SOURCE: cornellbigred.com

March 29, 2021

Cornell wrestling alumni Gabe Dean '17 and Ben Honis '19 each qualified for the 2021 U.S. Wrestling Olympic Team Trials over the weekend in Fort Worth, Texas. #YellCornell https://t.co/8rEz9EFqGD

— Cornell Big Red (@CornellSports) March 29, 2021

ITHACA, N.Y. - Cornell wrestling alumni Gabe Dean '17 and Ben Honis '19 each qualified for the 2021 U.S. Wrestling Olympic Team Trials over the weekend in Fort Worth, Texas, competing at the last chance Olympic qualifier. Each wrestler won their weight class in freestyle wrestling on Saturday to secure a spot at the team trials.

Dean and Honis join Kyle Dake '13 (74kg), Yianni Diakomihalis (65kg), Vito Arujau (57kg) and Nahshon Garrett '16 (65kg) as Cornelians qualified for the team trials, which will take place April 2-3 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

At 86kg, Dean powered his way through a bracket full of former national champions and All-Americans. Dean allowed just four points throughout the tournament, defeating Jake Hendricks (10-0), No. 8-seeded CJ Brucki (12-2), No. 4-seeded Drew Foster (8-0) and No. 2-seeded Nate Jackson (7-2). Jackson and Dean have gotten familiar with one another over the last year having wrestled three times.

Honis was the champion at 97kg, shutting out all but one of his opponents from scoring. Following back-to-back 10-0 wins over DaiJon Bibbs and Keegan Mueller, Honis narrowly defeated No. 4-seeded Braxton Amos by criteria, 6-6. In the finals, Honis got the best of No. 3-seeded Scottie Boykin, 10-0.

Andrew Berreyesa took third place in the 87kg Greco-Roman bracket over the weekend, just missing a team trials qualification slot. Berreyesa defeated No. 2-seeded Vaughn Monreal-Berner (10-1) and Cameron Caffey (13-6) on the top side of the bracket before winning a pair of consolation matches over Lukas Poloncic (8-0) and Tommy Brackett (3-1).

Despite losing his first bout of the weekend to No. 5-seeded David McFadden, Chris Foca (86kg) also turned in an impressive weekend featuring plenty of points. In the consolation bracket, Foca defeated David Willoughby (10-0), David Richardson (15-3), Max Dean (10-0) and Devin Skatzka (16-11) before falling in the consolation semifinals to Drew Foster (15-13).

Other Big Red wrestlers that competed over the weekend included Frank Perrelli (57kg), Joshua Saunders (65kg), Hunter Richard (65kg), Julian Ramirez (65kg), Jonathan Loew (86kg), Max Dean (86kg), Phillip Moomey (60kg - Greco) and Jonathon Fagen (87kg - Greco).