CLEVELAND, Ohio – Four first-year starters earned All-America podium slots and freshman Yianni Diakomihalis advanced to the finals at 141 pounds as Cornell wrestling ended day two of the 2018 NCAA Wrestling Championship in the top 10 as a team. The Big Red will have freshman Max Dean (184 pounds) and junior Jon Jay Chavez (165) wrestling for seventh place, while freshman Ben Darmstadt could finish as high as third on Saturday morning.
Cornell advanced at least one wrestler to the finals for the 11
th straight year and will be looking for a national champion for the ninth year in that span (11 champions over that span). It marked the 16
th straight year the Big Red crowned at least three All-Americans.
Yianni Diakomihalis avenged his only collegiate loss with a takedown of Jayden Eierman of Missouri in the semifinals, 6-4 in overtime. A late escape after an Eierman takedown sent the match to sudden victory, and Diakomihalis ended it there, finishing a single leg for the takedown. He'll meet top-ranked Bryce Meredith of Wyoming in the final, a rematch of the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational semifinals won 4-2 in sudden victory by Diakomihalis.
Darmstadt wasn't as fortunate against No. 3 seed Jared Haught of Virginia Tech. With the match tied in the third, Haught caught Darmstadt to his back and earned the fall at 5:41, sending the Big Red freshman into the back draw on Saturday morning. There he'll wrestle top-seeded Kollin Moore of Ohio State for a spot in the third-place match.
Both Chavez and Dean needed wins in the blood round to continue their tournament, and both delivered – one in overtime, the other with a takedown and rideout in the final 20 seconds.
Chavez topped Nebraska's 11
th-seeded Isaiah White 2-1 in the first tiebreaker. The two wrestlers traded escapes, but otherwise there was no scoring through regulation and into sudden victory. White chose bottom after winning the flip and Chavez was able to mat return him three times, finishing the period on top. The junior started the second 30-second period on bottom and was able to escape nine seconds in for the go-ahead point. White took three desperation shots, but Chavez was easily able to defend each in capturing his first All-America honor.
Dean allowed a pair of first period takedowns to Chattanooga senior Bryce Carr, but kept his poise and put himself into a position to rally. The rookie was able to ride Carr throughout the second period, though he wasn't able to get the match-changing turn. He got within 4-3 just 15 seconds into the third, and after a number of scrambles proved fruitless, was able to get a takedown near the edge with under 30 seconds left, pushing the riding time over a minute and ending the period on top to close out the match and put his stamp on Cornell history.
With their spots on the podium already clinched, Chavez and Dean wrestled one more match to decide whether they would stay alive to wrestle for third or grapple for seventh. Neither was able to maintain the momentum from their blood round wins, with Chavez falling to Evan Wick of Wisconsin 9-2 and Dean dropping an 11-6 contest to Taylor Venz of Nebraska. Both will wrestle for seventh tomorrow morning.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Freshmen Ben Darmstadt and Yianni Diakomihalis clinched All-America honors in advancing to the semifinals and two other Big Red grapplers will wrestle to finish on the podium on Friday evening wit the completion of Session III. Cornell sits in eighth place in the team standings with 30.0 points.
In addition to Darmstadt (197 pounds) and Diakomihalis (141 pounds), who will wrestle for a spot in the finals, both freshman Max Dean (184 pounds) and junior Jon Jay Chavez (165 pounds) each need a win on Friday night to have a chance to join their teammates as All-Americans.
Diakomihalis had the highlight win, rallying from a two-point deficit entering the third to shock two-time defending NCAA champion Dean Heil of Oklahoma State, 6-5. Heil led 3-0 after one and 4-2 after two, but a reversal from bottom and a takedown by the Big Red freshman with 30 ticks left after cutting the Cowboy senior gave Diakomihalis a shot to avenge his only collegiate loss when he meets No. 2 Jaydin Eierman of Missouri tonight. Leading 6-5 with riding time not a factor, Diakomihalis flattened out Heil three times in the final 30 seconds to advance.
Darmstadt met unseeded Chris Weiler of Lehigh, a rematch of the EIWA semifinals. The result was the same, but like the conference championships, the result was in doubt. An early takedown on a low single allowed Darmstadt to finish the first on top with more than 90 seconds of riding time. His escape to open the second made it 3-0, but Weiler mounted a comeback. He had two takedowns and erased the riding time to even the match. With 40 seconds left in the third, after Weiler's match-tying takedown, Darmstadt was given the escape to go up 5-4. The Mountain Hawk was the aggressor in the final seconds, but the Big Red rookie was able to defend his way to the semifinals.
Cornell's third quarterfinalist, Max Dean, ran into defending national champion and top-seeded Bo Nickal of Penn State. Dean, whose brother and current assistant coach Gabe lost to Nickal in last year's finals, was within 9-7 after a takedown with 75 seconds remaining. The Big Red freshman cut Nickal looking for a big move, but was taken down after a desperation shot in the final seconds to fall into the consolation bracket. He'll face No. 12 seed Bryce Carr of Chattanooga for a spot on the All-America podium.
