STORY LINES:
• The Cornell wrestling team will be thoroughly tested this weekend when No. 25 Drexel and No. 9 Missouri visit the Friedman Wrestling Center for dual matches.
• Both contests will be available on the Ivy League Digital Network and locally on 1160 ESPN Ithaca with Will LeBlond on the call.
• At 4-1, Cornell resumes its dual match schedule with three of its final four non-league foes ranking among the top 25 before it attempts to claim an unprecedented 15th consecutive Ivy League title.
• The Big Red last competed at the Southern Scuffle, finishing eighth overall despite missing four starters - including a pair of top-seeded competitors in Dylan Palacio at 157 and Brian Realbuto at 174.
• The top-seeded wrestler who did compete, senior Gabe Dean, continued to dominate and rewrite the record books.
• Dean cruised to a fourth straight Scuffle title, joining former Big Red great Kyle Dake and Minnesota's Cole Konrad as the only wrestlers to earn four championships at the event.
• He won three of his four matches by bonus points, including two falls, and controlled the final over No. 6 Nolan Boyd of Oklahoma State 5-2, handing Boyd his third straight defeat against the two-time national champion after giving Dean his lone loss of 2015-16.
• Dean, a leading candidate for the Hodge Trophy, has dominated all season long and has won 13 of his 19 matches this season by fall with seven victories over wrestlers ranked in the top 20 — including six bonus point wins.
• He enters the weekend with 136 career wins, good for sixth place all-time at Cornell, and can move to fifth and surpass four-time NCAA champion Dake for fifth with a weekend sweep.
• Also placing was 157-pounder Taylor Simaz, who finished sixth after grinding through the back draw after losing a first round match.
• Senior Owen Scott (sixth) and sophomore Ben Honis (seventh), who continue to jockey for the starting spot at 197 pounds, rounded out four place-winners.
• The Big Red has big goals — Cornell is eyeing yet another top five team effort at NCAAs and has a number of wrestlers with national championship and All-America aspirations.
• Dean, 2015 NCAA finalist and two-time All-American Brian Realbuto, and 2016 All-American Dylan Palacio headline an experienced and talented lineup.
• In addition, two-time NCAA qualifier Mark Grey (133) and 2016 NCAA qualifier Joey Galasso (149) join first-year starters Noah Baughman (125), Will Koll (141) and Brandon Womack (165) in the regular lineup.
• Senior Craig Scott and 2016 NCAA qualifier Jeramy Sweany are competing for the top spot at heavyweight, while Honis and Owen Scott are jockeying at 197.

THE STREAKS:
• Cornell has won 10 consecutive EIWA team titles, the longest streak in conference history.
• Head coach Rob Koll's teams have racked up 14 Ivy League titles in a row, the longest title streak in any sport in conference history.
• Cornell has won 73 consecutive Ivy League dual meets dating back to the 2001-02 campaign.
• The Big Red has crowned at least one EIWA champion in each of the last 15 seasons and in 25 of the last 26 years.
• The Big Red is 51-1 (.981) in its last 52 duals against current EIWA competitors dating back to 2010-11.
• Cornell is 90-4-1 (.953) in dual meet action against current EIWA teams dating back to 2004-05, including 82-0 against teams other than Lehigh.
• Cornell has placed in the top five at the NCAA championships in six of the last eight seasons and in the top 10 in 12 of the last 14 years (nine straight).
• Cornell is 98-21-1 (.821) in dual meet competition in the last seven seasons.
• The Big Red is 38-5 (.884) in its last 43 home duals dating back to the 2009-10 season.
• Big Red wrestling has won 70 consecutive dual meets against unranked teams dating back to the beginning of the 2007-08 season.
• Cornell has won 32 straight meets against New York state opponents.
• The Big Red has claimed a record five consecutive New York State team titles.

ABOUT DREXEL:
• Drexel is off to a 7-2 start that includes a win over nationally ranked Princeton, as well as victories over Army West Point, Michigan State and Columbia.
• The Dragons went 10-7 a season ago and was 6-3 in EIWA dual meet action.
• The Dragons lineup features a pair of nationally ranked wrestlers in No. 11 Kevin Devoy Jr. (13-5) at 133 and 18th-ranked Matt Cimato (13-7) at 149.
• Heavyweight Joey Goodhart, an NCAA qualifier in 2016, is 12-6 on the season with four wins by fall, while 184-pounder Stephen  Loiseau (9-4),165-pounder Austin Rose (13-6) and 125-pounder Zack Fuentes (6-4, 2016 NCAA qualifier) have also been impressive and expect to be factors in the EIWA.
• Former Big Red assistant coach Matt Azevedo is in his sixth season as head coach of Drexel and sports a 47-60 record entering the weekend.

