#12 Cornell (2-2, 0-0 EIWA, 0-0 Ivy) vs. #3 Arizona State (2-0, 0-0 Pac-12)

Date & Time: Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023 at 7 p.m. CT
Where: Austin, Texas
Twitter: @CUBigRedGameday | @BigRedWrestling
Watch Live: FloWrestling
 

#12 Cornell (2-2, 0-0 EIWA, 0-0 Ivy) at #8 Virginia Tech (3-1, 0-0 ACC)

Date & Time: Friday, Jan. 6, 2023 at 7 p.m.
Where: Blacksburg, Va. (Moss Arts Center)
Twitter: @CUBigRedGameday | @BigRedWrestling
Watch Live: ACC Network Extra
 

STORY LINES

• The Cornell wrestling team will have a chance at a pair of top 10 wins this week when the Big Red hits the road to kick off the 2023 calendar year.
• The Big Red will play third-ranked Arizona State on Wednesday, Jan. 4 at 7 p.m. CT  in Austin, Texas in the FloWrestling Showcase to open the week. 
• Cornell will have a chance to match up with eighth-ranked Virginia Tech on Friday, Jan. 6 at 7 p.m. in Blacksburg, Va. on ACC Network Extra.
• Cornell is ranked 12th nationally in the latest USA Today/NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll and is 2-2 with three of its four duals against nationally ranked foes.
• The Big Red most recently took third in its pool at the Collegiate Duals with wins over Oregon State (32-7) and North Carolina (31-9) with a a narrow loss to No. 6 Iowa State (18-13).
• 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.
• 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 109-2 in dual meets (.982) against unranked teams dating back to the beginning of the 2007-08 season.
• Cornell is 138-33 (.807) 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 44-2 and sophomore Vito Arujau is 30-1 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).
• Dating back to high school, Diakomihalis has won 307 of his last 309 matches in folkstyle (.994).
 

SERIES NOTES

• Cornell and Arizona State will be meeting for just the third time and the first since the Big Red dropped the Sun Devils 38-4 at home during the 2006-07 season.
• The only other meeting came in 1999-2000, a 27-12 ASU victory at Penn State.
• The Big Red is 5-1 all-time against Virginia Tech with four of those duals being held at neutral sites (4-0).
• The teams have each won on their opponents' home mats, with the Big Red defeating the Hokies in Blacksburg by a 17-16 score on Feb. 15, 2019.
 

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

• The Big Red won seven matches, including three by fall, to run past No. 21 North Carolina 31-9 on at the New Orleans Convention Center on day two of the Collegiate Duals. 
• Cornell raced out to a 9-0 lead after two matches as Brett Ungar topped No. 33 Jack Wagner at 125, then Vito Arujau picked up a second period fall over No. 29 Joey Melendez. 
• Chris Foca and Yianni Diakomihalis each picked up their third wins of the week with bonus points attached, including Foca's second first-period fall of the tournament.
• Brendan Furman scored the final six with his pin of Aydin Guttridge at heavyweight. 
• Both Julian Ramirez (165)and Jacob Cardenas (197) ground out wins to round out the solid victory.
• The Big Red improved to 7-2 all-time against the Tar Heels and the 107th victory over a nationally ranked opponent since 1990,
 

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

• Cornell and Lehigh, the two EIWA superpowers over the past quarter-century, will face off in a dual on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Friedman Wrestling Center.
• The contest will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
• The Mountain Hawks lead the all-time series 59-32-3 and have won three straight.
• Prior to the most recent three-game stretch, Cornell had won seven-of-eight contests.