Cornell wrestling continued its hot streak this week with a home victory over No. 20 Hofstra, 24-10. The win is the second in a row for Cornell, coming a week after it blew away all competition — including Hofstra — at the New York State Championships.
After falling behind to the Pride 9-10, Cornell took the last four matches of the day to earn a convincing victory. The competition was punctuated by ninth-ranked Clint Wattenberg’s pin of Jason Skretkowicz to earn the team six points and give the Red its final margin of victory — 14 points.
For the most part, Cornell got big wins from all the necessary wrestlers. Among those was 125-lb. freshman Travis Lee, who posted a victory for the second week in a row over Hofstra’s Tom Noto, who is currently ranked 16th in the country. Lee came into the weekend ranked 18th.
“This was a great win for Travis, but we expect him to win,” said head wrestling coach Rob Koll.
Tenth-ranked Jim Stanec’s victory at 174-lbs, a 3-2 win over Ralph Everett, was also crucial. The senior co-captain’s victory put the match out of reach for Hofstra by giving Cornell an eight-point lead with one match to go.
“I was pleased with everybody,” Koll said. “It was nice to have kids we don’t really count on come through.”
One of those victories came from heavyweight Sean Wing, who arrives at most matches out-weighed by other heavyweights. Nonetheless, Wing was solid this weekend, earning an important 4-0 victory to tie the match at 3-3.
Cornell also got a victory from sophomore Alejandro Alvarez, who has been hot of late at the 133-lb. slot. Alvarez was one of six Cornell wrestlers to take home a title at the NYS championships last week.
At 157-lbs., senior Gabe Webster entered the third period in a scoreless tie then added the extra point for riding time to take 2-0 victory from Paul Siemon. Webster’s victory put Cornell up for good at 12-10.
Scott Roth notched another Cornell victory, an important 4-2 effort that put Cornell up 15-10. The sophomore got almost an immediate takedown in overtime to get the win for the Red.
Next weekend the Red faces one of its most important tests when it takes on Princeton and rival Pennsylvania on the road in its first Ivy matches of the year. Either Penn or Cornell has won or shared every Ivy wrestling title since 1987.
Archived article by Charles Persons