#8 Cornell (4-1) at #17 Lehigh (4-4)

Date & Time: Saturday, Jan. 8
Venue: Grace Hall (1,788) - Bethlehem, Pa.
Twitter: @CUBigRedGameday | @BigRedWrestling
 

STORY LINES

• Two dominant EIWA rivals will resume their rivalry when Cornell visits No. 17 Lehigh on Saturday, Jan. 8 at 2 p.m. at Grace Hall.
• The dual will be broadcast live on FloWrestling.
• After missing the 2020-21 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Big Red is in hot pursuit of regaining its Ivy League and EIWA titles and is prepared to make a mark at nationals.
• Cornell is ranked eighth nationally in the latest USA Today/NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll and with nine of its grapplers ranked in the top 33 according to Intermat.
• The Big Red has set its sights high — with the NCAA Championships set for Detroit, Mich. in March, Cornell believes it should be in the mix for yet another top 10 team finish.
• Standing in Cornell's way is four-time defending EIWA champion Lehigh. 
• Cornell has finished in the top 10 at every championship (excepting the 2021 championship when the Big Red didn't compete) since 2008, joining Iowa in making that claim.  
• Back in the lineup after taking Olympic redshirts are All-American Vito Arujau (133) and two-time NCAA champion Yianni Diakomihalis (149).
• Seven previous NCAA qualifiers are on the roster — Arujau (133), Dom LaJoie (133), Diakomihalis (149), Hunter Richard (157), Jonathan Loew (184), Ben Darmstadt (197), Brendan Furman (285).
• Two-time NCAA champion Diakomihalis joins Arujau and Darmstadt as All-Americans back on the roster.
• This weekend's dual could provide significant fireworks starting at 125, where third-ranked Arujau and Lehigh's 14th-ranked Jaret Lane could square off, one of six possible matchups between ranked foes on Saturday.
• The last two duals between the teams have been classics, both decided in the final match of the dual and in sudden victory to boot. 
 

A WIN OVER LEHIGH WOULD ...

• improve Cornell to 4-1 on the season and 1-0 against EIWA rivals — all coming against ranked opponents.
• extend the Big Red's dual meet win streak to six.
• be the eighth victory in the last 11 matchups with the Mountain Hawks, 4-1 in its last five in Bethlehem, Pa.
• narrow Lehigh's lead in the all-time series to 62-34-3.
• be the 840th dual meet win in school history (839-410-20).
 

THE STREAKS

• The Big Red is 76-4 (.950) in its last 80 duals against current EIWA competitors dating back to 2010-11.
• Cornell is 115-7-1 (.939) in dual meet action against current EIWA teams dating back to 2004-05, including 103-1 against teams other than Lehigh (2019 loss at Princeton).
• Cornell has won 92 of its last 93 Ivy League dual meets dating back to the 2001-02 campaign.
• Big Red wrestling is 100-2 in dual meets (.980) against unranked teams dating back to the beginning of the 2007-08 season.
• Cornell is 127-29 (.814) in dual meet competition in the last 11 seasons.
• Cornell is 51-7 (.879) in its last 58 road dual matches.
• The Big Red has crowned at least one EIWA champion in each of the last 19 seasons and in 29 of the last 30 years.
• The Big Red is 57-11 (.838) in its last 68 home duals dating back to the 2009-10 season.
• Cornell has won 38 straight meets against New York state opponents.
• Sophomore Vito Arujau is a perfect 20-0 in dual matches for the Big Red, while junior Yianni Diakomihalis is 31-1.
• Diakomihalis has won 56 consecutive matches, the second-longest streak in program history (Kyle Dake '13 won 77).
 

NOTES TO KNOW

• Cornell's 17 straight Ivy League titles from 2003-19 is a record of consecutive Ivy titles by the same team in a sport. The Big Red 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.
• Since the Friedman Wrestling Center opened in January of 2003, the Big Red is 64-8 in dual matches (.889) there.
• Since the start of Ivy competition, the Big Red is 302-53-1 (.850) with 40 league titles in 64 seasons (13 second place finishes). That's 116 games clear of second-place Penn (183-166-7) and 128 games ahead of Princeton (172-179-5).
• Cornell has won 92 of its last 93 Ivy League dual meets, but is on its first one-match losing streak since 2002 after its 19-13 loss at Princeton on Feb. 9, 2020.
• Prior to stepping on the mat against Stanford on Nov. 20, junior Yianni Diakomihalis hadn't wrestled in a Cornell singlet since winning the NCAA title on March 23, 2019 — a span of 973 days. Same for sophomore Vito Arujau, whose last match came earlier that same morning in the fourth-place match.
 

THE CORNELL-LEHIGH SERIES

• Lehigh leads the all-time series 62-33-3, though Cornell has had the better of it recently.
• Cornell has won seven of the last 10 duals against its EIWA rival despite consecutive wins by Lehigh.
• The series began in 1910, a 5-2 Big Red victory in Ithaca.
• Lehigh snapped a five-match Cornell win streak in the series in 2016 with a convincing 25-13 victory over the shorthanded Big Red, but Cornell rallied from an 17-3 halftime in 2017 in Bethlehem for a 21-20 win behind pins by Brian Realbuto (174) and Gabe Dean (184).
 

CORNELL, LEHIGH DOMINATE EIWA

• Cornell and Lehigh have been the dominant programs in the EIWA for the last two decades, winning 21 of the last 22 championships. 
• The Big Red had won 11 consecutive championship titles (2007-17), sandwiched around the Mountain Hawks winning six of the previous seven crowns and all four since. 
• Lehigh has won four consecutive titles to give in 37 all-time.
• The Big Red's 25 team titles ranks behind only Lehigh's 37, while its 163 individual titles is second only to the Mountain Hawks' 220. 
• The Big Red had its 47-match win streak against EIWA opponents snapped in a 2016 home loss to Lehigh, but sports a 115-7-1 record (.939) against league opponents dating back to 2004-05, including 103-1 against opponents other than the Mountain Hawks (2019 loss at Princeton).
 

NEXT UP

• The Big Red will welcome Army West Point to Ithaca for the first time since 1994 for an EIWA matchup on Saturday, Jan. 15 at 1 p.m.
• The two teams, despite both competing in the EIWA, have not met in a dual in more than a quarter-century.
• The Black Knights lead the all-time series 17-11-1, though Cornell has won two straight.
• Army West Point's last dual meet victory over Cornell came in a 30-6 matchup on Jan. 9, 1988.