The Cornell wrestling team won its eleventh straight Ivy League title on Saturday evening after it defeated Columbia, 29-12. The Red currently has the longest current streak of an Ivy League team in conference history.
“When you wrestle the Ivy League schools, sometimes you can have an advantage because of class schedules … No one goes to Cornell or Columbia just to wrestle,” said head coach Rob Koll.
The win against the Lions was the second of the weekend for the Red after it took down Hofstra, 30-15.
Senior captains Kyle Dake and Steve Bosak both grabbed two wins on the day — as Dale moved to a career high 13 wins for the season.
The day began at Hofstra with the first dual of the day. Highlights of the match included freshman No. 6 Nahshon Garrett beating No. 16 Steve Bonanno of Hofstra in a 3-1 decision and Dake’ defeat of Nick Terdick at 165 pounds, picking up his 12th pin of the season in just 1:05. Junior Marshall Peppelman also took down his opponent, Jermaine John, to win a 5-3 decision and No. 4 Bosak faced off against Taras Luzhnyy at 184 pounds, notching three back points, before winning by fall in 2:55.
After the win against Hofstra, the Red got back on the bus and traveled from Long Island to Manhattan to face off against Columbia. The dual against the Lions started with Garrett taking down Columbia’s Penn Gottfried, 11-1. Junior Mike Nevinger faced the Lions’ Alec Mooradian at 141 pounds and grabbed a takedown, winning a 6-0 decision.At 149 pounds, No. 14 junior Chris Villalonga won a 6-1 decision over his opponent.
At 165 pounds, Dake took down Josh Houldworth 13 seconds into the bout. Dake was looking to turn his opponent throughout the period, but the Columbia wrestler stayed flat. Dake chose down in the second and jumped to his feet for an escape. He notched three takedowns in the second to hold a 9-2 advantage and continued to look for a way to pin his opponent in the third. Dake was leading 11-4 before he won by fall in 6:02 for his second pin of the day.
Bosak squared off against Drew Rebling at 184. Bosak had his first takedown 20 seconds into the first and pushed his way to two three-point nearfalls. He chose to start the second on top and won by fall in 3:48 to record his fifth fall of the season.
“[Steve Bosak] is finally back to his old self. He is the least confident national champion that I have ever met … You got Kyle who will tell you how great he is and then Steve who will tell you how bad he is. [They] are just complete opposites,” Koll said. “It is ironic that they are on the same team. They do play off of each other and they do have different strengths and weaknesses. They are both great captains because they do complement each other.”
The Red will host Bucknell on Sunday, for a dual at Friedman. The match will also be the last time that the eight seniors will ever wrestle in competition at home on the Hill.“This is their last hoorah. I don’t worry about [the seniors]; I worry about the freshmen and sophomores. You are your best coach. These are 22-year-old men, as opposed to 18-year-old boys,” Koll said.
Original Author: Haley Velasco