as big as a small car just to punctuate that?

upprdeck
Chuck Bush at 115 was the 4 seed lost in the quarters to the 5 came in 5th

Geoff Stephens 157 unseeded had a good run got the quarters lost to the 2 seed and came in 6th

we had several others in it

ncaa at cornell

Thanks for providing the brackets. In addition to Bush and Stephens, I found Neal Orr (no relation to Harry or Ian) at 123, Warren Crow 130, Tom Jones 137, Carl Capra 147, Fran Ferraro 177, Mike Whittenberg 191 and Bob Buchwald 191. So nine in all - not bad.

Weight classes have vastly changed as well

RichH
Re: all 10 wrestlers NCAA qualifying…has that ever happened at Cornell before? Is it easier to do now that the ivies split from the EIWAs?

Technically, we did it last year for the first time, but with a caveat. Vince Cornella (141) got injured in the second round of the EIWA tournament and had to medically forfeit out. He was selected for an at-large bid but was unable to attend because he didn't recover in time. But for the injury, we probably would have qualified all 10 last year in the EIWA.

As for whether it will be generally easier or harder... it's too soon to tell. It would have been harder to do that this year, since at the very least heavyweight is tougher in EIWA. The top two heavies in EIWA are ranked much higher than Davis and the #3, who became the starter late in the year, has a pretty good comparative resume. Finishing in 4th may have been good enough for an at-large, though. 125 also becomes less likely; he needed one upset to get to the top-3 in a three-bid conference but 3-5 are all pretty close. He'd have needed to finish top-5 in a bigger bracket. He'd be in a similar situation but a bigger bracket is more opportunity for a dud.

George64

upprdeck
Chuck Bush at 115 was the 4 seed lost in the quarters to the 5 came in 5th

Geoff Stephens 157 unseeded had a good run got the quarters lost to the 2 seed and came in 6th

we had several others in it

ncaa at cornell

Thanks for providing the brackets. In addition to Bush and Stephens, I found Neal Orr (no relation to Harry or Ian) at 123, Warren Crow 130, Tom Jones 137, Carl Capra 147, Fran Ferraro 177, Mike Whittenberg 191 and Bob Buchwald 191. So nine in all - not bad.

Yes, an entry in every weight class except Unlimited. Cornell has has a strong wrestling program for a long time. Unfortunately there have been no team national championships, unlike Cornell College, as the guy who used to show up at the adjacent table at college fairs pointed out to me multiple times.

Seeds are out...

125: [32] Milani starts in a pigtail match vs [33], winner faces #1
133: [29] Ferrera
141: [20] Saunders
149: [18] Fernandez
157: [2] Shapiro
165: [5] Ramirez
174: [5] Ruiz
184: [6] Foca
197: [27] Dellagatta
285: [29] Davis

It's late. No real time for a preview. Couple of notes. In general... I hate the draws we have. HATE. Our seedings are all fair but I hate the paths our better guys have ahead of them.

Shapiro has one of last year's finalists on tap in the second round. Teemer has been hurt most of the year and hasn't been great since his return, which accounts for his seed, but it's a terrible landmine.

Ramirez is a senior who has finished one match short of AA three years in a row. He has a tough QF match and if he loses, a lot of his likely opponents in the blood round are tricky.

Ruiz is going to face a guy who whipped his ass a few weeks ago in the second round. If he loses again, his likely opponent is someone else who beat him earlier this year. Bad draw!

Foca's draw from the 6 seed is bad all around. He's got a strong 11 seed from Iowa in the second round and one of the potential opponents in his most likely blood round is his only loss of the season.

We've had a good year but tbh the strength of schedule for our guys was pretty weak. I have a lot of faith in our hammers from 157-184 but damn... we did not get easy paths.

ugarte
Seeds are out...

125: [32] Milani starts in a pigtail match vs [33], winner faces #1
133: [29] Ferrera
141: [20] Saunders
149: [18] Fernandez
157: [2] Shapiro
165: [5] Ramirez
174: [5] Ruiz
184: [6] Foca
197: [27] Dellagatta
285: [29] Davis

I'll update as I go ...

