Princeton (2-8, 1-2 Ivy) at #5 Cornell (9-2, 3-0 Ivy)

Date & Time: Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023 at 12:00 p.m.
Where: Friedman Wrestling Center (Ithaca, N.Y.)
Twitter: @CUBigRedGameday | @BigRedWrestling
Watch Live: ESPN+
 

#25 Penn (6-4, 3-0 Ivy) at #5 Cornell (9-2, 3-0 Ivy)

Date & Time: Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023 at 1:00 p.m.
Where: Friedman Wrestling Center (Ithaca, N.Y.)
Twitter: @CUBigRedGameday | @BigRedWrestling
Watch Live: ESPN+
 

STORY LINES

• Two familiar faces stand between Cornell and its 42nd Ivy League title this weekend when the Big Red welcomes Princeton and Penn to Friedman Wrestling Center.
• Both duals will be broadcast live on ESPN+ with Andy Malnoske on the call.
• The Big Red will face 2020 Ivy champ Tigers on Saturday Feb. 4 at noon, followed by 25th-ranked Quakers on Senior Day on Sunday, Feb. 5 at 1 p.m.
• Cornell is ranked fifth nationally in the latest USA Today/NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll and is 9-2.
• Nine Big Red wrestlers are ranked in the top 25 of Intermat's rankings entering the week, including five in the top 10. 
• 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 past 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 matchup with the Tigers could feature a pair of top 10 contests, including a feature match between third-ranked 133-pounder Vito Arujau against second-ranked 125-pounder Patrick Glory.
• The Cornell-Penn dual has the potential to have six matchups between nationally ranked foes, including a second top 10 match over the weekend for Arujau when he's challenged by No. 8 Michael Colaiocco.
 

THE STREAKS

• The Big Red is 90-5 (.947) in its past 95 duals against current EIWA competitors dating back to 2010-11.
• Cornell is 129-8-1 (.938) in dual meet action against current EIWA teams dating back to 2004-05, including 116-1 (.991) against teams other than Lehigh (2019 loss at Princeton).
• Cornell has won 100 of its last 101 Ivy League dual meets dating back to the 2001-02 campaign.
• Big Red wrestling is 113-2 in dual meets (.983) against unranked teams dating back to the beginning of the 2007-08 season.
• Cornell is 145-33 (.815) in dual meet competition in the past 11 seasons.
• Cornell is 59-9 (.868) 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 43 straight meets against New York state opponents.
• Junior Yianni Diakomihalis is 50-2 and sophomore Vito Arujau is 33-2 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 313 of his last 315 matches in folkstyle (.994).
 

SERIES NOTES  VS. PRINCETON

• Cornell leads the all-time series 59-16 dating back to the 1907-08 season when the teams first met.
• The Big Red had won 33 consecutive dual meets against the Tigers before Princeton broke through in 2019-20, their last meeting, for a 19-13 victory at Jadwin Gymnasium on Feb. 9, 2020 en route to its first Ivy title.
• The loss snapped a 92-match win streak for the Big Red in Ivy competition.
• Princeton's previous win over the Big Red came in a 21-19 Tiger victory at home during the 1985-86 campaign.
• Cornell won last season's matchup 21-12 at Jadwin Gymnasium en route to the program's 41st Ivy title.
 

SERIES NOTES  VS. PENN

• Cornell has a decisive 88-21-1 lead in the all-time series dating back to 1907-08.
• The Big Red has won 19 consecutive dual meets against the Quakers, including last year's 20-12 triumph that clinched the program's 41st Ivy title.
• Penn's last win over the Big Red came on Feb. 2, 2002, a 21-9 Quaker victory in Philadelphia, Pa.
 

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 311-53-1 (.853) with 41 league titles in 65 seasons (13 second place finishes). That's 119.0 games clear of second-place Penn (190-170-7) and 128.0 games ahead of Princeton (179-173-5).
• 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

• Cole Handlovic's overtime takedown at 157 pounds wasn't the deciding moment of Cornell's 30-3 win over Columbia, but it may have been the most illustrative of the Big Red victory. 
• Cornell won six matches against the Lions' ranked wrestlers and captured three wins by a takedown or less in winning its eighth straight dual overall and its 36th consecutive against Columbia.
• Handlovic earned a takedown in the waning seconds of regulation to send his match against No. 22 Cesar Alvan to overtime, then countered a shot by the Lion for a takedown in the first 30 seconds of sudden victory to pick up the 6-4 triumph. 
• That extended the Big Red's dual lead to 23-0, and when Benny Baker topped David Berkowich a match later, Cornell had sealed the win with three bouts to go.
• Cornell won in ways big and small, setting up a pair of home duals next weekend against Princeton and Penn with the Ivy title on the line.
 

NEXT UP

• Cornell will wrestle a neutral site dual meet against Central New York rival Binghamton on Friday, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. at Hilton HS in Hilton, N.Y — alma mater of Yianni Diakomihalis.
• The three-time NCAA champion will wrestler his final "home" match in front of his hometown fans.
• Cornell leads the all-time series 9-0 and has the captured the past five by an average of 32-8.