Rob Koll recaps the Big Red’s weekend performance against Penn and Princeton.

Now that we have wrestled through the most rigorous portion of the season it is nice to have a few “lighter” matches leading up the EIWA tournament. Out of twenty matches wrestled, we had only one wrestler lose a match.

Coverage details of Iowa State wrestling at Cornell on January 31st at 1PM.

Sorry it took me an extra day to get this update out. We took the redeye back and I expected to write it on the plane flight back.

I was going to put this off until after the Body Bar but l figured I might as well get it over with. We lost a heartbreaker tonight. There were some absolutely amazing performances and an equal number of less than stellar performances. I will start with the positives.

The No. 3 nationally ranked Cornell wrestling team has earned the top spot in EIWA Preseason rankings it was released this weekend. The Big Red has won the EIWA team title the past three seasons and will contend for its fourth-straight win in March. Seven Big Red wrestlers are ranked in the top six of their individual weight classes with four ranked first. Freshmen are not eligible to be ranked.

The summer has passed by all too quickly, and the entire team has returned to Ithaca. We had a productive summer, and I am ecstatic to have everyone back. Actually this comes as no surprise to me since we had plus or minus 20 wrestlers training in Ithaca for all or part of the entire summer.

It has been awhile since I last wrote, but that does not mean that nothing has been going on in the world of Big Red wrestling. We had to replace two assistant coaches as Cory Cooperman and Travis Lee have moved on. Cory accepted a coaching position closer to home at Rutgers, while Travis has decided to move to California to pursue a career in the biotechnology field. Cory has been a wonderful member of our Cornell wrestling family over the past three years, and he will undoubtedly make a significant impact with the Scarlet Knights.

Unfortunately we came up short on our goal of a national championship. However, I was extremely proud of the team’s performance in general. We demonstrated to the wrestling community that Cornell is a serious contender and not just a “flash in the pan”. As long as we continue to bring in quality young man and work hard and smart we have teams that will challenge for title. It may take some time, but we will eventually reach our goal of a national championship!

By now all of you know that we won our third straight EIWA title. If anyone reading this is not aware of that fact, then shame on you and go back to watching NCAA basketball! On with my recap.

The EIWA tournament is finally upon us. I hope to see a large and boisterous pack of Cornell fans on Saturday and Sunday. Here is complete schedule of the weekend’s events.

It was great to see so many friends come out on Sunday for the Penn match. Sunday also marked our seniors final home competition. This year’s seniors include: Steve Anceravage, Drake Hovis, Zach Hammond, Tim Ironman and Jordan Leen. We wrestled in the always Cornell friendly confines of the Friedman Wrestling Center. If you have never been to a match at the Friedman Center you are missing out on one of the country’s great wrestling experiences. The sold-out gym is hot, cramped, and loud; a true wrestlers paradise!