Wrestling Ranked #13 in First NWCA Poll of 2021-22 Season
The full NWCA rankings can be found here.
Other top ranking services see Cornell as the No. 7-ranked tournament team in the country (InterMat), while the NWCA poll focuses on dual meets. InterMat ranked Cornell #11 in its dual meet rankings updated on Oct. 27.
Cornell has three duals scheduled with teams currently ranked in the Top 25 (Lehigh, Princeton, Wisconsin), while Stanford and Navy are receiving votes. The Big Red will also meet tough competition at the Journeymen National Duals, which features nine ranked programs (including Cornell). There, Cornell will have the opportunity to potentially face #1 Iowa, #2 Penn State, #3 Missouri, #5 NC State, #6 Virginia Tech, #8 Arizona State, #17 Northern Iowa and #24 Lehigh in a dual meet setting.
After a long layoff, the Big Red will bring a lineup of fresh and familiar faces to the mat this season. Junior Yianni Diakomihalis and sophomore Vito Arujau return to the Cornell lineup after a two-year hiatus (Olympic year/COVID cancellation). Familiar faces in senior Dom LaJoie, senior Hunter Richard, sophomore Colton Yapoujian, senior Adam Santoro, senior Jake Brindley, junior Andrew Merola, senior Andrew Berreyesa, junior Jonathan Loew, senior Ben Darmstadt, senior Seth Janney and junior Brendan Furman return for the Big Red as wrestlers who appeared in a dual meet during the 2019-20 season. A number of newcomers will see significant time on the mat as well. There is still a lot of fluidity in the lineup as the Binghamton Open will serve as this year’s wrestle-offs.
In the Oct. 27 InterMat rankings, Cornell has seven ranked wrestlers. Arujau is the #3 wrestler at 125 pounds, Diakomihalis is #1 at 141 pounds, Yapoujian is #20 at 157 pounds, sophomore Chris Foca is #10 at 174 pounds, Loew is #25 at 184 pounds, Darmstadt is #6 at 197 pounds and sophomore Lewis Fernandes is #16 at heavyweight.
Arujau, Darmstadt, Diakomihalis and LaJoie were named team captains for the 2021-22 season.
