ITHACA, N.Y. -- Sophomore
Yianni Diakomihalis topped third-ranked Joey McKenna in the night's feature bout at 141 pounds, but sixth-ranked Ohio State used its strength in the upper weights to top No. 9 Cornell 25-9 on Friday evening at Newman Arena. Freshman Vito Arujau (125) and junior
Chas Tucker (133) also topped ranked opponents, but the Buckeyes won the night's first seven matches and never looked back to improve to 12-2. Cornell fell to 13-3 with the loss.
In front of a large and boisterous crowd that served to benefit the Ithaca Hospicare, Diakomihalis ignited the crowd with a pair of first period takedowns on his way to a 7-5 win over McKenna to clinch his 20th win of the season without a loss. That came on the heels of consecutive Big Red wins that woke up a crowd that watched the Buckeyes run out to a 25-0 lead after seven matches.
Arujau dominated No. 17 Malik Heinselman at 125 to get the Big Red on the board, and 13th-ranked Tucker used an escape in tiebreakers after riding out sixth-ranked Luke Pletcher at 133 to capture his third straight win over a ranked grappler.
The Big Red lost a pair of one-point decisions and dropped all seven contests to ranked Buckeye wrestlers. In the other two matches between top 10 wrestlers, No. 1 Myles Martin earned a 13-6 decision over No. 7
Max Dean at 184, while second-ranked Kollin Moore earned a 14-4 major decision win over No. 7
Ben Honis at 197.
Next up for the Big Red is the EIWA Tournament beginning on Friday, March 8 at Binghamton's Events Center.
#6 Ohio State 25, #9 Cornell 9
149: #3 Micah Jordan (OSU) won by technical fall over Will Koll (Cor), 23-8 (7:00)
157: #6 Ke-Shawn Hayes (OSU) won by major decision over
Adam Santoro (Cor), 14-5
165: #12 Te'Shan Campbell (OSU) won by decision over
Andrew Berreyesa (Cor), 8-2
174: #19 Ethan Smith (OSU) won by decision over #14
Brandon Womack (Cor), 5-4
184: #1 Myles Martin (OSU) won by decision over #7
Max Dean (Cor), 13-6
197: #2 Kollin Moore (OSU) won by major decision over #7
Ben Honis (Cor), 14-4
285: #11 Chase Singletary (OSU) won by decision over
Jeramy Sweany (Cor), 6-5
125: #8
Vitali Arujau (Cor) won by decision over #17 Malik Heinselman (OSU), 6-0
133: #13
Chas Tucker (Cor) won by decision over #6 Luke Pletcher (OSU), 2-1 (tb1)
141: #1
Yianni Diakomihalis (Cor) won by decision over #3 Joey McKenna (OSU), 7-5
