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Cornell will look to claim its second NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals championship, but to do so will need to win three matches against the nation's best. The Big Red is among the top five teams nationally  that remain alive in the eight-team field. Jeremy Menard will be calling the action of all matches on ESPN Ithaca (1160 AM/107.1 FM), with the semifinals and final broadcast live on the Big Ten Network.

Cornell will take on the challenge of advancing in the national duals with one of the toughest roads possible as the No. 5 seed. The Big Red will open the tournament against No. 4 Minnesota on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 1 p.m. ET. A win would pit them against the winner of No. 1 Iowa and Tennessee-Chattanooga at 4 p.m. ET, a loss would send them home. Two wins would send the team into the finals for the second straight year it kicks off on Sunday, Feb. 22 at 12:30 p.m. ET at Carver Hawkeye Arena.

The Big Red has a long history of appearances at the National Duals, improving to 27-21 (.563) with last weekend's 35-6 home win over Drexel. This is the 15th appearance in the tournament, with Cornell becoming one of just six schools to claim a title when it took home the trophy in 2011. The Big Red has faced quarterfinal opponent Minnesota five times at the tournament, winning once during that championship run (20-16 in the semifinals).

The Ivy League champion Big Red has wins over nationally ranked Oklahoma, North Carolina State, Edinboro and Lehigh, 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 still has not wrestled a dual match this season with its full lineup, where eight 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 22-2 with seven wins over nationally ranked wrestlers, five by bonus wins. Senior Chris Villalonga is 21-2 this season at 149 pounds and is ranked fifth 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 12-2 with three wins over ranked wrestlers. Palacio, who spent the fall with the Big Red men's soccer team, went 2-0 at the Grapple at the Garden and is 13-2 on the season thus far. Junior Duke Pickett, arguably the team's most improved wrestler, climbed into the Intermat top 20 two weeks ago at 174 pounds. He has posted a 24-4 record on the season. Defending EIWA champion and ninth-ranked Jace Bennett is second on the team in wins with his 30-7 record at 197, while 133-pounder Mark Grey is ranked 16th and has posted an impressive 14-6 season despite battling a number of injuries throughout the year.

THE STREAKS:
• Cornell is 86-14-1 (.856) 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.
• The Big Red has won 43 straight duals against current EIWA competitors dating back to 2010-11.
• Cornell is 82-3-1 (.959) 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 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 27 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 MINNESOTA:
• The Golden Gophers, ranked fourth in the latest NWCA Coaches poll, is 12-2 and sports consecutive wins over Maryland and North Dakota State after a two-match losing streak against top 10 teams Iowa and Ohio State.
• Like Cornell, Minnesota has eight nationally ranked wrestlers, including five in the top 10 (Cornell has three) and two (Chris Dardanes at 133 and Dylan Ness at 157) ranked No. 1 in the country.
• Both of the Golden Gophers' top-ranked wrestlers are unbeaten on the season, while nine have at least 15 wins and four have reached the 20-win plateau.
• Minnesota claims dual meet wins over Oklahoma State, Northwestern, Michigan, Rutgers, Illinois and Penn State and won the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
• Three-time national coach of the year J Robinson, in his 29th season as head coach, has won three NCAA titles and has developed 62 All-Americans and 14 national champions.

THE SERIES WITH MINNESOTA:
• Minnesota leads the all-time series 8-2, including a 4-1 record against the Big Red at National Duals.
• The two squads first met during the 1960-61 season, a 16-11 Minnesota win in Minneapolis.
• Minensota, ranked No. 1 nationally last year, won the National Duals with a 24-15 victory over then-No. 4 Cornell in the finals.
• The Big Red's last win came in the 2011-12 season-opening dual at Newman Arena, with the fifth-ranked Big Red topping the third-ranked Golden Gophers 21-16 behind top 10 upsets from Mike Nevinger (141) and Craig Eifert (157) and a pin at 197 by four-time All-American Cam Simaz over second-ranked Sonny Yohn.

