QUICK HITS
• The eighth-ranked Big Red wrestling team will kick off its non-league season when Drexel visits Newman Arena on Saturday, Nov. 21 at 12:30 p.m. at Newman Arena.
• You can watch Saturday's dual meet against the Dragons live on the Ivy League Digital Network or listen on the radio at ESPN Ithaca 1160 AM/107.1 FM with Keith Raad on the call.
• The Big Red is coming off an outstanding effort at the Jonathan Kaloust Binghamton Open, winning titles in half of the 10 weight classes (Nahshon Garrett at 141, Chris Dowdy at 157, Duke Pickett at 165, Brian Realbuto at 174 and Gabe Dean at 184) and taking a second (Jake Taylor at 197), two thirds (Joe Galasso at 149 and Jeramy Sweany at heavyweight), a fourth (Dillon Artigliere at 165) and a fifth (Will Koll at 141).
• The Big Red has set its sights high — with the NCAA Championships set for New York City's Madison Square Garden, Cornell squarely believes it should be in the mix for its first team title.
• Returning national champion Gabe Dean (184 pounds) headlines an experienced and talented lineup that includes three-time All-American Nahshon Garrett (133) and 2015 national runner-up Brian Realbuto (174), both of whom moved weights this season.
• Cornell starts the season with five nationally ranked wrestlers in the lineup with four freshmen who haven't had a collegiate dual yet and missing All-America candidate Dylan Palacio at 157 as he finishes the season with the Big Red soccer team.
• The Big Red opens its home dual meet season against the same team it closed its dual meet season against a year ago — Drexel.
• Cornell defeated Drexel 35-6 in the first round of the National Duals this past February, improving to 8-1-1 all-time.
• The Dragons, under fifth year head coach Matt Azevedo, a former Big Red assistant, has a 32-53 dual meet record.
• One of the key matches for the Big Red will come at 149 pounds, where up-and-comer Joe Galasso will have a chance for a win over a top 20 wrestler and NCAA qualifier Matt Cimato - both of whom enter the weekend with 9-1 records on the year.
• The Big Red will turn its attention to the New York State tournament on Sunday and will be looking to claim its fourth consecutive title in the event.
• A year ago, the Big Red crowned three individual champions and finished with 144.5 team points, narrowly outpacing second-place Hofstra (144 points).
• Duke Pickett (174), Gabe Dean (184) and Jace Bennett (197) all won titles in the A bracket, while Jacob Aiken-Phillips (third, heavyweight) and Jake Taylor (third, 174) also finished in the top three.
 • Cornell head coach Rob Koll is in his 23rd season at Cornell (261-82-5, .757; 101-8-1 Ivy, .923).
• He is the David R. Dunlop '59 Head Coach of Wrestling at Cornell.
• The all-time winningest wrestling coach in program history, Koll has guided the Big Red to 13 straight Ivy League titles (16 overall), nine consecutive EIWA crowns and eight top five NCAA team finishes, including second twice (2010, 2011).
• He was the 2005 NWCA Division I Coach of the Year and the Dan Gable Coach of the Year.
• His wrestlers have won 12 national titles with 56 All-Americans and 51 individual EIWA champions.