125: Milani pigtail (play-in): I thought Milani was gassed, especially when he was saved by the clock at the end of the third period. In SV, he staved off an attack and a lot of top pressure, but after Milani got back to his feet, he countered an attack with an ankle pick and was able to convert the takedown for a clutch win. His reward is #1 Lilledahl, but getting a win at all is sweet. He'll get some recovery time before he has to wrestle his "first round" match. Milani W 4-1 (SV).

133: Romney gets the first takedown; Ferrara escapes after :40. Ferrara gets in on a single leg but Romney's long arms grab a leg and nearly turns around the position before they return to neutral. Ferrara out off of the whistle in R2. Ferrara throw-by and gets behind - no TD given, Cornell challenge... lost. Damn. At least a stall was called on Romney for rolling OOB. Romney E quickly in R3. ESPN not showing the clock anymore. Another Romney stall... still down 4-3... keep up the pressure... with time running out Ferrara tries a big throw but doesn't have position and Romney slips his head out and ends up on top. Ferrara L 7-3. Solid match against a very good opponent.

141: Saunders facing the 13 seed from Gardener-Webb; technically the lower seed but I considered this our best draw of anyone. Saunders gets the first takedown. Good ride; hard to tell how long because the on-screen clocks aren't working. Saunders E. Saunders TD on a counter ... rideout for major? Clocks are back, so he needs another minute... Inexplicable locked hands call with 18 seconds left. Saunders lets him up to try for the major... no. Saunders W 8-2.

149: Fernandez forced into a rematch with Princeton's Whalen, who he upset in the Ivy semis. Fernandez never got going. Whalen scored first and it was the only TD of the match. Fernandez L 4-3.

157: Shapiro scores a TD off the whistle. Castillo E. Shapiro cartwheels over for another TD. 2NF. 8-1 after 1. Shapiro E. Another TD. Another TD... to his back... NF4. Shapiro WTF 20-2.

165: Ramirez with the first TD on a go-behind. Church E. Ramirez with another TD on the edge. Ramirez out quick to start R2. Church out quick to start R3. Ramirez counter to go behind for another TD. Ramirez WMD 11-2.

174: Ruiz attacks with a high-crotch single and doubles off for the TD. Ruiz out quickly to start the second. Whiting attacks but Ruiz counters for TD. Kept attacking, kept taking down. Ruiz 17-2 WTF.

184: Foca escapes a second consecutive first round disaster. Gives up the first TD but gets a reversal. Starts on bottom, gets another reversal to go up 4-3 plus RT. In the third, after starting at neutral he gives up a leg and has to hold off the takedown for what felt like forever before the final whistle sounded. Foca W 5-3.

197: Dellagatta was taken apart but kept it to a MD instead of a tech. Dellagatta LMD 21-0.

285: Davis was stuck facing Lehigh's Trephan again. Trephan is too fast and too strong. Davis LTF 17-2.

125: I didn't notice it as it was happening, but Milani had his first round match with Lilledahl and, as expected, was run through. Milani LTF 19-4.

That wraps up the first round. With 6 wrestlers moving on to R16 and some heavyweights still on the mat, Cornell is sitting in 8th place overall. Next round starts at 7E.

Evening session:

R16:

141: [20] Saunders v [4] Koderhandt (Navy) Oof. Shortly after an escape to take the lead, Saunders gets whipped over to hs back and pinned early in the second period. Saunders LBF 3:32.

157: [2] Shapiro v [18] Lovett (CMU) Shapiro with the first TD then gives one back on a slick underhook from Lovett. Shapiro with the escape and TD in the second before riding hard the whole third period. Shapiro W 9-4.

165: [5] Ramirez v [12] Minto (Nebraska) Ramirez escaped danger twice in the first period and I'm still not sure how. Started the second on bottom and escaped quickly. Big scramble off of Ramirez's shot and Ramirez ends up in horrible position gives up the TD and 4NF at the end of the period. Goes down 7-1 at the end of 2. Starts on top goes for a big turn can't get it; cuts with a minute left. Tries to duck and gets taken down. Upset in the second round again. Ramirez LMD 11-1.

