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When it comes to Ivy League competition, for more than a decade Cornell wrestling has been nearly untouchable. Their quest for a 13th consecutive Ancient Eight crown begins Saturday when the seventh-ranked Big Red visits Harvard and Brown. The matches can be viewed with a subscription to the Ivy League Digital Network, with Jeremy Menard calling the action on ESPN Ithaca (1160 AM/107.1 FM).

Cornell will be attempting to continue its dominance in the all-time series against both teams when it faces the Crimson at 1 p.m. at the Malkin Athletic Center (Big Red leads the series 52-9 with 12 straight wins) and the Bears at 6 p.m. at the Pizzitola Sports Center (Big Red leads the series 51-2 with 17 consecutive wins).

The Big Red enters conference dual meet season having won 63 consecutive dual meets against Ancient Eight foes dating back to the 2001-02 campaign. Its 12 straight championships is already an Ivy record - no program has won more consecutive titles in the same sport.

Coming off its first dual meet loss of the season last weekend to Missouri, the Big Red has its sights set squarely on getting the entire roster healthy in time for championship season. The Big Red has wins over nationally ranked Oklahoma, North Carolina State and Edinboro, won its third consecutive New York State title, went a perfect 3-0 at the Journeymen/ASICS Northeast Duals, placed fifth at the Las Vegas Invitational without the services of four starters and was 2-0 at the Grapple at the Garden. The Big Red has done all that without between two and four starters all season. Seven starters remain ranked among the nation's top 20 wrestlers at their respective weight classes.

Sophomore Gabe Dean is nearly unanimously ranked No. 1 in the country at 184 pounds and remains among a handful of national title contenders at the weight after rolling through the Southern Scuffle, including pinning previous No. 1 Max Thomusseit of Pitt in the finals. Junior Nahshon Garrett, the defending national runner-up at 125 pounds, is ranked in the top three of every national poll and is 15-2 with seven wins over nationally ranked wrestlers, five by bonus wins. Senior Chris Villalonga is 15-1 this season at 149 pounds and is ranked sixth nationally, though he has missed the last two weekends of competition.

A pair of sophomores, Brian Realbuto (157) and Dylan Palacio (165), are working their way back into the championship pictures at their respective weight class. Realbuto, who is recovering from an injury suffered at last season's NCAA tournament, made his first appearance of the season at the Scuffle and has gone 4-2 with two wins over Missouri's 10th-ranked Joey Lavallee. Palacio, who spent the fall with the Big Red men's soccer team, went 2-0 at the Grapple at the Garden and is 6-2 on the season thus far.

THE STREAKS:
• Cornell has placed in the top five at the NCAA championships in five of the last six seasons and in the top 10 in 10 of the last 12 years.
• Cornell has won eight consecutive EIWA team totals, the longest streak in conference history.
• The Big Red has crowned at least one EIWA champion in each of the last 13 seasons and in 23 of the last 24 years.
• Cornell is 77-14-1 (.842) in dual meet competition in the last six seasons.
• Cornell has won 63 consecutive Ivy League dual meets dating back to the 2001-02 campaign.
• The Big Red has won 35 straight duals against current EIWA competitors dating back to 2010-11.
• Cornell is 74-3-1 (.955) in dual meet action against current EIWA teams dating back to 2004-05, including 68-0 against teams other than Lehigh.
• The Big Red is 29-3 (.906) in its last 32 home duals dating back to the 2009-10 season.
• Big Red wrestling has won 54 consecutive dual meets against unranked teams dating back to the beginning of the 2007-08 season.
• Cornell has won 25 straight meets against New York state opponents.
• Cornell has won six consecutive EIWA championships at 125 pounds (Troy Nickerson in 2009, 2010; Frank Perrelli in 2011, 2012; Nahshon Garrett in 2013, 2014), the most consecutive in one weight class by any school since Lehigh won at 177 pounds from 1974-81, a record eight straight seasons.

ABOUT HARVARD:
• At 1-2 on the season, the Crimson will be opening Ivy League competition after beginning its dual meet campaign last weekend with narrow losses to Maryland (21-18) and American (22-19) and a win over VMI (31-12).
• The Crimson had a ninth-place showing at the Keystone Classic and was 17th at Midlands.
• Harvard features a pair of nationally ranked wrestlers in No. 17 Todd Preston at 141 and No. 9 James Fox at 197. Both will be favored in their respective matches.
• Fox placed third at Midlands and was second at the Binghamton Open and is 11-2 on the season.
• Preston is an impressive 16-5 on the year with a perfect 3-0 mark in duals.
• Harvard head coach Jay Weiss is a two-time EIWA Coach of the Year and has directed two NCAA champions during his 21 seasons on the sidelines.

