First let me thank Mike Mankowich for the many hours he dedicated to getting this page up and running. I’m excited to have a new medium to spread the good word and works of Cornell Wrestling!
I’ve been peppered with questions regarding how we are getting/keeping our guys ready for the year. The truth is we are not currently permitted to do anything with the team. I expect Cornell to ease some of the restrictions in the very near future based on the effective controls implemented by the university. Over the past three days Cornell has had zero positive cases. To follow our progress, go to: https://covid.cornell.edu/testing/dashboard/.
Sitting out for the semester
Due to the uncertainty of how the season will play out we have a few wrestlers who have elected to sit out the semester and possibly the entire year to save their eligibility. Vito, Arujau, Dom LaJoie, Michael Venosa, Yianni, Colton Yapoujian and Max Dean will also decide within the next couple weeks whether they will return to play for the second semester. Although I do not have any power in the decision I do feel confident we will have a season and NCAA tournament. The advantage this offers to these athletes is that they do have some, although still limited, training opportunities.
Schedule
I still do not have an official schedule. I expect the NCAA will follow basketball’s schedule and permit competition to commence on November 25, but I do not expect that Cornell will be permitted to compete before January 1. Once we get more definitive directives I’ll do my best to keep everyone in the loop.
Building Update
The Friedman Center renovation and expansion project is almost complete. I expect to be in by the second week of October. Of course we currently couldn’t use it if we were in so I guess we picked a great time to be shut out! I will feature this more prominently in my next post. I’m not sure when the grand opening will occur due to the COVID restrictions but we hope to do something in November.
That’s all for now.
Best, Rob