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Cornell will challenge itself against two of the EIWA's top teams when it hosts Penn on Saturday, Jan. 24 at 1 p.m. at Newman Arena, then visits No. 11 Lehigh on Sunday, Jan. 25 at 3 p.m. at Leeman Turner Arena. The Penn match can be viewed with a subscription to the Ivy League Digital Network, while Lehigh's match is available for free on the Patriot League Digital network. Jeremy Menard will be calling the action on ESPN Ithaca (1160 AM/107.1 FM) for both duals.

Saturday's dual match against the Quakers will also serve as a fundraiser for Ithaca's Hospicare & Palliative. Donors and supporters have pledged to donate money for every person who attends the dual in Bartels Hall. Please help spread the word that for every ticket sold, you will also be helping raise money for Ithaca's Hospicare & Palliative. If you are unable to make it to the match you can show your support by donating here: http://hospicare.kintera.org/cornellwrestling

The Big Red enters the weekend having won 65 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 in conference history. Cornell is well on its way to competing for its 13th straight Ivy crown, and a win over the Quakers would be a big step in that direction. The Quakers have been the conference's runner-up (or tied for second) in each of those seasons. The winner of the Cornell-Penn dual meet has won the Ancient Eight title in each of the last 28 seasons.

Cornell and Lehigh have been the dominant programs in the EIWA for the last two decades, winning 15 of the last 16 championships. The Big Red has won eight consecutive championship titles after the Mountain Hawks had won six of the previous seven crowns. The Big Red's 22 team titles ranks behind only Lehigh'34, while its 142 individual titles is second only to the Mountain Hawks' 204. Head coach Rob Koll's team enters Sunday's road dual with a 37-match win streak against EIWA opponents, with its last loss coming in Bethlehem, Pa. by a 17-15 margin to Lehigh on Jan. 20, 2011 when Cornell entered Stabler Arena as the No. 1 team in the country.

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 17-1 this season at 149 pounds and is ranked seventh nationally.

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 6-2 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 8-2 on the season thus far.
 
THE STREAKS:
• Cornell is 79-14-1 (.846) in dual meet competition in the last six seasons.
• Cornell has won 65 consecutive Ivy League dual meets dating back to the 2001-02 campaign.
• The Big Red has won 37 straight duals against current EIWA competitors dating back to 2010-11.
• Cornell is 76-3-1 (.956) in dual meet action against current EIWA teams dating back to 2004-05, including 71-0 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 56 consecutive dual meets against unranked teams dating back to the beginning of the 2007-08 season.
• 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 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 PENN:
• The Quakers are 3-3 in dual meet competition this season after sweeping Saturday's home doubleheader over Lock Haven (22-9) and Army (30-6).
• Penn features nationally ranked wrestlers at 149 (No. 16 C.J. Cobb) and 184 (No. 5 Lorenzo Thomas), both of whom will give stern tests to top 10 Big Red wrestlers at their respective weights.
• Thomas is 17-2 on the season, including 4-0 against EIWA wrestlers and 2-2 vs. top 20 competitors. Cobb, meanwhile, is 7-3 on the year.
• It will be Penn's Ivy League opener. Over its last seven seasons, the Quakers have lost just eight Ivy dual meets and only one to a team other than the Big Red. It has finished second each season.
• Head coach Alex Tirapelle is in his first season as head coach at Penn after four seasons as assistant coach at Stanford.

THE SERIES WITH PENN:
• Cornell has a decisive 81-21-1 lead in the all-time series dating back to 1907-08.
• The Big Red has won 12 consecutive dual meets against the Quakers.
• Penn's last win came on Feb. 2, 2002, a 21-9 Quaker victory in Philadelphia, Pa.

LAST TIME VS. PENN:
• The Cornell wrestling team walked into one of the most famed arenas in the country, Penn's Palestra, ready for an epic battle. They walked out like they owned the place.
• The Big Red won all 10 bouts, allowed just one takedown all afternoon and remained unbeaten in Ivy League dual competition with a 32-(-1) win over the Quakers on Feb. 1, 2014.
• Sophomore Nahshon Garrett and senior Mike Nevinger each won their matches by major decisions and the Big Red never trailed in any match until Penn's heavyweight took a 1-0 second period lead over Jacob Aiken-Phillips before the junior pulled out a 3-1 decision.
• With Cornell or Penn at least sharing every Ivy League title since 1987, the Big Red took a huge step toward making sure that string continued while staking a major claim to its unprecedented 12th consecutive Ancient Eight title. In the process, it won its 61st straight Ivy League dual meet and its 32nd consecutive EIWA match.
• The Quakers were docked a point during the 197-pound match due to a second bench warning to account for the odd final score.
 