THE SERIES WITH HARVARD:
• Cornell leads the all-time series 52-9 dating back to their first meeting in 1946-47.
• The Big Red has won 12 consecutive dual meets between the teams, posting an average margin of 33-9 (398-110) in those meets.
• Harvard's last win came during the 2000-01 season, a 28-13 victory in Cambridge, Mass.

LAST TIME VS. HARVARD:
• With four nationally ranked starters sitting out among the first five spots in the lineup, few would have blamed Cornell head coach Rob Koll if he had trepidation about what the halftime score might look like in the Ivy League-opening dual against Harvard.
• The Big Red won three of those matches and entered the break with a 16-3 lead to set his mind at ease.
• In the end, Cornell coasted with its 59th consecutive Ivy League dual match win with a 33-6 triumph over the Crimson at the Friedman Wrestling Center on Jan. 18, 2014.

ABOUT BROWN:
• Brown is 1-3 in dual matches to open the season, topping Menlo (40-6) and dropping contests to Cal Poly (28-11), Cal-Bakersfield (24-13) and Stanford (27-9) during a recent swing through California.
• Ophir Bernstein has been ranked among the top wrestlers in the country at 184 pounds and has posted a 19-10 record. The returning All-American placed eighth at NCAAs a season ago.
• Bernstein became the fourth Brown All-American in program history and the first in 16 years.
• Justin Staudenmayer at 157 pounds has his sights on an Eastern title and an NCAA bid. He has posted a 23-5 overall mark and enters the weekend with a perfect 4-0 mark in duals.
• Second-year head coach Todd Beckerman led the Bears to a 3-11 mark a year ago and a 16th place finish at the EIWA meet.

THE SERIES WITH BROWN:
• Cornell has a decisive 51-2 edge in the all-time dual meet series with Brown and has won 17 consecutive matchups.
• The Bears last defeated the Big Red 19-16 on Feb. 15, 1997.

LAST TIME VS. BROWN:
• Freshman Mark Grey and senior Mike Nevinger earned consecutive pins to help Cornell build a 16-0 lead after three matches and the Big Red swept through the lineup to knock off Brown 38-0 on Jan. 25, 2014 at Friedman Wrestling Center.
• The Big Red improved to 6-0 on the season and won its 60th consecutive Ivy League match dating back to 2002.
• The Big Red led 23-0 after five matches and cruised to its 16th straight win over the Bears.

RECAPPING THE MISSOURI DUAL:
• No. 5 Missouri won the first four matches of the dual to build a 17-0 lead and never looked back, picking up a 27-9 triumph over No. 5 Cornell on Jan. 10 at Friedman Wrestling Center in a battle of unbeatens.
• Cornell made a late run, winning three of four matches leading out of the middle weights and punctuated by a pair of top 20 wins.
• Brian Realbuto got Cornell on the board with his 7-4 win over No. 10 Joey Lavallee at 157, his second win in a week and a half over the Tigers' star at that weight as he continues his comeback from a knee injury.
• Dylan Palacio also picked up a 9-4 victory over NCAA qualifier Mikey England at 165 to cut the Big Red deficit to 17-6.
• Top-ranked Gabe Dean won a solid 4-2 decision over No. 14 Willie Miklus, who like Realbuto got his second win over Missouri's ranked starter in the last 10 days.
• After forfeiting 125 and moving No. 2 Nahshon Garrett up a weight to 133, the Big Red grappler couldn't take advantage and dropped a 6-2 contest to unranked Zach Synon, who earned a first period takedown to take the lead and never trailed.
• Missouri won major decisions at 141, 149 and 197 and a near-major with a 7-0 triumph at 174 with only five starters competing in their regular spots in the lineup. It was too much to overcome.

