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Two teams with very real national championship aspirations square off in a mid-season dual meet when No. 4 Cornell plays host to No. 5 Missouri on Saturday, Jan. 10 at 2 p.m. at the Friedman Wrestling Center. The match 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 is off to a 6-0 dual meet record that includes wins over nationally ranked Oklahoma, North Carolina State and Edinboro, and continues to point toward the spring while getting its championship lineup ready. With between two and four starters out of the lineup for much of the fall, the Big Red has continued to stay competitive with the very top tier of teams in the nation. The Big Red 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. 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 15-1 with seven wins over nationally ranked wrestlers, five by bonus wins. He will have a chance to avenge his only loss of the season when he faces No. 2 Alan Waters, who defeated him in the Scuffle finals 3-1 last week. Senior Chris Villalonga is 15-1 this season at 149 pounds and is ranked sixth nationally, though he is not expected to wrestle this weekend.

A pair of sophomores in Brian Realbuto (157) and Dylan Palacio (165) are both working their way back into the championship pictures at their 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 went 3-2 with a win 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 5-2 on the season thus far.

Cornell finished sixth as a team at the Southern Scuffle, four spots behind tournament runner-up Missouri. The Tigers will bring eight nationally-ranked wrestlers into Saturday's dual. In all, four matches will feature ranked grapplers competing against each other highlighted by No. 2 Waters vs. No. 3 Garrett at 125 and No. 9 Realbuto vs. No. 10 Lavallee at 157.
 
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 77-13-1 (.852) 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 29-2 (.935) in its last 31 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 MISSOURI:
• At 12-0 in dual meets this season, Missouri joins Cornell (6-0) as two of six unbeaten teams in the nation (Iowa  - 7-0; Minnesota - 6-0; Penn State 5-0; Oregon State 3-0).
• Missouri features eight nationally ranked wrestlers, including a pair ranked No. 2 in the country in their weight class (Alan Waters at 125 and J'den Cox at 197).
• Four others rank in the top 10, including Drake Houdashelt (No. 4 at 149), Lavion Mayes (No. 6 at 141), Johnny Eblen (No. 7 at 174) and Joey Lavallee (No. 10 at 157).
• Missouri captured three individual titles (Alan Waters at 125, Lavion Mayes at 141, J'den Cox at 197) and finished second overall at last weekend's Southern Scuffle. In all, seven wrestlers finished on the podium.
• Dating back to last season, the Tigers have won 16 straight dual meets, the longest streak in school history.
• Head coach Brian Smith, a three-time conference coach of the year, spent five seasons as assistant coach at Cornell under both Jack Spates and current Big Red mentor Rob Koll.

THE SERIES WITH MISSOURI:
• Missouri leads the all-time series 4-2 in a series that started in 2002.
• The Tigers won that first meeting in Ithaca, 27-12, at Newman Arena on Feb. 23, 2002.
• Missouri also won duals in Columbia, Mo., in 2008 (21-13) and Ithaca in 2009 (18-14) before taking a 22-12 victory at the Grapple at the Garden in 2012.
• Cornell earned its first win over Missouri at the 2010 National Duals in Cedar Falls, Iowa (23-15), then pulled out an 18-15 decision a year later at the Duals.

LAST TIME VS. MISSOURI:
• Missouri won a 22-12 decision at the first-ever Grapple at the Garden on Dec. 16, 2012, despite wins by Chris Villalonga (149), Jesse Shanaman (157), Kyle Dake (165) and Steve Bosak (184) in the middle of the lineup.
• Dake, who was named Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Meet, topped No. 13 Zach Toal 5-0.
• Villalonga upset No. 17 Drake Houdashelt, 2-1, and Bosak held off a challenge from No. 8 Mike Larson, 4-0.
• Missouri won six bouts and earned bonus points at 133 and 197 to secure the victory.
 
RECAPPING THE SOUTHERN SCUFFLE:
• Gabe Dean likes to put on a show in the Southern Scuffle finals.
• Three Big Red wrestlers placed as Cornell finished sixth in the team standings at the Defense Soap & Flips Wrestling Southern Scuffle on Jan. 1-2, but no one made more of an impact than Dean.
• The sophomore showed the wrestling world not to judge him on one bad weekend, pinning top-ranked Max Thomusseit of Pitt in the finals at 184 pounds to capture his second straight Scuffle title.
• A year ago, Dean ended Ed Ruth's 84-match win streak, toppling the multi-time Penn State national champion in front of the McKenzie Arena crowd.
• While Dean got back on track, junior Nahshon Garrett surrendered a third period reversal and dropped a competitive 3-1 decision to third-ranked Alan Waters of Missouri in the finals.
• Garrett had rung up major decisions over No. 17 Tim Lambert of Nebraska in the quarters and No. 10 Tyler Cox of Wyoming in the semis.
• Jace Bennett was the third Cornellian on the podium, getting a medical default in the fifth place match.After dropping his first round match at 197 pounds, Bennett won six straight bouts in the wrestlebacks.
 
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 250-80-5 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.
 
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.