Chavez was dominant in a pair of consolation matches, topping Andrew Fogarty of North Dakota State 6-1 and Drew Daniels of Navy 4-0 to head into the blood round 3-1 in the tournament, with the only loss coming by decision to two-time national champion Isaiah Martinez of Illinois. To earn his first All-America honor, the 16th-seeded Chavez will need to top No. 11 Isaiah White of Nebraska on Friday night.
Juniors Chas Tucker and Jeramy Sweany both saw their seasons end at Quicken Loans Arena, with Tucker dropping an 8-4 decision to 10th-seeded Jack Mueller of Virginia and Sweany falling to No. 8 Tanner Hall of Arizona State by a 6-4 margin.
133 - Chas Tucker
First Round: #9 Dennis Gustafson (Virginia Tech) won by decision over Chas Tucker (Cornell), 4-1
Consolation First Round: Chas Tucker (Cornell) won by decision over Ben Thornton (Purdue), 10-4
Consolation Second Round: #10 Jack Mueller (Virginia) won by decision over Chas Tucker (Cornell), 8-4
141 - #3 Yianni Diakomihalis
First Round: #3 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) won by major decision over Nick Zanetta (Pitt), 10-1
Second Round: #3 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) won by major decision over #14 Nicholas Gil (Navy), 13-4
Quarterfinal: #3 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) won by decision over #6 Dean Heil (Oklahoma State), 6-5
Semifinal: #3 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) won by decision over #2 Jaydin Eierman (Missouri), 6-4 (ot1)
Final: #3 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) vs. #1 Bryce Meredith (Wyoming)
165 - #16 Jon Jay Chavez
First Round: #16 Jon Jay Chavez (Cornell) won by major decision over Andrew Atkinson (Virginia), 14-3
Second Round: #1 Isaiah Martinez (Illinois) won by decision over #16 Jon Jay Chavez (Cornell), 10-5
Consolation Second Round: #16 Jon Jay Chavez (Cornell) won by decision over Andrew Fogarty (North Dakota State), 6-1
Consolation Third Round: #16 Jon Jay Chavez (Cornell) won by decision over Drew Daniels (Navy), 4-0
Consolation Fourth Round: #16 Jon Jay Chavez (Cornell) won by decision over #11 Isaiah White (Nebraska), 2-1 (tb1)
Consolation Quarterfinal: #10 Evan Wick (Wisconsin) won by decision over #16 Jon Jay Chavez (Cornell), 9-2
Seventh Place Match: #16 Jon Jay Chavez (Cornell) vs. #8 Chandler Rogers (Oklahoma State)
174 - Brandon Womack
First Round: #6 Bo Jordan (Ohio State) won by decision over Brandon Womack (Cornell), 4-2 (ot1)
Consolation First Round: Kimball Bastian (Utah Valley) won by decision over Brandon Womack (Cornell), 8-5
184 - #9 Max Dean
First Round: #9 Max Dean (Cornell) won by major decision over Dylan Gabel (Northern Colorado), 11-3
Second Round: #9 Max Dean (Cornell) won by decision over #8 Drew Foster (Northern Iowa), 6-0
Quarterfinal: #1 Bo Nickal (Penn State) won by decision over #9 Max Dean (Cornell), 13-7
Consolation Fourth Round: #9 Max Dean (Cornell) won by decision over #12 Bryce Carr (Chattanooga), 6-4
Consolation Quarterfinal: #7 Taylor Venz (Nebraska) won by decision over #9 Max Dean (Cornell), 11-6
Seventh Place Match: #9 Max Dean (Cornell) vs. Chip Ness (North Carolina)
197 - #2 Ben Darmstadt
First Round: #2 Ben Darmstadt (Cornell) won by decision over Jacob Smith (West Virginia), 3-0
Second Round: #2 Ben Darmstadt (Cornell) won by major decision over #15 Matt Williams (Cal-Santa Barbara), 15-4
Quarterfinal: #2 Ben Darmstadt (Cornell) won by decision over Chris Weiler (Lehigh), 5-4
Semifinal: #3 Jared Haught (Virginia Tech) won by fall over #2 Ben Darmstadt (Cornell), 5:41
285 - Jeramy Sweany
Pigtail: Jeramy Sweany (Cornell) won by decision over Brett Dempsey (American), 9-4
First Round: #7 Nathan Butler (Stanford) won by technical fall over Jeramy Sweany (Cornell), 15-0
Consolation First Round: Jeramy Sweany (Cornell) won by major decision over Cory Gilliland-Daniel (North Carolina), 12-2
Consolation Second Round: #8 Tanner Hall (Arizona State) won by decision over Jeramy Sweany (Cornell), 6-4
