#12 Cornell (0-1, 0-0 EIWA, 0-0 Ivy) at Collegiate Duals

Date & Time: Monday, Dec. 19 - Tuesday, Dec. 20
Venue: New Orleans Convention Center - New Orleans, La.
Twitter: @CUBigRedGameday | @BigRedWrestling
Watch Live: Pay-per-view on Rokfin
 

STORY LINES

• The Cornell wrestling team will close out the 2022 calendar with three important matchups when it competes at the Collegiate Wrestling Duals over two days beginning on Monday, Dec. 19 at the New Orleans Convention Center in New Orleans, La.
• The Big Red will send eight of its nine ranked wrestlers to the round-robin event that will see Cornell match up with Oregon State and No. 6 Iowa State, then one of three teams — No. 1 Penn State, No. 21 North Carolina or Central Michigan to close out the weekend.
• The two-day event will be broadcast on Rokfin.
• The Big Red took seventh at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational two weeks ago with Vito Arujau (133) and Julian Ramirez (165) both claiming titles.
• Cornell has set its sights high, believing it should be in the mix for yet another top 10 team finish.
• The Big Red has finished in the top 10 at every championship (excepting the 2021 championship when Cornell didn't compete) since 2008, joining Iowa in making that claim.  
• Nine  Big Red wrestlers are ranked in the top 25 of Intermat's rankings entering the week. 
• Cornell won its 18th Ivy League title in the last 19 seasons, but the first under head coach Mike Grey after he won four as a student-athlete and eight more as an assistant coach.
• Cornell is ranked 13th nationally in the latest USA Today/NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll.
• Eight NCAA qualifiers return this season (Dom LaJoie, Arujau, Diakomihalis, Julian Ramirez, Chris Foca, Jonathan Loew, Jacob Cardenas and Lewis Fernandes), including All-Americans Arujau, Diakomihalis and Loew.
 

THE STREAKS

• The Big Red is 85-5 (.944) in its last 90 duals against current EIWA competitors dating back to 2010-11.
• Cornell is 124-8-1 (.936) in dual meet action against current EIWA teams dating back to 2004-05, including 112-1 (.991) against teams other than Lehigh (2019 loss at Princeton).
• Cornell has won 97 of its last 98 Ivy League dual meets dating back to the 2001-02 campaign.
• Big Red wrestling is 108-2 in dual meets (.982) against unranked teams dating back to the beginning of the 2007-08 season.
• Cornell is 136-32 (.810) in dual meet competition in the past 11 seasons.
• Cornell is 54-9 (.857) in its last 63 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 63-12 (.840) in its last 75 home duals dating back to the 2009-10 season.
• Cornell has won 41 straight meets against New York state opponents.
• Junior Yianni Diakomihalis is 41-2 and sophomore Vito Arujau is 27-1 in dual meets during their careers.
• Diakomihalis' recently snapped 75-match win streak will go down as the second-longest streak in program history (Kyle Dake '13 won his final 77 matches).
 

SERIES NOTES

• Oregon State leads the all-time series between the Big Red by a 2-1-1 margin, breaking a tie with a 23-20 victory in the last meeting on Jan. 27, 2013 in Ithaca.
• Iowa State has a 5-4 edge over the Big Red, though Cornell has won the last two matchups (30-16 at Cornell in 2011 and 28-11 at Iowa State in 2012).
• Penn State (57-11-3) leads the all-time series, while Cornell owns leads over North Carolina (6-2) and Central Michigan (4-0).
 

WORLD CUP

• Senior Yianni Diakomihalis '23 and volunteer assistant coach Nick Gwiazdowski both came home with gold medals after helping Team USA win the Men's Freestyle World Cup this past weekend at the Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa.
• The United States won the finals over Iran 6-4 to claim the gold, with three-time NCAA champ Diakomihalis falling in a narrow 5-4 decision against 2022 world champion Rahman Amouzadhalili. 
• That came on the heels of Team USA's 10-0 sweep of Georgia that featured an 11-0 tech fall over 2016 World silver medalist Beka Lomtadze at 65 kg. 
• He opened the tournament with a 10-3 loss to world bronze medalist Tulga Tumur Ochir of Mongolia in a 7-3 U.S. team win.
• Gwiazdowski was a team member at 125 kg, but did not see action.
• It was the 15th time the U.S. has won the event and the first time since 2018. 

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 70-9 in dual matches (.886) there.
• Since the start of Ivy competition, the Big Red is 307-53-1 (.852) with 41 league titles in 65 seasons (13 second place finishes). That's 119  games clear of second-place Penn (187-170-7) and 128.5 games ahead of Princeton (178-171-5).
• 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.
 

LAST TIME OUT

• Vito Arujau (133) and Julian Ramirez (165) each claimed individual titles, two others reached the podium and the Cornell wrestling team finished an impressive seventh at the 2022 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational that concluded on Dec. 3.
• The Big Red's 83.5 points was a point better than Ohio State and Oregon State in the battle for seventh.
• Without three starters and despite losing two others on the first day of competition due to injury, Cornell held its own in one of the nation's most competitive tournaments.
• In addition to Arujau and Ramirez, Chris Foca took third at 174 pounds, suffering his only loss of the tournament in a 3-2 nailbiter against No. 2 Mekhi Lewis of Virginia Tech, while unranked Brett Umgar grabbed seventh with four wins seeded grapplers on the weekend.
• Arujau knocked off three top 25 wrestlers, including controlling his finals match over Michael McGee of Arizona State in a 6-1 triumph to earn the title. He also topped Virginia Tech's top-10 ranked Sam Latona in the semifinals by the identical score.
• Ramirez had a statement weekend, dropping three ranked grapplers, including an 8-2 victory over Ivy rival Josh Ogunsanya in the semis before a dominant 17-1 triumph over Tanner Cook of South Dakota State, picking up the tech fall with more than 30 seconds remaining in the first period.
• He outscored opponents 42-5 with a three bonus wins, including a second round fall in just 40 seconds..
 

HEY BROTHER

• Several wrestlers on the current Cornell roster have brotherly ties to the program.
• Vito Arujau's brother, Nick, wrestled for the Big Red for three seasons from 2011-14.
• Colt Barley's brother Jonah was on the Cornell wrestling team from 2017-21.
• Brothers Yianni and Greg Diakomihalis, and Colton and Wyatt Yapoujian are currently on the team with one another.
• Recently the Big Red have fielded both Kyle and Corey Dake, Mike and Mark Grey, Gabe and Max Dean, Jake and Josh Arnone, Nick and Ryan Bridge, Logan and Conner David, Billy and Jake George, Taylor and Michael Moore, Duke and William Pickett, Brian and Dylan Realbuto, Mike and Matt Russo, as well as Cam and Taylor Simaz among many others historically.
 

NEXT UP

• The Big Red will take a break for the holidays before returning in the New Year for a pair of dual meets against top 10 foes.
• Cornell will face #4 Arizona State on Jan. 4 at 7 p.m. CT in the FloDuals series in Austin, Texas.
• The Big Red will then travel to Virginia to face No. 10 Virginia Tech on Jan. 6 at 7 p.m.