Senior Nahshon Garrett became the 10th wrestler in the history of the EIWAs to win four individual titles, joining fellow Cornellians Travis Lee '05, Mack Lewnes '11 and Cam Simaz '12 in reaching that milestone. He also moved into third place on the school's career wins list with 184, surpassing two-time national champion Lee. Garrett was given the Coaches Award as the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler and the Fletcher Award for the second straight year for posting the most career team points at the EIWA championships after improving to 32-0 on the year. Junior Gabe Dean held to form as well, becoming the 58th wrestler to claim three Eastern titles with an electric tournament that concluded with the Sheridan Award (most pins in the shortest period) and a pin in the finals in less than a minute.
Cornell had a dominant first session on Sunday, winning six of its seven semifinal matches and earning six more NCAA bids on top of the two that qualified on Saturday. It was the eighth consecutive year Big Red wrestlers captured at least three individual EIWA titles. It was also the sixth straight year the Big Red had all 10 wrestlers place and the second straight year it left the tournament with eight NCAA qualifiers.
Garrett was the story of the Big Red's tournament, and more than likely the entire tournament. All four of his tournament wins came with bonus points attached, including his 12-1 major decisio over Lehigh's Mason Beckman in the finals. After a quiet first minute in the championship match, Garrett earned a takedown with a little more than a minute left in the first, earned a pair of nearfall points and rode out Beckman to take a 4-0 lead into the second. He quickly escaped to start the second as the lead grew to 5-0 before a late takedown pushed the contest into bonus point territory. Garrett cruised to the 12-1 major decision win to extend the Big Red's lead in the team race. He advanced into the championship match with a completely dominant 18-2 technical fall over Penn's Caleb Richardson in the semifinals.
If Garrett wasn't the story, Dean was. The defending national champion at 184 pounds brought fireworks to the mat in the finals, sticking Navy's Mat Miller with a takedown to his back and squaring his shoulders off for the pin less than a minute into the match, his third win by fall in four tournament matches. That came after a tough 5-3 semifinal win over fellow Ivy Leaguer Lorenzo Thomas of Penn, who topped defending national runner-up Nathaniel Brown of Lehigh in the third place match.
Dylan Palacio earned the team's second EIWA title of the night and his first after defaulting out of last season's championship match. His takedown halfway through the period and John Boyle's escape accounted for the only scoring of the first, and an escape and a win on a long scramble for two more extended the junior's lead to 5-1. An escape by American's second-seeded wrestler in the third after choosing bottom got him back within 5-2, but a last-second takedown and riding time gave Palacio the title with an 8-3 victory. He got there earlier in the day by surviving a scare from fifth-seeded May Bethea in the semifinals before escaping with a 5-4 triumph.
Top-seeded Brian Realbuto got himself in trouble early in the first period of the 174-pound final, being taken down and nearly giving up nearfall points, but escaped and got the points back with a takedown to go up 3-2 after one. An escape to start the second for Realbuto, a takedown by Harvey and an almost immediate reversal made it 6-4, and Realbuto rode out the Army grappler to push his time over a minute. Not wanting to go underneath Realbuto, Harvey chose neutral to start the third and the Big Red junior took him down, only to see Army reverse him before cutting him, trying to get back into the match. A late Realbuto takedown and a riding point made the final 12-6 for the junior's second career EIWA title.
Freshman Joey Galasso earned a trip to the finals in his first EIWA meet after a 5-3 win over Tom Page of American in the semifinals, only to nearly pull one of the greatest late upsets in EIWA history. Trailing 3-0 with 25 seconds remaining, Galasso earned a quick takedown, cut Drexel's 10th-ranked Matt Cimato and took him down again with a headlock to his back for two points. No nearfall points were awarded and Cimato was able to slip out for an escape at the buzzer to capture the crown. The officials reviewd and the Cornell coaches challenged the call saying nearfall points should be awarded, but no change was made.
