Binghamton (4-11, 3-3 EIWA) at #5 Cornell (1-2, 7-0 EIWA)

Date & Time: Friday, Feb. 10, 2023 at 6:00 p.m.
Where: Hilton HS (Hilton, N.Y.)
Twitter: @CUBigRedGameday | @BigRedWrestling
Watch Live: Hudl TV
 

STORY LINES

• One of the greatest collegiate wrestlers of all time will get a chance to perform in front of the home crowd — his home crowd — when Cornell and Binghamton wrestle a dual on Friday, Feb. 10 at 6 p.m. at Hilton HS in Hilton, N.Y.
• The dual will be streamed live on Hudl TV.
• Diakomihalis, along with his teammate and younger brother Greg, as well as Binghamton grapplers Collin Burns and Sam DePrez, will have a chance to wrestle at their high school and their hometown community in a very special neutral site matchup.
• Diakomihalis has had a storied career, winning three EIWA and NCAA championships and will attempt to become the fifth wrestler in NCAA history to win four national titles next month (along with Iowa's Spencer Lee).
• The senior captain was a four-time state champion at Hilton HS, closing his career on a 210-match win streak, a state record, and a 243-3 career high school mark.
• Cornell was ranked fifth nationally in last week's USA Today/NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll and is 11-2 with a 10-match win streak in tow.
• The Big Red clinched its second straight Ivy League title — its 19th in the past 20 seasons and 42nd overall — with Sunday's 19-15 win over Penn, completing a perfect 5-0 conference mark.
• Cornell will also be wrestling its final EIWA dual meet prior to the championship tournament beginning on March 5, bringing a 7-0 mark into Friday's contest. 
• Nine Big Red wrestlers were ranked in the top 25 of Intermat's rankings entering last 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.
• Cornell won its 19th Ivy League title in the past 20 seasons in 2022-23, the second straight under head coach Mike Grey after he won four as a student-athlete and eight more as an assistant coach.
 

THE STREAKS

• The Big Red is 92-5 (.948) in its past 95 duals against current EIWA competitors dating back to 2010-11.
• Cornell is 131-8-1 (.939) in dual meet action against current EIWA teams dating back to 2004-05, including 118-1 (.992) against teams other than Lehigh (2019 loss at Princeton).
• Cornell has won 102 of its past 103 Ivy League dual meets dating back to the 2001-02 campaign, including 10 consecutive wins.
• Big Red wrestling is 114-2 in dual meets (.983) against unranked teams dating back to the beginning of the 2007-08 season.
• Cornell has won five straight against nationally ranked opponents.
• Cornell is 147-33 (.817) 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 66-12 (.846) in its last 78 home duals dating back to the 2009-10 season.
• Cornell has won 43 straight meets against New York state opponents.
• Junior Yianni Diakomihalis is 52-2 and sophomore Vito Arujau is 35-2 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 315 of his last 317 matches in folkstyle (.994).
• Chris Foca has won a team-best 12 consecutive matches, with Diakomihalis right behind with 11 straight.
 

SERIES NOTES  VS. BINGHAMTON

• Cornell leads the all-time series with Binghamton 10-0.
• The series began in 1971-72, when the two teams met in a quad meet in Cortland with the Big Red outscoring the Bearcatas 97.5-53.5.
• The closest meet in series history came in Cornell's 22-21 win on Jan. 5, 2012 in Vestal, N.Y. The Big Red won on criteria after ending the meet tied 21-21 having had scored more points in the individual matches.
• The Big Red won the last meeting between the teams 28-12 on Feb. 12, 2022 at the Friedman Wrestling Center.
 

LAST TIME  VS. BINGHAMTON

• Cornell built a 20-0 lead by halftime and cruised to a 28-12 win over Binghamton on Senior Day at the Friedman Wrestling Center. 
• The Big Red won its ninth straight dual meet to improve to 12-2.
• Seniors Dom LaJoie (133), Mike Venosa (149) and Hunter Richard (157) all earned victories in their final home matches, with six senior staking the mat in their swan song. 
• The three victorious seniors all helped put the match out of the Bearcats reach by the break.
• Cornell improved to 9-1 against EIWA competition and 10-0 all-time against the Bearcats with the win. 
• The Big Red rested half its lineup to give opportunities to seniors and others, and the reserves made the most of them.
• JJ Wilson's big first period pin at 141 gave Cornell some breathing room just moments after Dom LaJoie topped No. 32 Anthony Sobotker at 133. 
• Greg Diakomihalis got the meet underway with a 13-9 triumph at 125 to improve to 12-6 on the season. 
• The Big Red's three ranked wrestlers in action all collected bonus points in their victories, with No. 24 Hunter Richard picking up a tech fall triumph at 157. 
• Jonathan Loew (184) and Jacob Cardenas (197) each picked up major decision wins as well. Venosa's 4-2 win over Mike Zarif at 149 made the team score 15-0.
 

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 73-9 in dual matches (.890) there.
• Since the start of Ivy competition, the Big Red is 312-53-1 (.854) with 42 league titles in 65 seasons (13 second place finishes). That's 120.0 games clear of second-place Penn (190-171-7) and 129.0 games ahead of Princeton (179-174-5).
• 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

• With a meet seemingly ready to go down to the final match, Chris Foca and Jacob Cardenas had other ideas. 
• Their late bonus point victories allowed the Big Red to claim a 19-15 triumph over 25th-ranked Penn to cap an unbeaten Ivy dual season and clinch the program's 42nd conference title in school history.
• The win capped a Senior Day that honored the class of 2023, including three-time NCAA champion Yianni Diakomihalis, who earned an 8-3 win over No. 12 Doug Zapf in his final home match.
• After trailing 9-6 at intermission, the Big Red won consecutive matches after the break to regain the lead, first tying it with a Julian Ramirez decision victory over Lucas Raveno at 165 to tie it at 12-12, then busting through with a third-period fall over No. 20 Nick Incontrera. 
• Cardenas used a big near-fall points in the third in rolling up No. 32 Cole Urbas at 197 pounds for a major decision, making sure the Big Red clinched the title entering the heavyweight bout
 

NEXT UP

• The Big Red will close out dual meet season when it heads to Tampa, Fla. to wrestle No. xx Ohio State on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 1  p.m. in the Spartan Duals.
• The match will be streamed by FloWrestling.
• The Buckeyes lead the all-time series 8-7-1 with wins in each of its past two matches, including a 23-9 Ohio State triumph on Dec. 1, 2019 in Columbus, Ohio.