PROBABLE STARTERS FOR #3 VIRGINIA TECH

Wt.	Wrestler
125	#13 Joey Prata (13-6)
133	#14 Collin Gerardi (9-5)
141	Mitch Moore (10-6)
149	#22 Bryce Andonian (12-2)
157	#13 B.C. LaPrade (8-3)
165	#3 David McFadden (14-2)
174	Cody Hughes (8-6)
184	#2 Hunter Bolen (16-1)
197	Stanley Smeltzer (8-10)
HWT	#17 John Borst (13-5)

HEAD COACH ROB KOLL
• Cornell head coach Rob Koll is in his 27th season at Cornell (311-98-5, .757; 122-8-1 Ivy, .935)
• 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 17 straight Ivy League titles (20 overall), 11 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 16 national titles with 71 All-Americans and 64 individual EIWA champions.

ABOUT RUTGERS
• Rutgers moved up two spots in the NWCA rankings this week to #22 following a split weekend in the Big Ten that featured a 22-13 loss to Ohio State and a 25-12 victory over Michigan State last Sunday.
•The Scarlet Knights have four wrestlers ranked by FloWrestling.
• Sammy Alvarez is the highest-ranked wrestler on the team coming in at #11 at 133 pounds. Alvarez owns an overall record of 17-4 this season with a 5-2 record in duals.
• Nicolas Aguilar checks in at #15 at 125 pounds thanks to a 16-4 overall record and an undefeated 4-0 record in duals.
• Jordan Pagano is #18 at 197 pounds with a 15-5 overall record and a 4-2 mark in duals.
• Billy Janzer broke into the Flo rankings for the first time this week, checking in at #25 following a weekend in which he beat Michigan State's Cameron Caffey.
• Other wrestlers potentially in the lineup for Rutgers on Friday include Malcolm Robinson (125), JoJo Aragona (141), Zach Firestone (141), Gerard Angelo (149), Nick Santos (149), Michael Van Brill (157), Brett Donner (165), Joe Grello (174), Willie Scott (!74), Matthew Correnti (197) and Alex Esposito (HWT).
• Reigning national champion at 133 pounds, Nick Suriano, is taking an Olympic redshirt for Rutgers this season.
• Rutgers will raise banners in honor of Suriano and Anthony Ashnault's national championships on Friday, both were Rutgers' first national champions in program history.

ABOUT VIRGINIA TECH
• Owns an undefeated dual record at 6-0 heading into a weekend in which they will face Binghamton and Cornell. Will meet Binghamton on Saturday afternoon.
• Virginia Tech has seven wrestlers ranked by FloWrestling and nine ranked by at least one major rankings service.
• Hunter Bolen is Virginia Tech's highest ranked wrestler, ranking #2 at 184 pounds by FloWrestling. Bolen is currently 16-1 and hasn't lost in a dual this season. Only loss is to Northern Iowa's Taylor Lujan at the Cliff Keen, which he avenged in the consolation bracket.
• David McFadden ranks #3 at 165 pounds with a 14-2 record (5-1 duals). McFadden has only lost to Iowa's Alex Marinelli and Ethan Smith of Ohio State.
• Joey Prata (125) and B.C. Laprade (157) both check in at #13 this week. Prata is 13-6 with a 4-2 mark in duals, while LaPrade is 8-3 overall and 5-1 in dual matches.
• Collin Gerardi is ranked #14 by FloWrestling at 133 pounds, owning a 9-5 tally for the season and a 5-1 record in duals.
• Heavyweight John Borst is consistently ranked #17 by FloWrestling, InterMat and TrackWrestling.
• Bryce Andonian enters the FloWrestling rankings this week after winning the 149 pound spot in the Hokie lineup.
• Reigning national champion at 165 pounds, Mehki Lewis, is taking an Olympic redshirt for Virginia Tech this season. Lewis is Virginia Tech's first NCAA champion.

