#5 Cornell (7-2, 3-0 EIWA) at Army West Point (4-4, 2-1 EIWA)

Date & Time: Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023 at 2:00 p.m.
Where: Gillis Field House (West Point, N.Y.)
Twitter: @CUBigRedGameday | @BigRedWrestling
Watch Live: FloWrestling
 

#5 Cornell (7-2, 2-0 Ivy) at Columbia (2-5, 1-1 Ivy)

Date & Time: Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023 at 1:00 p.m.
Where: University Gym (New York, N.Y.)
Twitter: @CUBigRedGameday | @BigRedWrestling
Watch Live: ESPN+
 

STORY LINES

• With a top-five ranking in tow, the Cornell wrestling team will face a pair of in-state opponents when it visits EIWA foes Army West Point and Columbia.
• Both contests will be broadcast live with the matchup with the Black Knights on FloSports and the Ivy matchup with the Lions on ESPN+.
• Cornell will visit Army West Point on Saturday,  Jan. 28 at 2 p.m. before heading to New York City to meet Columbia on Sunday, Jan. 29 at 1 p.m.
• Cornell is ranked fifth nationally in the latest USA Today/NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll and is 7-2.
• Nine Big Red wrestlers are ranked in the top 25 of Intermat's rankings entering the week, including five in the top eight. 
• 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.  
• Eight NCAA qualifiers return this season (Dom LaJoie, Vito Arujau, Yianni Diakomihalis, Julian Ramirez, Chris Foca, Jonathan Loew, Jacob Cardenas and Lewis Fernandes), including All-Americans Arujau, Diakomihalis and Loew.
• First things first, and that means competing for an Ivy title.
• Cornell won its 18th Ivy League title in the last 19 seasons in 2021-22, but the first under head coach Mike Grey after he won four as a student-athlete and eight more as an assistant coach.
• The Big Red has won 41 straight meets against New York state opponents dating back to a 16-15 loss to Hofstra on Jan. 17, 2004.
 

THE STREAKS

• The Big Red is 88-5 (.946) in its past 93 duals against current EIWA competitors dating back to 2010-11.
• Cornell is 127-8-1 (.938) in dual meet action against current EIWA teams dating back to 2004-05, including 114-1 (.991) against teams other than Lehigh (2019 loss at Princeton).
• Cornell has won 99 of its last 100 Ivy League dual meets dating back to the 2001-02 campaign.
• Big Red wrestling is 111-2 in dual meets (.982) against unranked teams dating back to the beginning of the 2007-08 season.
• Cornell is 143-33 (.813) in dual meet competition in the past 11 seasons.
• Cornell is 57-9 (.864) in its last 64 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 64-12 (.842) in its last 76 home duals dating back to the 2009-10 season.
• Cornell has won 41 straight meets against New York state opponents.
• Junior Yianni Diakomihalis is 49-2 and sophomore Vito Arujau is 31-2 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).
• Dating back to high school, Diakomihalis has won 312 of his last 314 matches in folkstyle (.994).
 

SERIES NOTES  VS. ARMY WEST POINT

• Prior to last year's meeting (28-10 Cornell win) and despite both competing in the EIWA, the teams hadn't met in a dual in more than a quarter-century.
• The Black Knights lead the all-time series 17-12-1, though Cornell has won three straight.
• Army West Point's last dual meet victory over Cornell came in a 30-6 matchup on Jan. 9, 1988.
• Cornell and Army first met during the 1934-35 season, a 21-9 Black Knights' win at West Point.
 

SERIES NOTES  VS. COLUMBIA

• Cornell leads the all-time series 93-13 dating back to the 1907-08 season when the teams first met.
• The Big Red has won 35 consecutive dual meets against the Lions.
• Columbia's last win over the Big Red came in a 20-19 Lions victory in Ithaca during the 1985-86 campaign
 

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 71-9 in dual matches (.888) there.
• Since the start of Ivy competition, the Big Red is 309-53-1 (.853) with 41 league titles in 65 seasons (13 second place finishes). That's 119.5  games clear of second-place Penn (188-170-7) and 130.0 games ahead of Princeton (178-172-5).
• 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

• The Cornell wrestling team kicked off the 2023 Ivy League season with a pair of convincing road wins, toppling Brown 35-6 and Harvard 27-12   to improve to 7-2 on the season. 
• Six different Big Red grapplers won two matches apiece on the day.
• Cornell feasted on bonus points as it ran its conference win streak to seven. 
• Cornell claimed two majors, three tech falls and three falls as part of its 15-5 day without wrestling three of its nine ranked grapplers.
• Vince Cornella (141), Yianni Diakomihalis (149), Julian Ramirez (165), Evan Canoyer (174), Jonathan Loew (184) and Jacob Cardenas (197) each won both of their matches, with Canoyer picking up his first two collegiate wins and Loew earning a pair of pins in his return from injury. 
• Diakomihalis (tech fall, major decision) and Cardenas (two tech falls) earned bonus points in both of their wins.
• Both duals saw the score tied at 3-3 after 133 pounds, but Cornella put the Big Red in the lead both times and the visitor extended its long win streaks over both Brown and Harvard. 
• Cornell has now won 25 straight against the Bears and 21 in a row vs. the Crimson.
 

NEXT UP

• The Big Red returns home to face Ivy titans Princeton and Penn in the final weekend of the conference season.
• Cornell welcomes the Tigers to Friedman Wrestling Center on Friday, Feb. 4 at noon, then meets Penn on Sunday, Feb. 5 at 1 p.m.
• One of those three teams has won the Ivy title every year since 1982 (Harvard also shared a title in 2001).