THE STREAKS
• Cornell is 88-15-1 (.851) in dual meet competition in the last six seasons.
• Cornell has won 68 consecutive Ivy League dual meets dating back to the 2001-02 campaign.
• Cornell has placed in the top five at the NCAA championships in six of the last seven seasons and in the top 10 in 11 of the last 13 years (eight straight).
• The Big Red has won 44 straight duals against current EIWA competitors dating back to 2010-11.
• Cornell is 83-3-1 (.960) in dual meet action against current EIWA teams dating back to 2004-05, including 75-0 against teams other than Lehigh.
• The Big Red is 33-3 (.917) in its last 36 home duals dating back to the 2009-10 season.
• Big Red wrestling has won 62 consecutive dual meets against unranked teams dating back to the beginning of the 2007-08 season.
• Cornell has won nine consecutive EIWA team titles, the longest streak in conference history.
• The Big Red has crowned at least one EIWA champion in each of the last 14 seasons and in 24 of the last 25 years.
• Cornell has won 27 straight meets against New York state opponents.
• Cornell has won seven consecutive EIWA championships at 125 pounds (Troy Nickerson in 2009, 2010; Frank Perrelli in 2011, 2012; Nahshon Garrett in 2013, 2014, 2015), 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 DREXEL
• Drexel is off to a 2-2 start after consecutive victories over Campbell (21-15) and Cal Poly (28-12) after dropping decisions to West Virginia (26-7) and Arizona State (27-6) to open the year.
• The Dragons went 8-14 a season ago and was 5-3 in EIWA dual meet action.
• Matt Cimato is ranked No. 16 nationally at 149 pounds and is off to a 9-1 start on the season, including a perfect 4-0 mark in dual meets.
• Nick Elmer is 3-1 in dual meets at 174 pounds and will get his chance to pull an upset of 157-pound national runner-up Brian Realbuto of Cornell.
• Former Big Red assistant coach Matt Azevedo is in his fifth season as head coach of Drexel and sports a 32-53 record entering the weekend.

THE SERIES WITH DREXEL
• Cornell leads the all-time series 8-1-1 dating back to the 1977-78 season when the teams first met, a 28-9 Big Red win in Ithaca.
• The Big Red won the first three duals and has gone 5-0-1 in its last six.
• Drexel's only win over the Big Red came in a 22-14 Dragons victory in Princeton, N.J. during the 1985-86 campaign.
 
THE BIG RED AT THE NEW YORK STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
• Cornell first competed at the championships in 1979, sending a B team to compete and finishing ninth overall.
• The Big Red won its first title in 1992, claiming six champions in the 10 weight classes.
• Cornell has won 78 individual titles over the years and has won 10 team titles, second to only Army West Point (13) and one ahead of Buffalo (nine).
• Other teams to have won NYS titles are Syracuse (5), Brockport (3), Binghamton (2), Hofstra (2), Columbia (1) and St, Lawrence (1).
• The Big Red will be looking for its fourth straight title, one behind Buffalo's record of five from 1974-78.

LAST TIME AT THE NEW YORK STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
• Cornell (144.5 points) put a limited number of competitors into the field, but still claimed its third straight New York State championship, nipping Hofstra (144) and Army (128.5) in a tight team race.
• The Big Red won three individual A bracket titles, two more in the B bracket, and ended the tournament with a cumulative record of 62-20.
• Cornell claimed championships in the A bracket at 174 (Duke Pickett), 184 (Gabe Dean) and 197 (Jace Bennett), with Dean especially dominant in his run through the field.
• The nation's No. 1 wrestler won three matches by tech fall and the other two by major decision by at least 10 points.
• Pickett won three straight decisions, including a 3-2 win over Army's Brian Harvey in the final, while Bennett won his first two matches by first period fall before capturing tighter decisions in the semifinals and finals, including a 5-2 triumph over Buffalo's Joe Ariola for first place.
• In the B bracket, both Chris Dowdy (157) and Billy George (184) won titles with perfect 5-0 records against the field.
 
DUAL DOMINANCE
• Cornell finished 17-2 last season in dual meets with wins over six nationally ranked teams (No. 4 Minnesota, No. 11 Lehigh (twice), No. 12 Edinboro, No. 21 Oklahoma and No. 23 North Carolina State).
• Individual wrestlers recorded a 130-59 record in duals (one double forfeit).
• Three Big Red regulars posted perfect records in dual meets, with Gabe Dean leading the way with an 18-0 mark. In addition, Dylan Palacio went 13-0 and Brian Realbuto was 12-0.
 
TALL IVY
• Since Rob Koll took over the Cornell program in 1993, the Big Red has gone 101-8-1 (.923) in its 110 Ivy League matches.
• Over that same span, Penn is next best at 89-20-1, followed by Brown (45-64-1).
• Rounding out the field is Columbia 42-68, Harvard 36-73-1 and Princeton 15-95.
• Dating back to the 2002-03 season (13 years), Cornell's perfect 65-0 record laps the competition. Penn is second-best at 49-16, followed by Columbia 31-34, Brown 19-45-1, Harvard 18-46-1 and Princeton 12-53.
 
