Yianni May Be Young, But His Hit List Is Impressive
Yianni May Be Young, But His Hit List Is Impressive
Yianni Diakomihalis has a list of wins that includes four NCAA champs, international hammers, and over a dozen All-Americans.
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Yianni Diakomihalis finished last season as the #3 pound-for-pound wrestler in the NCAA, the highest-ranked athlete who still had eligibility left. He earned that with an impressive resume of hammers he beat.
Watch Yianni vs Zain Wrestle-off Live on Flo
Monday September 2nd | 3:00 PM Eastern
The two-time Cadet world champ has the opportunity to make his first senior world team next Monday in a special wrestle-off against Zain Retherford. Tickets have already sold out for the event.
While most of our previous hit lists have focused on careers in college and after, Yianni is still so young, and his peer group is excelling more than most at such a young age, that we're throwing in a few high school wins for him.
Here are some of the studs Yianni had wins over while still in high school:
- Daton Fix
- Vito Arujau
- Jack Mueller
- Jaydin Eierman
- Sammy Sasso
- Tariq Wilson
- Kanen Storr
That list includes two NCAA finalists, a senior world team member, a Junior world finalist, a three-time All-American, and two other AAs.
At the end of his senior year of high school, he wrestled in Vegas at Junior Nationals. Though he did not win, he beat three-time Greco world team member Dom Demas twice, who would go on to make the Junior freestyle world team and finish fourth at NCAAs.
Right at the beginning of his freshman season at Cornell, he beat Nick Lee of Penn State, who would in short order become a two-time All-American. Then at CKLV came his big breakthrough, beating NCAA finalist Bryce Meredith in the semis, after which time Yianni ascended to #3 in the rankings.
Also at CKLV he would beat Sa'Derian Perry, who would go on to place at NCAAs that year. A few weeks after CKLV, Yianni defeated 2017 AA Tommy Thorn in Cornell's dual against Minnesota. That would be his last big win until the national tournament.
His run at the 2018 NCAA tournament will likely go down in history. Coming in as the three seed, he ran the gauntlet in his final three matches. On Friday morning, all he did was beat the reigning two-time NCAA champ Dean Heil of Oklahoma State, scoring the winning takedown with less than 30 seconds remaining and riding out Heil for the win. In that match, he tore his ACL.
In the semis, Yianni had the only guy to beat him that year: Jaydin Eierman. These two were familiar with each other going back to the Open in 2016, and Yianni avenged his single loss on the season, again scoring the winning takedown with under 30 seconds to go. In the finals, he took down CKLV opponent Meredith, then in his second title match.
The torn ACL would keep Yianni out for the entirety of the freestyle season and the beginning of the college year. He would return at the Mat Town Open, and make his dual debut by majoring four-time NCAA qualifier Josh Alber in the dual against Northern Iowa.
In the same venue where Eierman had beaten him a year prior, Yianni pulled off a 3-1 win this time around. At the beginning of February, he pinned Kyle Shoop of Lock Haven, who would place later in the year at NCAAs. His final win of the regular season came against Joey McKenna, who was coming off a U.S. Open title and Final X appearance in freestyle.
At the NCAA tournament in Pittsburgh, his run included AA Chad Red, followed by repeat wins over Demas, Eierman, and McKenna en route to his first undefeated season and another national title.
Entering the spring, there were serious questions if the man who has said he loves freestyle more than folkstyle could make it on the Senior world team in his final year of Junior eligibility. His decision to wrestle in the Open meant his path to a crown in Vegas was similar to his NCAA title runs, starting with Nick Dardanes in the Round of 16.
The quarterfinals brought him up against 2016 Olympian Frank Molinaro, and his 10-3 victory gave him his second career win over an NCAA champ. Then in the semis came his FLWC teammate Jordan Oliver, who he would go on to tech. Finally came his tight finals win over Zain Retherford, the man he'll see in one week to make the world team.
Shortly after winning in Vegas, Yianni was selected to face world #1 Bajrang Punia at Beat the Streets. The sophomore beat the world silver medalist in an exciting 10-8 match in front of a sold-out crowd at the Hulu Theater.
His Open win granted him a berth in Final X: Rutgers, and we all know how things went from there. Zain took match one, match two went awry, and now they are wrestling again.
Before the arbitration became final, however, Yianni wrestled in two international tournaments, which our friend Andrew Spey covered in detail. Yianni's summer overseas included another win over Zain, plus his epic Yasar Dogu semifinal win over former Russian Ismail Musukaev. Then a few weeks later in Poland he felled Euro Games bronze Gor Oganesyan of Ukraine.
Should Yianni ultimately be successful in his conquest to vanquish Retherford on Labor Day, he would gain the opportunity to really up his list at the world championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. But at just 20 years old, he already has notched wins over some of the most impressive wrestlers this country has to offer.