ABOUT LEHIGH:
• Lehigh is 9-3 in dual meet competition and has won two straight entering a Saturday dual meet at home against Franklin & Marshall.
• The Mountain Hawks feature ranked wrestlers at 133 (No. 11 Mason Beckman), 141 (No. 20 Randy Cruz), 157 (No. 14 Mitch Minotti), 184 (No. 3 Nathaniel Brown) and 197 (No. 13 Elliot Riddick).
• Big Red letter winner, two--year starter and 2012 NCAA qualifier Marshall Peppelman is doing a fifth-year graduate program at Lehigh and is the team's starter at 165 pounds.
• Head coach Pat Santoro is in his seventh season directing the Mountain Hawk program and has a 95-31-1 record in Bethlehem, Pa.

THE SERIES WITH LEHIGH:
• Lehigh leads the all-time series 59-29-3, though Cornell has had the better of it recently.
• Cornell has won three straight against its EIWA rival.
• The Big Red won last year's meeting in Ithaca by a 33-7 final.

LAST TIME VS. LEHIGH:
• It was youth vs. youth when No. 6 Cornell wrestled No. 19 Lehigh on Jan. 12, 2014 at Newman Arena, and the Big Red's young wrestlers came through.
• Behind eight wins, including four by its crew of underclassmen, the home team earned a 33-7 dual meet win over the Mountain Hawks.
• Cornell won the two feature matches before the intermission to take control of the dual, as ninth-ranked Chris Villalonga topped No. 10 Mitch Minotti at 149 pounds, 3-0, and freshman Brian Realbuto upset No. 8 Joey Napoli with an 8-0 major decision.
 
RECAPPING THE OPENING IVY WEEKEND:
• Make it 13 years and counting.
• Cornell wrestling ran its win streak over Ivy League opponents to 65 matches with a road sweep of Harvard (30-8) and Brown (33-9) on Jan. 17, 2015.
• The Big Red won 15-of-18 contested matches during the two duals with 10 coming with bonus points.
• Senior Chris Villalonga (149), junior Jace Bennett (197) and sophomores Brian Realbuto (157), Dylan Palacio (165) and Gabe Dean (184) each picked up a pair of wins on the day.
• Dean earned a major decision and fall in his two victories, while Palacio was especially dominant with a tech fall over Harvard and a fall vs. Brown.
• Bennett had the signature win of the day for Cornell, however, dominating No. 9 James Fox of Harvard from start to finish en route to an 11-0 major decision victory.
 
EIWA RANKINGS:
• Eight of Cornell's 10 starters are ranked among the top four in their respective weights in the latest EIWA rankings.
• As a team, Cornell sits at the top, ahead of Lehigh and Bucknell.
• Ivy League foes Penn (No. 4) and Columbia (No. 6) are ranked among the top six teams.
• Cornell has five wrestlers at the top of their weight classes: Nahshon Garrett at 125, Chris Villalonga at 149, Brian Realbuto at 157, Duke Pickett at 174 and Gabe Dean at 184.
• In addition, Mark Grey is fourth at 133, Dylan Palacio is second at 165 and Jace Bennett is third at 197.
 
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 252-81-5 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 65 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 98-8-1 (.921) in its 107 Ivy League matches.
• Over that same span, Penn is next best at 85-19-1, followed by Brown (45-60-1).
• Rounding out the field is Columbia 40-65, Harvard 35-70-1 and Princeton 12-93.
• Dating back to the 2002-03 season (12 years), Cornell's perfect 62-0 record laps the competition. Penn is second-best at 45-15, followed by Columbia 29-31, Brown 19-41-1, Harvard 17-43-1 and Princeton 9-51.
• Current Cornell wrestlers are 105-33 in Ivy League dual matches (.761).
 
NEXT UP:
• The Big Red will face Princeton (Friday, Jan. 30) and Lock Haven (Saturday, Jan. 30) at Friedman Wrestling Center. Both matches are slated to begin at 6:30 p.m.