From: Robert Koll [email protected] Subject: (No subject) Date: February 5, 2020 at 11:26 PM To: [email protected] Yes, I am still alive. I apologize for such a long absence but I was busy fighting Australian bush fires, saving baby Koala bears and finishing up work with the CDC, cracking the genome code for the coronavirus. My past-times aside the most exciting news is that the Friedman Center expansion and renovation project is moving along smoothly. The foundation walls have been poured and we are on schedule for our mid-August move in date. If you happen to be in the area please stop by for a tour. You will notice that every room no doubles as a storage center and the locker room is currently housed in what was actually the storage room! Despite the absence of our Olympic Red-shirts, and the injuries to Colton Yapoujian and Brandon Womack, the team has demonstrated amazing resilience and tenacity. I don’t recall a team show so much growth and development throughout a season. Once the C goes on the chest our guys wrestle 5 points better than their resume! Three Quarter Year Update 125 Dom Lajoie: You simply cannot work as hard, and care as much as Dom, and not improve. To that end Dom has been rewarded for his obsessive pursuit of excellence. I cannot say enough about what Dom’s brings to our team. He is extremely coachable and has made many significant technical and strategic adjustments which have enabled him to be nationally competitive. His schedule doesn’t lighten up and we have no reason to believe Dom won’t continue to demonstrate on upward trajectory. 133 Chas Tucker: Chas is pretty much the same guy he was last year only a little more confident and better on bottom. Although this might not sound like a flowery compliment, please remember I believed Chas had all the tools last year to win the title if he was a little more confident and better on bottom! 141 Noah Baughman: Noah has been a consistent performer for us all year, illustrated by his 18-9 record. Noah’s fast paced, aggressive style is analogous to how this team performs and a barometer to our success. He has improved markedly on top ever since he made the move up to 141 pounds. Noah has been one of the underappreciated heroes for this year’s success. 149 Hunter Richards: Hunter is extremely athletic, works like his life depends on it, and competes at a breakneck pace. He has always been a tough wrestler but this year his scrambling ability and improved top game have made him a bad match-up for just about anyone. My one complaint is that he needs to open up and take more shots on his feet. He has an extremely potent offensive arsenal but he has chosen to keep it hidden from the public. Hopefully this will change after he reads this critique! 157 Adam Santoro: Adam is an extremely technically proficient wrestler. He has had many great matches and moments, followed up by some truly heart wrenching setbacks. We have not yet seen the best of Adam and I am confident the last two months of the season will be his best. 165 Jake Brindley: Jake has started since the Lehigh match. During this time, he has wrestled himself into shape after being sidelined by early season injury. Jake was a 4x Florida state champion because he finds ways to win. We expect for him to continue this habit moving forward! 174 Brandon Womack: was injured at the South Beach duals and is out indefinitely. As a result, we asked Andrew Berreyesa to return to school this semester. He had planned to take the year off in hopes of qualifying for the Olympics. He came up one spot shy for the Olympic Trials making this decision that much easier. Andy has not disappointed in his return. So far, he is 6-1 and has been dominant in all but one of his matches. Ironically despite his Greco-Roman emphasis he is quite strong both on top and bottom. 184 Jonathan Loew: has made the most out of his freshman campaign. He is currently 18-9 with victories over numerous ranked opponents. Jon is built like a younger version of Ben Darmstadt, minus an inch of so. He is wiry strong and needs to start using his length to his advantage on top. He was a dominant top wrestler in high school and he needs to get back to that as opposed to depending on only scoring from his feet. 197 Ben Darmstadt: It’s great to have Ben Darmstadt back at 197. Ben came into the season very light and wanted to give 184 a shot. He was affected by the weight loss and not nearly as not nearly as effective at the weight. (Ok, that last sentence was to illustrate that my UNC education wasn’t a complete waste. At least I know the difference between affect and effect. Unfortunately, that’s about the extent of it). The good news for Ben is it didn’t take him anytime to put the weight back on. He was injured during the Columbia match but was ready, if need be, for last weekend’s Brown/Harvard matches. 285 Brendan Furman: has come through for us on numerous occasions this year. He is a full 285 pounds and fairly athletic for a big guy. I couple small breaks and he would be enjoying a great year. He has gotten much better on top and just needs to learn/start use his size and he should qualify for the NCAA tournament. Friedman Wrestling Center Expansion/Renovation For the past four years we have been working on plan to improve the Friedman WC. Work finally got underway in December. Within the last month concrete has been poured for the foundation and half our locker room has been excavated in preparation for the new hydrotherapy equipment. Although a generous gift from Steve and Barbara Friedman allowed us to start construction we still have a way to go in order to complete our wish list. We want to make sure the expansion and renovation once again makes the Friedman WC the world’s finest wrestling training center. Thank you all those who have already made gifts and pledges to the project. We still have the world’s finest wrestling training center. Thank you all those who have already made gifts and pledges to the project. We still have giving opportunities at all levels. If you would like to be involved in helping us push this project over the finish line please reach out to me…before I reach out to you! Injury Report Colton Yapoujian injured his knee in December and will not be returning to the line-up this year. He will qualify for a medical red-shirt and is working with Cornell to make sure he does everything necessary to be here for the additional year. International Kyle Dake recently captured the Matteo Pellicone championship in Rome, Italy. Kyle won by technical fall in the finals over Olympic bronze medalist and European champion from Turkey, Soner Demirtas. This was Kyle’s first time back down at 74 kilos in three years. Yianni will be back in action at the Pan-American Championship on March 13-15 in Ottawa, Canada Vito Arujau wrestled competed in Krasnoyarsk, Russia on Jan 24. Vito lost his first match to a wrestler who lost his match to the eventual champion, knocking Vito out of the competition. In his defeat Vito gave up an 8 point ankle lace in the last 30 seconds of the match to lose the match 12-10. Vito is as good as anyone in the world on his feet, but needs to address his parterre game. This is not the first time he has lost by giving up multiple turns but, if he addresses this weakness, it can be his last. Penn/Princeton Weekend This weekend we finish up the Ivy League portion of our schedule. We travel to Penn for a 2:00 Saturday match. On Sunday we face Princeton at 1:00 in Jadwin Gym. We will be putting our 17 year Ivy League championship streak on the line. Both teams are currently undefeated in the league and both teams build their season around beating Cornell. If you are in the area please make every effort to make the trip to support the Big Red! For full schedule, results, and recaps click on: Schedule and Results To see building construction pictures please open PDF attachment. Click to download these attachments: Season Update.pdf You have received this email from Cornell University. Click here to unsubscribe. .