Cornell wrestling subjected UPenn and Princeton to its dominance this weekend, handily beating both teams and picking up its 17th straight Ivy League Championship. The Red’s league win streak is now 88 matches.
On Friday evening, the Red (11-2, 5-0 Ivy) beat Penn 40-3. The Red started strong with freshman Vitali Arujau and sophomore Yianni Diakomihalis both scoring wins by technical fall in the first three match-ups. Between them was Chas Tucker, who claimed victory by decision.
The fourth matchup of the day earned Penn (3-6, 2-1 Ivy) its sole win, as its No. 13 ranked wrestler took down Cornell senior Jonathan Furnas in the 149-weight class.
After that, it was only the Red on top. The Red earned three victories by fall, with junior Adam Santoro, junior Brandon Womack and senior Ben Honis winning their matches. Womack took only a minute to run the score up on his opponent. Freshman Andrew Berreyesa and senior Jeramy Sweany both won by decision, while senior Jake Taylor won by major decision.
Saturday morning, the Red kept up the momentum, claiming victory over the Tigers, 34-7. Throughout the competition, Cornell’s victory became increasingly certain as it won the first 8 matchups. Berreyesa and Arujau won by fall, Womack, Honis and Tucker won by decision, Sweany and Diakomihalis won by major decision and Dean won by technical fall.
Notably, Honis and Arujau both beat opponents ranked higher than them, and head coach Robert Koll said that “both guys are considerably under-ranked.”
“We had every expectation that they would win,” Koll said.
Though Princeton (6-6, 2-1 Ivy) had already long lost, it claimed the two final matchups of the day, with a No. 2 ranked Tiger winning by decision over Furnas, and another Princetonian claiming major decision over Santoro.
Saturday also marked Senior Day for the Red, to celebrate the 11 senior wrestlers Koll describes as the “keystone to [the team’s] success.”
“Most of the [seniors] don’t start so they don’t receive many accolades, yet they stay with the program,” Koll said. “That’s saying a great deal because the workouts are anything but enjoyable.”
The two weekend wins secured the Red’s 17th straight Ivy League title. Cornell wrestling has now won 40 conference titles, 10 more than all its other conference foes combined. Koll says these titles now come as “more of an expectation than a thrill.”
Next up, the Red will travel south to face Virginia Tech on Friday and UNC on Saturday.