By Gary Mihoces, USA TODAY Besides being No. 2 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll in football, Boise State also is No. 2 this week in the first college wrestling coaches poll of the season. So who's No. 1 on the mats? That's Cornell, an Ivy League school without athletic scholarships that has demonstrated it's in a league with the top wrestling schools in the land. PRESEASON WRESTLING POLL: Cornell starts No. 1 Some coaches might be cautious about a No. 1 ranking. Not Cornell's Rob Koll, coach since 1993 at the school in Ithaca, N.Y. "It's nice. I've been on the other side of it. And let me tell you, the only people that don't care about polls are those who aren't ranked very high," says Koll. Koll, an NCAA wrestling champion at North Carolina in 1988, grew up around the college sport. His late father, Wrestling Hall of Fame member Bill Koll, coached Penn State. So Koll welcomes the boost the ranking brings to recruiting. "It's just hard to get into kids' doors if you're not in the polls," he says. "And to be No. 1, now people who in the old days wouldn't even return our calls are calling us." Never mind extra pressure on the team. "The kids are going to put a lot of pressure on themselves regardless of what the team is ranked," says Koll. Cornell was a unanimous choice for the top spot this week in the National Wrestling Coaches Association/USA TODAY poll of 11 Division I coaches. But unlike football, polls and computer rankings don't figure into whether a college wrestling team gets a chance to compete for a national title at the end of the season. Individual wrestlers will compete in qualifying tournaments for spots at the Division I championships March 17-19 in Philadelphia. The results they deliver there will determine the final team standings at nationals. Last season, Cornell was second behind Iowa at nationals. Iowa, No. 7 in the preseason poll and riding a streak of 61 dual-match victories, has won that team title 23 times, including the last three. But Cornell has placed in the top 10 at nationals six times in the past eight seasons. It will attempt to become the first Ivy League team to win that title. Among its top returning wrestlers: • Sophomore Kyle Dake, NCAA champion as a freshman last season at 141 pounds. Wrestling in his hometown of Ithaca, he's moving up to 149 this season. • Senior Mack Lewnes of Annapolis, Md., 174 pounds, NCAA runner-up last season. • Junior Cam Simaz of Allegan, Mich., 197 pounds, third at the NCAAs last season. As an Ivy League school, Cornell does not give athletic scholarships. Aid is based on financial need. But Cornell obviously has been able to recruit top wrestlers. It can offer an Ivy League education and winning wrestling tradition. Its wrestlers train, compete and do school work at the Friedman Wrestling Center, opened in 2002 and described on Cornell's athletics website as "the nation's only stand-alone facility devoted solely to collegiate wrestling." The lead gift for the $3.5 million facility was made by financier Stephen Friedman, a Cornell wrestling star in the 1950s, and his wife, Barbara Benioff Friedman. Among the features: a floor specially designed to be less rigid than a basketball court and offer more give when wrestling mats are laid over it. "You've got to have a very supportive administration and, in our case, very supportive alumni because we raise an awful lot of our budget," says Koll. "We're not like basketball and football, where they're fully funded and then some. We've got to raise a lot of money every year just to pay the bills. And if we didn't do that … we would certainly not be where we are today." Cornell athletics director Andy Noel was the school's wrestling coach in the 1970s and '80s. "He's not just supportive of Cornell wrestling. Our women's hockey team was No. 1 in the country and … our men's lacrosse team's great and obviously our basketball team is great," says Koll. "So, it's not that he gives us more than other teams. He's done an amazing job." Cornell's success this season will be determined on that mats. The same applies to Boise State, 11th at nationals last season. Boise returns two All-Americans from last season. Boise might get shut out of the BCS football championship. But it and Cornell have a shot to win the team title at nationals in Philadelphia. "That's all the enchiladas right there. That the whole enchilada," says Koll, whose team opens at home Nov. 19 against ninth-ranked Central Michigan. | |||||||||
Friday, October 29, 2010
Cornell Preseason #1 in Wrestling Polls
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