NOTES TO KNOW:
• Head coach Rob Koll became the ninth Big Red coach in any sport to reach 250 career victories with a sweep at the Grapple at the Garden. He now sports a 250-81-5 record in dual meets.
• Cornell wrestlers had a strong summer - Nahshon Garrett won the 2014 University Freestyle Nationals, while Gabe Dean was the junior freestyle champion at 84kg/185 pounds to earn a spot on the junior world team.
• The Big Red has had at least one individual NCAA champion in six of the last seven years and at least one finalist in seven straight campaigns.
• The Big Red has had 11 different wrestlers win a combined 16 NCAA titles. Kyle Dake is one of three wrestlers to claim four national crowns (doing it in four different weight classes), while Dave Auble and Travis Lee won two titles each.
• Cornell has had 36 wrestlers earn a total of 68 All-America honors, including 49 total All-Americans since 2002.
• Since Rob Koll took over prior to the 1993-94 campaign, Cornell has had 134 NCAA qualifiers, 48 All-Americans and 11 national champions. In the first 63 seasons of the NCAA tournament, the Big Red had 82 total NCAA qualifiers, 16 All-Americans and five national champions.
• The Big Red's eight NCAA qualifiers took care of business against wrestlers who didn't make it to NCAAs a year ago. The eight went 152-0 against wrestlers who did not qualify for the 2014 NCAAs, with 44 pins, 27 tech falls and 25 major decisions. In all, 63 percent of those wins were bonus victories.
• The Big Red has won 12 consecutive Ivy crowns and 63 straight Ivy matches.
• Cornell's 12 straight Ivy League titles builds on the Big Red's record of consecutive Ivy titles by the same team in a sport. The wrestling team has won two more than Cornell had in men's gymnastics (from 1967-68 to 1976-77) and men's lacrosse (1973-74 to 1982-83) and Princeton in men's lacrosse (1994-95 to 2003-04). 
• Every four-year member of the Cornell wrestling team who has enrolled since 1980 has won at least one Ivy League title during their career.
• The Big Red has crowned at least one EIWA champion in each of the last 13 seasons and in 23 of the last 24 years. Only Lehigh, with 15 straight years with an Eastern champion, has a longer current streak.
• Cornell has had at least three individual EIWA champions in six consecutive seasons.
• Seven different wrestlers have won 30 or more matches last season, a school record.
• At 13-1 in dual meets in 2013-14, Cornell finished in double figures in wins for the fourth straight season and the 16th time in 21 years under Rob Koll.
• In the last five seasons, Cornell wrestlers have won EIWA titles at each weight except 285 pounds. The last heavyweight to stand at the top of the podium was Seth Charles in 1999.
• Cornell has won 25 consecutive dual meets against teams from New York dating back to its last loss, a 16-15 decision to Hofstra at the 2004 National Duals in Cleveland, Ohio.
• The Big Red is 250-81-3 all-time against teams from New York state in its history — Army (11-17-1), Binghamton (7-0), Brooklyn Poly (2-0), Buffalo (6-4), Clarkson (2-0), Colgate (29-2), Columbia (86-13), Cortland (17-1), Geneseo (1-0), Hofstra (17-4), Ithaca (12-3), Long Island (1-0), Manhattan (1-0), NYU (2-0), Queens (1-0), RPI (2-0), RIT (7-0-1), St. Lawrence (0-1), Syracuse (42-35-1), Union (2-1) and Wagner (2-0).
• The Big Red's coaching staff has combined for 11 All-America accolades and three individual NCAA titles at a total of two different weight classes as collegiate athletes.

TALL IVY:
• Since Rob Koll took over the Cornell program in 1993, the Big Red has gone 96-8-1 (.919) in its 105 Ivy League matches.
• Over that same span, Penn is next best at 85-19-1, followed by Brown (45-59-1).
• Rounding out the field is Columbia 40-65, Harvard 35-69-1 and Princeton 12-93.
• Dating back to the 2002-03 season (12 years), Cornell's perfect 60-0 record laps the competition. Penn is second-best at 45-15, followed by Columbia 29-31, Brown 19-40-1, Harvard 17-42-1 and Princeton 9-51.
• Current Cornell wrestlers are 90-30 in Ivy League dual matches (.750).
• Regular starters Nahshon Garrett at 125 (9-0), Mike Nevinger at 141 (11-3) and Chris Villalonga at 149 (11-1) are a combined 31-4 all-time (.886) against Ivy competition in duals.
• Nevinger (5-0) and Dylan Palacio (5-0) were perfect in Ivy League dual matches this season while competing in each match. Nahshon Garrett and Gabe Dean were both 4-0, while Mark Grey and Brian Realbuto each went 3-0. Both Jace Bennett and Jacob Aiken-Phillips went 4-1 in conference action.

NEXT UP:
• Cornell hits the road to open Ivy League season, heading to both Harvard and Brown on Saturday, Jan. 17.
• The Big Red will wrestle the Crimson at 1 p.m. in Cambridge, then will drive 55 miles south to Providence, R.I. to wrestle the Bears at 6 p.m.
• Cornell has a 52-9 all-time series lead against Harvard, including 12 straight victories.
• The Big Red is 51-2 against the Bears and has won 17 consecutive duals.