Cornell wrestlers downed two more Ivy teams on Saturday for their 85th and 86th consecutive conference victories — and, in doing so, earned head coach Rob Koll his 300th and 301st wins with the squad.
The Red beat Brown in a landslide 42-6 decision to start Saturday’s New England double-header. En route to victory, only a single Cornell wrestler lost his match, with the team winning its first five matches and sprinting to an early 23-0 team score lead over the Bears.
Powering the Red to an ultimate 36 point win, two wrestlers — senior Jonathan Furnas of the 149 weight class and sophomore Max Dean of the 184 weight class — won by fall, earning Cornell six points apiece, while senior Jeramy Sweany put six points on the board in an injury default.
Cornell’s domination resumed quickly in Cambridge, where the team won seven of the nine contested matches with bonus points on the way to shutting out Harvard 50-0.
This time, four wrestlers — sophomore Yianni Diakomihalis of the 141 weight class, freshman Andrew Berreyesa of the 165 weight class, junior Brandon Womack of the 174 weight class and Dean — won by fall. Sweany again earned 6 points on a win by forfeit; he and Dean were the Red’s top scorers of the day, collecting 12 points each between the weekend’s two competitions.
Cornell’s towering score over the Crimson was the largest margin of victory for the team since it beat Princeton 54-0 in 2009 and the sixth-largest in school history in dual meets.
The combination of a historic milestone and record-breaking victory left the nationally-ranked squad emboldened as it turns to the back half of the season.
“Nothing builds confidence more than winning,” Head Coach Rob Koll said. “Winning convincingly is all the better.”
The weekend’s decisive results against a pair of key rivals reflect a long winning culture under Koll, who has been at Cornell for 30 years, spending the first four and a half years as an assistant coach before becoming head coach in 1994. His decades-long stewardship of the squad has seen the Red grow into one of the nation’s premier wrestling teams — one of only two teams to finish in the top 10 nationally every year since 2008.
“I am extremely proud of my association with Cornell,” Koll remarked.
Beyond breaking the elusive 300 win barrier, the Ivy League’s all-time most winningest wrestling coach has compiled a long resume of honors, including being named New York State’s Coach of the Year seven times and the Dan Gable Coach of the Year in 2005.
The Red will take a break from league competition as it hosts Lock Haven this Saturday at the Friedman wrestling center. Cornell holds an all-time 11-4-1 record against the Pennsylvania team.