NOTES TO KNOW
• The Big Red finished the 2014-15 dual meet season with a 17-2 record, the third-highest total in school history. Cornell won a record 21 matches during the 1991-92 campaign.
• The Big Red has had at least one individual NCAA champion in seven of the last eight years and at least one finalist in eight straight campaigns.
• The Big Red has had 12 different wrestlers win a combined 17 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 37 wrestlers earn a total of 72 All-America honors, including 52 total All-Americans since 2002.
• Since Rob Koll took over prior to the 1993-94 campaign, Cornell has had 143 NCAA qualifiers, 52 All-Americans and 12 national champions. In the first 63 seasons of the NCAA tournament, the Big Red program had 82 total NCAA qualifiers, 16 All-Americans and five national champions.
• 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 last season. He now sports a 261-82-5 record in dual meets.
• Cornell wrestlers have won at least 20 total matches in eight straight NCAA tournaments and 12 of the last 13.
• The Big Red has won 13 consecutive Ivy crowns and 68 straight Ivy matches.
• Cornell's 13 straight Ivy League titles build on the Big Red's record of consecutive Ivy titles by the same team in a sport. The wrestling team has won three more than Cornell had in men's gymnastics (from 1967-68 to 1976-77) and men's lacrosse (1973-74 to 1982-83), as well as 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 14 seasons and in 24 of the last 25 years. Only Lehigh, with 16 straight years with an Eastern champion, has a longer current streak.
• Cornell has had at least three individual EIWA champions in seven consecutive seasons.
• In the last six 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.
• The Big Red is 252-81-3 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 (87-13), Cortland (17-1), Geneseo (1-0), Hofstra (18-4), 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.
 
WOMACK WINS NWCA ALL-STAR CLASSIC
• Brandon Womack, a six-time Alabama state champion in high school, debuted for the Big Red with an 8-3 victory over American's Jason Grimes, Jr. at 174 pounds in one of the Showcase Matches at the 50th NWCA All-Star Classic on Nov. 1.
• Second period nearfall points gave the Big Red freshman the victory at the national showcase that featured a number of experimental rules, including a three-point takedown.
 
HOW TO FOLLOW CORNELL
• There are numerous way to follow the Big Red through the 2015-16 wrestling season.
• Wrestling dual meets will be broadcast on ESPN Ithaca 1160 AM/107.1 FM for the 2015-16 season. Keith Raad will spend his first year on the call with the play-by-play.
• The Big Red's home contests will all be broadcast live with streaming video as part of the IvyLeagueDigitalNetwork subscription service. Visit www.IvyLeagueDigitalNetwork.com for all the latest information on Cornell broadcasts.
• You can follow the team on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Highlights, interviews and features on all 37 of Cornell's varsity sports can be found at www.youtube.com/cornellathletics, www.facebook.com/cornellathletics or www.twitter.com/cornellsports.

60TH SEASON OF IVY LEAGUE ATHLETICS
• Throughout the 2015-16 season, the Ivy League will be celebrating its 60th season with impactful content across IvyLeagueSports.com, The Ivy League Digital Network and the League's social media outlets.
• Be on the lookout for the #IvyAt60 hashtag to keep up the coverage of the League's 60th season.
 
NEXT UP
• Cornell returns to action on Sunday, Nov. 29 when the Big Red visits New York City for the Grapple at the Garden.
• The Big Red will face a pair of top 20 teams, squaring off with No. 7 Nebraska at 9:45 a.m., then hitting the mats again at 11:45 a.m. to meet No. 15 Rutgers.
• This will be Cornell's fourth appearance in the Grapple at the Garden, with the Big Red posting a 4-2 record in duals at MSG in the previous three trips to New York City, home of the 2016 NCAA Championships.