Cornell Wrestlers Prepare for 2021 U.S. Wrestling Olympic Team Trials
March 30, 2021

 


ITHACA, N.Y. - Cornell wrestlers will take to the mat at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas this weekend, April 2-3, for the 2021 U.S. Wrestling Olympic Team Trials. Wrestlers with Big Red ties include Kyle Dake '13, Gabe Dean '17, Yianni Diakomihalis, Vito Arujau, Nahshon Garrett '16 and Ben Honis '19.

Coverage of the event will be broadcast live across NBC Sports Network, Peacock and NBC Sports digital platforms. The first round of action from the men's freestyle challenge tournament will be broadcast via the Peacock streaming service at 11 a.m. ET on Friday, April 2.

Tournament wins from Dake, Dean, Arujau or Honis would secure their spot at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, while the weight wrestled by Diakomihalis and Garrett (65kg) still needs to be qualified for the games. The United States will send a 65kg representative to the World Qualifier in Sofia, Bulgaria on May 6-9 where they will need to place top two in order to qualify the weight for the Olympics.

Dake, the two-time world champion at 79kg, is automatically sitting in the 74kg challenge tournament semifinals and needs two wins to earn a best-of-three series with Jordan Burroughs. The top seed at 74kg is Jason Nolf, who Dake defeated on February 23, 2021, 5-0. Dake has not lost a freestyle match since January of 2018.

Outside of Dake, Diakomihalis is the highest-seeded Big Red wrestlers as the No. 2 seed at 65kg. Diakomihalis earned his spot at the team trials due to his fourth-place finish at Senior Nationals in 2019. At 65kg, Diakomihalis owns wins over Zain Retherford, Jordan Oliver, James Green, Frank Molinaro, Anthony Ashnault and Mitch McKee. Garrett received the No. 9 seed in the same weight class.

Arujau is seeded No. 3 at 57kg and qualified for the trials with his third-place finish at Senior Nationals. An up-and-comer at the weight, Arujau owns wins over Nick Suriano, Sean Russell and Zach Sanders.

Dean and Honis each qualified for team trials following their performances at the Last Chance Qualifier last week. Both wrestlers won their respective weight class to secure their spot at trials. Dean is seeded No. 5 at 86kg and Honis is seeded No. 7 and 97kg.

SCHEDULE

April 2nd
Challenge Tournament - 11 a.m. - Peacock
Mats 1, 2, 3, 4

Challenge Tournament Finals - 7:30 p.m. - NBCSN/NBCSports.com/NBC Sports App
Mat 2

Challenge Tournament Finals - 7:30 p.m. - Peacock
Mats 1, 3, 4

April 3rd
Challenge Tournament Consolations - 1 p.m. - Peacock
Mats 1, 2, 3

Championship Series - 7:30 p.m. - NBCSN
Mat 2

Championship Series - 7:30 p.m. - NBCSports.com/NBC Sports App
Mats 1, 3





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