THE CORNELL-DREXEL SERIES:
• Cornell leads the all-time series 9-1-1 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 6-0-1 in its last seven, including last year's 37-3 triumph at Newman Arena.
• Drexel's only win over the Big Red came in a 22-14 Dragons victory in Princeton, N.J. during the 1985-86 campaign.

LAST TIME VS. DREXEL:
• Cornell won nine matches, including five with bonus points to cruise past Drexel 37-3 on Nov. 21, 2015 at Newman Arena.
• Cornell's four returning mainstays, Nahshon Garrett, Duke Pickett, Brian Realbuto and Gabe Dean, each had strong wins, with three earning bonus point victories.
• Garrett posted a tech fall at 133, while Pickett won a strong 9-3 decision after dropping a weight class from a year ago.
• Realbuto turned Nick Elmer for a second period fall and Dean scored at will in his 16-8 major decision victory at 184.
• Cornell's four freshmen made their debut with three coming away with a win and the fourth dropping a decision to a nationally ranked foe.
• Dalton Macri's takedown, the only one of the match, was enough for a 3-2 decision over Zack Fuentes at 125, while Will Koll dominated from the whistle at 141 en route to a tech fall over Anthony Canfora.
• In what might have been the most exciting match of the night, Jeramy Sweany earned a late takedown and rode out Joey Goodhart for a 4-3 victory at heavyweight.
• While Realbuto earned a fall in the dual victory, Chris Dowdy plowed through Mike Communale at 157, bringing his shoulders to the mat just 1:26 into the match to ignite the crowd and extend the team lead to 19-3, taking back the momentum after No. 16 Matt Cimato earned a 6-0 decision over Joe Galasso at 149.
 
ABOUT MISSOURI:
• Heading into Thursday's Mid-American Conference dual meet at Buffalo, the Tigers sport a 5-2 record that includes wins over nationally ranked Virginia Tech and Appalachian State.
• Its losses have come to nationally ranked opponents Ohio State (30-9) and Oklahoma (24-18), both on the road.
• Missouri features seven nationally ranked wrestlers, including five ranked in the top 10 headlined by defending national champion and Olympic medalist J'den Cox at 197 pounds.
• Others ranked in the top 10, include Lavion Mayes (No. 4 at 149), Daniel Lewis (No. 7 at 165), Joey Lavallee (No. 7 at 157) and Jaydin Eierman (No. 10 at 141), while both John Ernest (No. 15 at 133) and Barlow McGhee (No. 17 at 125) are both ranked among the top 20.
• Head coach Brian Smith, a five-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 and has a career record of 242-94-3.

THE CORNELL-MISSOURI SERIES:
• Missouri leads the all-time series 6-2 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), took a 22-12 victory at the Grapple at the Garden in 2012 and earned a 27-9 victory the last time it visited Ithaca in 2015.
• 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.
• Missouri needed a tech fall in the final match of the dual and some lineup maneuvering to eek out an 18-17 win over the Big Red last season in Columbia, Mo.

LAST TIME VS. MISSOURI:
• After Brian Realbuto won a toss-up decision at 174 pounds to give Cornell a 12-10 lead with three matches, two favoring the Big Red on paper, Missouri had to put its trust in its upper weights to keep its 34-match dual meet win streak alive.
• That trust was well-placed - barely.
• Both teams won five matches, but No. 4 Missouri (7-0) won a pair of bonus point matches and that was the difference in an 18-17 victory over No. 14 Cornell (1-3) on Jan. 10, 2016 at Jesse Hall Auditorium.
• The Big Red won two-of-three matchups between nationally ranked wrestlers, but it was Missouri's decision to avoid a fourth that likely allowed it to end the day with a victory.
• Heading into what was expected to be a spotlight matchup between No. 1 Gabe Dean and No. 4 Willie Miklus at 184 pounds, the Tigers pulled their ranked wrestler in favor of brother Tim Miklus.
• Dean, who is 3-0 all-time against the older brother, dominated the match with an 18-1 technical fall to push Cornell's lead to 17-10 heading into the final two matches.
• Missouri tactically moved Willie Miklus up to 197 pounds, while second-ranked J'den Cox at 197 moved to heavyweight with both wrestling unranked competitors.
• Cox rode a boisterous crowd in the auditorium to the tech fall victory and the team win.
• Dalton Macri earned a 7-6 upset over No. 8 Barlow McGhee to begin the dual, with nationally ranked Nahshon Garrett (No. 1 at 133), Brian Realbuto (No. 6 at 174)

NEXT UP:
• The Big Red closes out the regular season non-conference dual schedule when it visits Lehigh on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 2 p.m.
• Cornell will also welcome Lock Haven to the Friedman Wrestling Center the following day for a 1 p.m. match.