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#11 Cornell (1-0) vs. #20 Northern Iowa (0-2)

Date & Time: Monday, Dec. 20 – 5:00 p.m.
Venue: Raider Arena (2.442) – Niceville, Fla.
Twitter: @CUBigRedGameday | @BigRedWrestling

#11 Cornell (1-0) vs. #2 Penn State (5-0)

Date & Time: Monday, Dec. 20 – 9:00 p.m.

Venue: Raider Arena (2.442) – Niceville, Fla.

Twitter: @CUBigRedGameday | @BigRedWrestling

 

STORY LINES

• The Cornell wrestling team will have a chance to make an early statement when it faces a pair of top 20 teams on day one at the Journeymen Collegiate Wrestling Duals.
• The Big Red will meet No. 20 Northern Iowa on Monday, Dec. 20 at 5 p.m., with a 9 p.m. match against No. 2 Penn State to follow at Raider Arena in Niceville, Fla. 
• A third match on Tuesday, Dec. 21 will be set based on results of the first day and could include matchups with either No. 6 Arizona State, No. 8 Virginia Tech or EIWA foe Hofstra.
• Live video of the duals can be viewed live on Rofkin.com.
• After missing the 2020-21 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Big Red is in hot pursuit of regaining its Ivy League and EIWA titles and is prepared to make a mark at nationals.
• Cornell is ranked 11th nationally in the latest USA Today/NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll and with seven of its grapplers ranked in the top 25 according to Intermat
• The Big Red has set its sights high — with the NCAA Championships set for Detroit, Mich. in March, Cornell believes it should be in the mix for yet another top 10 team finish.
• Cornell has finished in the top 10 at every championship (excepting the 2021 championship when the Big Red didn’t compete) since 2008, joining Iowa in making that claim.  
• Back in the lineup after taking Olympic redshirts are All-American Vito Arujau (133) and two-time NCAA champion Yianni Diakomihalis (149).
• Seven NCAA qualifiers are on the roster — Arujau (133), Dom LaJoie (133), Diakomihalis (149), Hunter Richard (157), Jonathan Loew (184), Ben Darmstadt (197), Brendan Furman (285).
• Two-time NCAA champion Diakomihalis joins Arujau and Darmstadt as All-Americans back in the lineup.
• Northern Iowa’s 10th-ranked Brody Teske will square off with Greg Diakomihalis at 125 pounds, while Cornell’s 15th-ranked NCAA qualifier Jonathan Loew will get a shot at unbeaten and fourth-ranked Parker Keckeisen at 184.
• Among the potential feature matches that could go down in the contest vs. Penn State is No. 1 Roman Bravo-Young (PSU) vs. No. 5 Vito Arujau at 133, top-ranked Carter Starocci (PSU) against No. 12 Chris Foca at 174, former Big Red All-American and third-ranked Max Dean (PSU) vs. No. 19 Jacob Cardenas 
 

STREAKS

• The Big Red is 76-4 (.950) in its last 80 duals against current EIWA competitors dating back to 2010-11.
• Cornell is 115-7-1 (.939) in dual meet action against current EIWA teams dating back to 2004-05, including 103-1 against teams other than Lehigh (2019 loss at Princeton).
• Cornell has won 92 of its last 93 Ivy League dual meets dating back to the 2001-02 campaign.
• Big Red wrestling is 100-2 in dual meets (.980) against unranked teams dating back to the beginning of the 2007-08 season.
• Cornell is 125-28 (.817) in dual meet competition in the last 11 seasons.
• Cornell is 51-7 (.879) in its last 58 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 57-11 (.838) in its last 68 home duals dating back to the 2009-10 season.
• Cornell has won 38 straight meets against New York state opponents.
• Sophomore Vito Arujau is a perfect 17-0 in dual matches for the Big Red, while junior Yianni Diakomihalis is  28-1.
• Diakomihalis has won 53 consecutive matches, the second-longest streak in program history (Kyle Dake ’13 won 77).
 

NOTES

• 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 64-8 in dual matches (.889) there.
• Since the start of Ivy competition, the Big Red is 302-53-1 (.850) with 40 league titles in 64 seasons (13 second place finishes). That’s 116 games clear of second-place Penn (183-166-7) and 128 games ahead of Princeton (172-179-5).
• Cornell has won 92 of its last 93 Ivy League dual meets, but is on its first one-match losing streak since 2002 after its 19-13 loss at Princeton on Feb. 9, 2020.
• 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.
 

NEXT UP

• Cornell will compete in the Southern Scuffle beginning on Saturday, Jan. 1 in Chattanooga, Tenn.
• The tournament will feature five of the nation’s top 11 teams — including No. 4 Oklahoma State, No. 5 NC State, No. 8 Virginia Tech and No. 10 Missouri.
• It will be the Big Red’s first appearance in the tournament since 2017, and Cornell has finished in the top eight as a team in all 13 previous trips.
• Cornell won the Scuffle team title in 2009, 2010 and 2011 and has crowned 25 individual champions.