LAST TIME VS. MINNESOTA:
• Nahshon Garrett dominated again at the top of the lineup, Dylan Palacio earned an overtime fall and Gabe Dean won a marathon match against a top 10 opponent, but No. 1 Minnesota's depth throughout the lineup was too much.
• The top-ranked Gophers earned a 24-15 dual meet victory over Cornell on Feb. 17, 2014 in the finals of the EAS Sports Nutrition/NWCA Division I National Duals in Columbus, Ohio.
• Garrett and Palacio were joined in the winner's column by Gabe Dean at 184 over nationally ranked Kevin Steinhaus, and Jacob Aiken-Phillips at heavyweight.

CORNELL AT THE NATIONAL DUALS:
• Ths is Cornell's 13th straight appearance in the NWCA National Duals, with the Big Red winning the event during the 2010-11 season.
• Cornell has made 15 overall appearances in the event with a 27-21 record
• The Big Red has faced Arizona State (0-1); Boise State (0-1); Cal State Bakersfield (1-0); Central Michigan (1-0); Cleveland State (1-0); Drexel (1-0); Hofstra (1-1); Illinois (0-1); Indiana (1-0); Iowa (0-3); Iowa State (2-0); Maryland (1-0); Michigan (2-1); Michigan State (0-1); Minnesota (1-4); Missouri (2-0); Nebraska (1-0); Northern Iowa (1-0); Northwestern (0-1); Ohio (1-0); Ohio State (3-2); Oklahoma (2-1); Oklahoma State (0-2); Penn State (1-2); Purdue (1-0); Virginia Tech (2-0); Wisconsin (1-0).
• A year ago, the Big Red advanced to the finals with wins over No. 16 Virginia Tech (34-0) and No. 11 Oklahoma (23-20), before falling to top-ranked Minnesota (24-15).
• Only the elite programs in the country have won the NWCA National Duals, with Oklahoma State and Minnesota each winning eight, Iowa claiming six, Penn State winning two, and both Cornell and Iowa State winning one each.

RECAPPING THE DREXEL DUAL:
• Cornell won the final seven matches to run past Drexel 35-6 in the regional round of the 2015 NWCA Cliff Keen National Duals on Feb. 15 at Newman Arena.
• Junior Nahshon Garrett (125) and sophomore Dylan Palacio (165) each won by fall and six of the eight wins came by way of bonus points.
• Drexel briefly tied the match at 6-6 after wins at 133 and 141, but the Big Red sailed the rest of the way.
• Garrett set the tone early, going right at Zack Fuentes in the 125-pound match and building 12-1 first period lead before pinning him to give Cornell a 6-0 lead and the sophomore his 100th victory in a Cornell singlet.
• Garrett became the 22nd Cornellian to win 100 career matches and the third active wrestler, joining seniors Jace Bennett and Chris Villalonga.

NOTES TO KNOW:
• With a win this weekend, the Big Red would capture its 16th victory of the season. The 15 wins is the most since Cornell went 16-2-1 during the 1998-99 campaign and the fifth-most in school history. Cornell can't match the record of 21 wins from the 1991-92 campaign, as it can only get as high as 18 if it wins the National Duals tournament.
• 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 259-81-5 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 13 consecutive Ivy crowns and 68 straight Ivy matches.
• Cornell's 13 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 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 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.
• 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.
• 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.

NEXT UP:
• Cornell will attempt to claim its unprecedented ninth straight EIWA crown when its team travels to Lehigh for the championships on March 6-7 in Bethlehem, Pa.
• Troy Nickerson (125), Mike Grey (133), Kyle Dake (141), Mack Lewnes (174) and Cam Simaz (197) all won individual titles.
• The last time the EIWA tournament was held at Lehigh, the Big Red crowned five champions and ran away with the title with 160.5 points, well ahead of second place Penn (113).