With only two months until the NCAA Championship mats are rolled out in Philadelphia, it now appears Cornell has finally gotten to the point where it knows which 10 wrestlers will be pushing to represent the Big Red in the postseason.

With first-semester eligibility issues for a pair of seniors and then a barrage of injuries throughout the first three months of the season, Cornell head coach Mike Grey and his staff now move forward with an understanding of which 10 wrestlers will be comprising the starting lineup the rest of the year.

“It has been a bit of a frustrating year when it comes to our lineup,” Grey said. “It has been a tough year with injuries. It is a lot of just isolated incidents, unfortunately.”

The most recent change has come at the lower weights for Cornell.

The Big Red started the season with Greg Diakomihalis at 125 pounds and Brett Ungar bumping up to 133 pounds for the first time. But with Diakomihalis now out with injury, Ungar will be making the move back down to 125 pounds and freshman Tyler Ferrara will slot in at 133 pounds, where he has been since mid-December when he took over for a then-injured Ungar.

“When he is back, Ungar will be at 125 pounds,” Grey said. “We thought he might have been back last weekend (at the Cyclone Open at Iowa State), but he wasn’t quite ready. When he is back, and he is feeling good, he will be our 125-pounder. 

“Once he is conformable at 125, I think he is an All-American threat immediately. He is close, and we are excited to get him back onto the mat.”

Ungar was an NCAA qualifier at 125 pounds each of the last two years, going 2-2 last year. He was 5-3 this year up at 133 pounds but has not seen action since the Cliff Keen.

Ferrara came into the lineup at 133 after the Cliff Keen, and his only two losses on the mat this year have been to a pair of All-Americans: Lucas Byrd (Illinois) and Kai Orine (NC State). Last weekend Ferrara competed at the Cyclone Open and took out Cory Land our Northern Iowa (10-7) before having to injury default out of the tournament.

“(Ferrara) got a real good quality win last weekend before he got injured,” Grey said. “He might be back this weekend, but if not, next weekend for sure. 

“I think our team is much, much better moving forward now with Ungar at 125 and Tyler Ferrara at 133.”

As such a physical sport, it is hard for a coaching staff to prepare for injuries. Five of the 10 weights for Cornell starters have been affected with wrestlers missing action due to injury.

“One of the biggest challenges for me as a coach is finding balance between tough training and easy training,” Grey said. “I really believe if you just settle now, you are not going to be a champion in March. 

“You have to find times when to push, and other times you need to pick the right partners and do the best you can to be as safe as possible when you are training hard. But you still have to push and get the most out of our guys.”

Since coming back from a holiday break, Cornell has picked up impressive wins at #19 Missouri (26-12) and at home last time out on Jan. 12 against #19 Lehigh (23-19).

Since the Lehigh dual, the Cornell practice room has been the focal point for improvement.

“I think we are in a good spot,” Grey said. “We wrestled two really good duals, out at Missouri and then Lehigh at home. I think Lehigh exposed us in some weight classes, and that is what we need to see, areas we need to work on, heading into two weeks of hard training. 

“From January 12 to this weekend, we had such a focus on our training, working on areas that we need to fix, working on our conditioning. I think overall I am happy where we are at.”

Grey has enjoyed seeing the progression of his squad since the season has begun, even with a wide range of lineups thrown out onto the mat to accommodate various wrestlers missing action this year.

“I see a lot of similarities where we are at now to where we have been in the past (at this time of year),” Grey said. “I’m expecting our guys to continue to progress and have upward trajectory as we keep preparing and training for March.”

Onto Ivy League Duals

Over the next three weekends, Cornell will face five Ivy League opponents, the conference’s first year of action since those teams broke away from the EIWA.

The Big Red are on the road for a pair of duals this Saturday, first at Harvard at noon then an evening tilt at Brown at 5:30 p.m.

“We are entering the Ivy League portion of our schedule, and I think every time we go out there, we are going to get everybody’s best shot,” Grey said. “The Ivy League schools are always eager to wrestle us, and I like that challenge and look forward to those upcoming duals.”

After this weekend in Ivy League action, Cornell will be at Binghamton (Feb. 1) and Columbia (Feb. 2) before returning home to host Princeton and Penn (Feb. 8 and 9).

“This should be a fun three-week stretch of conference duals,” Grey said. “I’m excited to have two duals each week for the next three weeks, that is good for consistency and rattling off a bunch of matches. 

“I think it is very important to wrestle well in the Ivy League stretch because that top tournament seed is on the line.”