174: [5] Ruiz v [12] Ogunsanya (UNC) (used to go to Columbia; he wrestled Ramirez a bunch) Ruiz pressuring forward forces a stall call on Ogunsanya. No score in the first. Ruiz starts on bottom and is out quickly. Ogunsanya gets an ankle but Ruiz stuffs his head and gets the stalemate. 1-0 after 2. Ogunsanya out but Ruiz attacks and gets a takedown on the edge to go up 4-1. Ogunsanya out. Ruiz doing a great job tying up Ogunsanya's arms and holds on. Ruiz 4-2 W. 4 seed gets upset, so he's got the 13 seed instead but that's no walk in the park; DeVos is a returning AA.

184: [6] Foca v [11] Arnold (Iowa) Right off the start, Arnold goes for a big move. Foca stuffs him and puts him on his back for a 7-0 lead and came within inches of a fall before Arnold bellied out. Arnold E, but Foca has over 2:00 RT. Foca goes down but Arnold concedes the escape. Foca with a double and go-behind for another 3. Arnold starts neutral. Foca backs out for a stall warning. With RT, Foca WMD 12-1.

Consolation:

125: [32] Milani v [17] Gallagher (Penn) - Milani couldn't do anythinig offensively. Milani L 5-1. He's out but won't go home empty handed, since he won his prelim.

133: [29] Ferrara v [20] Boarman (UTC) Ferrara with a quick escape and a takedown, but he's bleeding from the top of his head. Boarman with a reversal on the restart but Ferrara escaped quickly... and is bleeding again. I see a headwrap in his future. Ferrara gives up a quick escape. Ferrara gives up a late stall but had a stall to give. Ferrara W 5-3.

149: [18] Fernandez v [31] Cartella (NW) Fernandez got an early takedown and rode those points to victory despite getting ridden the entire third period. Fernandez W 3-1.

197: [27] Dellagatta v [22] O'Malley (Drexel) O'Malley seemed to be pushing Dellagatta around, but with 30 seconds left in the first round, Delly took a shot then fought through a funky scramble position for a TD and rode out the period. In the second, he started on bottom and hit a switch for a quick reversal. Riding hard and O'Malley looks worn out. Around 2:30 of RT heading to the third. O'Malley chooses neutral. Another shot and another TD for Dellagatta to go up 8-0 with RT locked. O'Malley gets called for stalling on bottom a couple of times and with RT, Dellagata WMD 10-0.

285: [29] Davis v [20] Greer (Ohio U.) Davis draws first blood with a TD late in the first and rides out the period. Greer did not want to go underneath again and chose neutral. Davis takes down and is out fast. Davis with another TD and Greer finally gets off bottom. Davis takes another shot for the major... no. Stalemate. Davis W 7-1.

With that win by Davis, everyone on Cornell contributed to the team score. I love that. Nine wrestlers still alive heading into Friday. Incredible work from the Big Red.

After day 1, Cornell is in 8th place with 17 points, but 4th has 18 and there's a tie for 9th with 16.5. I don't think 4th gets a team trophy anymore because - and I am pretty sure this is true - the NCAA didn't want to pay for 4th place trophies across sports.

Day 2

QF - win and you're an AA:

157: [2] Shapiro v [7] Vinny Zerban (N.Colo.)
174: [5] Ruiz v [11] Cade DeVos (SD St.)
184: [6] Foca v [3] Max McEnelly (Minn.)

Cons. Round 2 - lose and you're done. Three wins to AA.

133: [29] Ferrara v [3] Nasir Bailey (UALR)
141: [20] Saunders v [19] Mosha Schwartz (Okla.)
149: [18] Fernandez v [17] Jaden Abas (Stanford)
165: [ 5] Ramirez v [27] Tyler Lillard (Indiana)
197: [25] Dellagatta v [11] Stephen Little (UALR)
285: [29] Davis v [14] Gavin Hoffman (LHU)