IOWA CITY, Iowa -- When Brian Realbuto suffered a devastating knee injury in the All-America round at the 2014 NCAA championships, some might have questioned whether he would ever get back to the same level. If he hadn't already answered that this season, he did so Saturday afternoon at the 2015 Cliff Keen National Duals.

Realbuto upset top-ranked and unbeaten Dylan Ness at 157, swinging a nip-and-tuck match Cornell's way in a 19-17 dual meet victory over Minnesota in the quarterfinals. The win will advance Cornell into the tournament semifinals against host Iowa today at 4 p.m. ET at Carver-Hawkeye Arena and allows them an opportunity to get two more matches on the Big Ten Network against nationally ranked opponents regardless of tonight's result. The win also ended Minnesota's string of three consecutive National Duals titles. The dual was a rematch of last year's tournament championship matchup, won by the Golden Gophers, 24-15.

Realbuto, ranked sixth nationally, controlled the matchup from the opening whistle against Ness, earning the lone first period takedown, earning an escape to open the second and adding a second takedown to build a 5-1 lead. Ness put late pressure on the sophomore, but Realbuto won a scramble for a takedown and two back points late in the third to clinch the 9-3 decision. Sandwiched by Chris Villalonga's 2-1 win over Jake Short at 149 and Dylan Palacio's dominant 17-2 tech fall over No. 17 Nick Wanzek at 165, the three-match run by the Big Red sealed the victory.

Gabe Dean won a dominant 10-4 decision over 13th-ranked Brett Pfarr after a close matchup early in the season. Nahshon Garrett got the Big Red on the right track with a 17-2 tech fall to open at 125, and even a number of the losses were encouraging. Sophomore Mark Grey gave top-ranked Chris Dardanes all he could handle at 133 before dorpping a 7-4 decision. Junior Duke Pickett was just as impressive in defeat, falling 7-5 to fourth-ranked Logan Storley at 174.

---

National Duals Quarterfinals
Feb. 21, 2015 * Carver-Hawkeye Arena (Iowa City, Iowa)
#5 Cornell 19, #4 Minnesota 17
125: #3 Nahshon Garrett (C) won by technical fall over Ethan Lizak (M), 17-2
133: #1 Chris Dardanes (M) won by decision over #16 Mark Grey (C), 7-4
141: #4 Nick Dardanes (M) won by major decision over Logan David (C), 19-10
149: #5 Chris Villalonga (C) won by decision over Jake Short (M), 2-1
157: #6 Brian Realbuto (C) won by decision over #1 Dylan Ness (M), 9-3
165: #11 Dylan Palacio (C) won by technical fall over #17 Nicholas Wanzek (M), 17-2
174: #4 Logan Storley (M) won by decision over #18 Duke Pickett (C), 7-5
184: #1 Gabe Dean (C) won by decision over #13 Brett Pfarr (M), 10-4
197: #5 Scott Schiller (M) won by decision over #9 Jace Bennett (C), 7-1
285: #14 Michael Kroells (M) won by major decision over Jacob Aiken-Phillips (C), 10-1