LAST TIME OUT
• The Big Red split last weekend, going 1-1 in duals against Lehigh and Columbia.
• Cornell was defeated by Lehigh, 19-14 in a dual that came down to the final weight. Chas Tucker, Hunter Richard, Jonathan Loew and Ben Darmstadt all collected wins for Cornell.
• Cornell bounced back with a 27-12 victory over Columbia later that same day, extending the Ivy League winning streak to 89 duals.
• Dom LaJoie, Tucker, Noah Baughman, Richard, Andrew Merola, Milik Dawkins, Loew and Brendan Furman all picked up victories.
• Tucker, Richard and Loew all went 2-0 last Saturday, with Richard picking up major decisions in each of his two wins.

THE STREAKS
• Cornell has placed in the top 10 at the NCAA championships in 15 of the last 17 seasons following the first top 10 season of the Rob Koll era (2002-03).
• The Big Red has crowned at least one EIWA champion in each of the last 18 seasons and in 28 of the last 29 years.
• The Big Red is 63-4 (.940) in its last 67 duals against current EIWA competitors dating back to 2010-11.
• Cornell is 111-6-1 (.945) in dual meet action against current EIWA teams dating back to 2004-05, including 99-0 against teams other than Lehigh.
• Head coach Rob Koll's teams have racked up 17 Ivy League titles in a row, the longest title streak in any sport in conference history.
• Cornell has won 89 consecutive Ivy League dual meets dating back to the 2001-02 campaign.
• Cornell is 123-27-1 (.818) in dual meet competition in the last 10 seasons.
• The Big Red is 56-11-1 (.831) in home duals dating back to the 2009-10 season.
• Big Red wrestling is 95-1 in dual meets (.989) against unranked teams dating back to the beginning of the 2007-08 season - the lone loss coming last season in a 20-16 defeat to North Dakota State at the South Beach Duals that snapped a 77-match win streak against unranked opponents.
• Cornell has won 37 straight meets against New York state opponents.
• Cornell has put three or more wrestlers on the NCAA podium for 17 straight seasons, dating back to 2003.

TEAM NOTES TO KNOW
• The Big Red has won 17 consecutive Ivy crowns and 89 straight Ivy matches.
• Cornell's 17 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 four 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.
• Cornell went 43-7 in individual Ivy matches in 2018-19, its best showing since going 43-6 during the 2010-11 campaign.
• The Big Red outscored its first five Ivy League opponents by a 196-26 margin.
• Head coach Rob Koll became the eighth Big Red coach in any sport to reach 300 career victories with a win at Brown on Jan. 26, 2019 and now sports a 304-93-5 record in dual meets.
• Since the Friedman Wrestling Center opened in January of 2003, the Big Red is 78-115-1 in dual matches (.835) there.

BIG RED QUALIFY TWO FOR OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS
• Yianni Diakomihalis and Vito Arujau each qualified for the 2020 Olympic Team Trails following a pair of top-5 finishes at the 2019 U.S. Senior Nationals, hosted at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas, Dec. 20-22.
• Alongside Cornell wrestling alumni, Kyle Dake '13 and Nahshon Garrett '16, Diakomihalis and Arujau are set to compete at the trials, held April 4-5, 2020 at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pa.
• Arujau placed third at 57kg following wins over Desmond More, Zach Sanders and Nick Suriano. Arujau's lone loss of the event came against eventual champion, Spencer Lee.
•Diakomihalis took fourth at 65kg, defeating Mario Mason, Nick Dardanes, Ben Whitford and Bryce Meredith. Diakomihalis' lone competition loss of the event came against Joey McKenna, 6-5, in the semifinals. In the third-place bout, Diakomihalis forfeited to Nick Lee.
• Andrew Berreyesa and Max Dean have yet to qualify for the team trials and will have one more chance to qualify, at the Last Chance Qualifier held in Millersville, Pa. on March 26-28.

BREAKING GROUND
• Cornell wrestling broke ground on an estimated 5,500 sq. ft. addition to the Friedman Wrestling Center on Thursday, Dec. 26.
• The new addition, to the rear of the existing building, will add space for locker rooms, a warm-up practice gym, an upgraded fitness space, a film room, a nutrition zone and a lounge, in addition to upgrading several other spaces throughout the facility.
• Construction is anticipated to be done in August 2020.