No. 22 Wrestling Hosts No. 19 Cornell Friday at RAC

Friday, January 17

7 PM

Rutgers University

Cornell

Photo by: (Ben Solomon/Rutgers Athletics)

No. 22 Wrestling Hosts No. 19 Cornell Friday at RAC

Jan 16 | Wrestling

Match Notes: Cornell BTNPlus

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 22 Rutgers wrestling (7-1, 2-1) returns to Piscataway to host No. 19 Cornell (5-4) on Friday night at the RAC. The dual, presented by RWJBarnabas Health, will stream live via BTNPlus, with Lou Brogno and Nick Kosko on the call.

Prior to the match, the Scarlet Knights will unveil championship banners for Anthony Ashnault and Nick Suriano, who claimed individual NCAA titles during the 2018-19 season. The titles were the first in program history, as both helped RU finish in the Top-10 at the national tournament under 2019 NCAA Tournament Coach of the Year Scott Goodale.

What to Know
• The Scarlet Knights moved up two spots to No. 22 in the latest NWCA Coaches Poll after splitting its Big Ten Conference road trip against Michigan State (W, 25-12), and No. 5 Ohio State (L, 22-13).
• Nicolas Aguilar (125), Sammy Alvarez (133) and Billy Janzer (184) all picked up two victories last weekend, as the trio combined for victories over five ranked foes. Janzer registered back-to-back ranked victories to vault into this week's national rankings.
• Four Scarlet Knights enter the weekend ranked by FloWrestling - No. 11 Alvarez, No. 16 Aguilar, No. 25 Janzer and No. 18 Jordan Pagano (197).
• With two more dual wins, Rutgers will register its 13th consecutive winning season since head coach Scott Goodale took over the program in 2007-08. The Scarlet Knights are also looking for a winning conference record for the fourth time since it joined the Big Ten Conference in 2014-15.

Projected Matchups: No. 19 Cornell
125: 16/15/14 Nicolas Aguilar (16-4) OR Malcolm Robinson (4-4) vs. Dominic LaJoie (11-11)
133: 9/11/9 Sammy Alvarez (17-4) vs. 4/5/5 Chas Tucker (19-0)
141: JoJo Aragona (9-4) OR Zach Firestone (5-6) vs. Noah Baughman (15-8)
149: Gerard Angelo (11-7) OR Nick Santos (6-1) vs. Hunter Richard (13-7)
157: Michael Van Brill (14-9) vs. Adam Santoro (8-10)
165: Brett Donner (13-9) vs. Jake Brindley (3-5)
174: NR/NR/25 Joseph Grello (5-4) OR Willie Scott (6-4) vs. Malik Dawkins (9-7)
184: NR/25/27 Billy Janzer (13-4) vs. 19/23/23 Jonathan Loew (17-7)
197: 18/18/21 Jordan Pagano (15-5) OR Mathew Correnti (10-4) vs. Jonathan Fagen (6-4)
HWT: Alex Esposito (14-9) vs. Brendan Furman (13-8)
Rankings: Intermat/FloWrestling/TheOpenMat

Scouting the Big Red
• Cornell enters Friday night with a 5-4 dual record after it split its matches against No. 14 Lehigh (L, 19-14) and Columbia (W, 27-12) on Jan. 11 in Ithaca, New York.
• Due to a combination of Olympic redshirts and injuries, the Big Red feature just two ranked wrestlers in their projected lineup for Friday – No. 4 Chas Tucker (133) and No. 19 Jonathan Loew (184). Tucker sports an unblemished 19-0 record and represents the eighth ranked foe for Alvarez this season. Alvarez is 7-0 against ranked Intermat foes in 2019-20.
• Behind an individual national title from Yianni Diakomihalis, a runner-up result from Max Dean and four All-Americans, Cornell finished seventh with 59.5 team points at the 2019 NCAA Wrestling Championships in Pittsburgh. Vitali Arujau (125) and Ben Honis (197) also appeared on the podium a year ago.
• Arujau, Dean, Diakomihalis all took Olympic redshirts this season, while ranked wrestlers No. 5 Ben Darmstadt (197) and No. 19 Brandon Womack (174) are also out due to injury.
• Rutgers is 3-6-1 all-time against Cornell, with the Big Red taking a 28-10 result in their last meeting on Nov. 27, 2016. Rutgers won the matchup the previous year courtesy of a 21-13 result. The programs first met in 1952, a 12-12 tie.

Up Next
Rutgers takes a short road trip across the Keystone State to face No. 2 Penn State on Sunday in State College. The dual will broadcast live via ESPN2 at 5 p.m. ET.

Rutgers Wrestling is presented by Eat Clean Bro, an Official Partner of Rutgers Athletics.

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