After No. 1 seed Duke Pickett advanced to the finals at 165 pounds with a strong 6-1 win over Columbia's Tyrel White in the semis, Pickett got a chance for an Ivy sweep when he met No. 3 seed Devon Gobbo of Harvard in the finals. There was no scoring in the first, and Pickett chose bottom to begin the second. He eventually scored his escape, but not before Gobbo racked up 1:21 of riding time. Pickett was able to ride him under a minute to erase the bonus point, but an official put the second back on the clock to give him exactly a minute to go along with Gobbo's escape point. That would prove to be the difference, with Gobbo taking the 2-1 win for first place.
Senior Owen Scott clinched his first NCAA tournament berth with a gutsy tournament, winning twice earlier in the day to get back to the third place match, including topping a pair of seeded wrestlers in Bucknell's Tyler Greene (No. 8) and American's Jeric Kasunic (No. 7) before defeating a third, No. 17 John Bolich of Lehigh. He picked up a takedown 17 seconds into the match against Bolich, using a leg attack for the quick two points, then after an escape, re-defended a shot and earned a second takedown on the edge to extend the lead to 4-1. That set the tone for the entire match, as Scott cruised to a 12-6 win, with only a late reversal by Bolich spoiling what would have been a major decision victory.
Freshman Dalton Macri won a pair of matches in the morning session at 125, including a 4-0 triumph over No. 15 David Terao in the consolation semifinals to advance to the third-place match. Wrestling for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, Macri overcame a second period reversal with a pair of escapes to send his match with Drexel's fifth-seeded Zach Fuentes into sudden victory overtime. Fuentes persevered however, taking down Macri 25 seconds into the extra session to win 4-2 and end the rookie's first EIWA tournament in fourth place.
Sophomore Dylan Realbuto placed for the second straight season, finishing eighth after dropping a pair of narrow decisions on Sunday to finish the year with a 17-10 record. He lost a 7-4 contest to seventh-seeded Nic Gill of Navy, then fell 3-1 in the seventh place match to American's Tyler Scotton.
Freshman heavyweight Jeramy Sweany found himself in the fifth-place match against Franklin & Marshall's Antonio Pelusi after falling in the semifinals to top-seeded and ninth-ranked Joe Stolfi, 17-2, and by fall to sixth-seeded Ray O'Donnell in front of his home Princeton crowd in the wrestlebacks. He nearly recovered from a 7-2 deficit in the place match against Pelusi before falling 9-7 to end the tournament in sixth.
PRINCETON, N.J. -- The Cornell wrestling team advanced seven to the semifinals, qualified two for NCAAs, has all nine alive and leads the team race after day one of the 2016 EIWA Championships at Princeton's Jadwin Gymnasium. The Big Red enter day two with a 91.5-82.5 lead over Lehigh, the only other team to keep all 10 alive through day one.
With the results of day one, advancing to the semifinals guaranteed that freshman heavyweight Jeramy Sweany will make his first NCAA tournament appearance and junior 157-pounder Dylan Palacio will make his third straight. They will be joined in Sunday's semifinals by seniors Nahshon Garrett (133) and Duke Pickett (165), juniors Gabe Dean (184) and Brian Realbuto (174) and freshman Joey Galasso (149) in the quest for Eastern titles. Also still alive for third place are senior Owen Scott (197), sophomore Dylan Realbuto (141) and freshman Dalton Macri (125), each of whom won at least one wrestleback after losing a bout in the championship flight. Realbuto won a pair of matches by fall after dropping a nip-and-tuck 3-2 contest to third-seeded Randy Cruz of Lehigh in the first round, including pinning Bucknell's 20th-ranked Tyler Smith in the consolation second round.
Cornell's five top-seeded wrestlers all advanced through day one unscathed, winning eight of their 10 matches by bonus points. Defending national champion Dean pinned both of his foes, earning second period falls over Jason Grimes of American and Elliot Antler of Sacred Heart. Three-time All-American Garrett won by fall and major decision to reach the semis and Brian Realbuto, the older brother of Dylan, earned a major decision and tech fall to cruise through Saturday.In all, the Big Red won 14 bonus point matches, including nine by fall.
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