Four-time national champion and 2013 Hodge Award winner Kyle Dake joined his alma mater as a volunteer assistant coach in October 2013 and has spent four seasons in the position around training for the World Championships and the Olympic Trials. Dake will continue to train for the Olympics while mentoring the next generation of Big Red champions under the direction of head coach Rob Koll.
Dake is a two-time World Champion, winning world freestyle wrestling titles at 79kg in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, Dake seeks to etch his name in the Big Red record books once again, aiming to represent the United States at 74kg in the Tokyo Summer Olympics.
Dake closed out his historic career in 2013 with an unprecedented fourth national title in a fourth different weight classes. Prior to him, no one had won three titles in three different weight classes. He was named the inaugural Sports Illustrated Male College Athlete of the Year and was a finalist for an ESPY Award in the same category.
The first collegiate wrestler to win four national titles without taking a redshirt season and just the third athlete to claim four national titles, Dake was a three-time EIWA Wrestler of the Year. The Outstanding Wrestler of the NCAA tournament in his final season, he became the third Cornell wrestler to capture that award and the first since Dave Auble in 1960. He wrapped up his amazing career with a 137-4 record, including winning his final 79 collegiate matches, and was a perfect 37-0 with 18 pins as a senior.
After his senior season, Dake made a run to the finals of the World Team Trials, losing in the finals to reigning Olympic Champion Jordan Burroughs. He competed for Team USA at the Rumble on the Rails in New York City’s Grand Central Station and was the lone American to earn a win against Iran. He was named to the EIWA Hall of Fame in 2014.
* Updated March 2020
