Cornell's Dake '13, Diakomihalis '23 Sweep Final X New York Series
June 09, 2022

 


NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Kyle Dake '13 made his fifth national team and Yianni Diakomihalis '23 earned his second straight World Team appearance after capturing the Final X series titles with wins on Wednesday evening at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden. Big Red assistant coach Nick Gwiazdowski fell just short of his fifth national team appearance at 125kg in the best-of-three series.

Dake, the three-time world champion, swept former Penn State national champion Jason Nolf 4-2 and 2-1 at 74kg. He now sports a 115-18 record in freestyle, winning 60 of his past 61 matches. The four-time NCAA champion led 1-0 at the break in both matches, with Nolf earning a quick lead with a takedown in the first bout and tying it with a passivity point in the second. Dake answered big and quickly to earn the wins. In the first match, Dake earned a pair of stepouts and a penalty point to grab the 4-2 victory, then another pushout in the second for the 2-1 triumph.

Diakomihalis earned his second world team appearance at 65kg with a sweep of Evan Henderson, including a last-second pushout in the first match to claim a wild 11-9 victory. The three-time NCAA champ and rising Big Red senior earned a tech fall in the second with a 14-4 triumph.

Gwiazdowski, a four-time national team member, split the first two matches with Hayden Zillmer, winning 5-0 before falling in 4-3 and 5-5 decisions in the final two. Zillmer rallied late from 3-0 and 5-0 deficits to earn the win.

Not wrestling, but earning his spot on his first national team was rising Cornell sophomore Jacob Cardenas. After winning the U23 Freestyle World Team trials tournament, he received the spot when Jay Aiello won at 92kg in a true third match to capture the first and final spot at the weight on the USA Wrestling national team.





Comments