The EIWA Championships will once again be live on FloWrestling. The EIWA has been awarded 45 automatic qualifying spots for the NCAA Championships, third only to the Big Ten and Big 12. While preseeds should be released in the next couple of days, you can find FloWrestling’s EIWA rankings, which should be very similar, HERE.

Below are the five biggest storylines to follow at EIWAs.

Cornell vs Lehigh

Cornell and Lehigh have combined to win the past 21 EIWA team titles. You have to go all the way back to 2001 when Harvard won the title with a lot of help from heavyweight Dawid Rechul who pinned his way through the tournament and earned OW. The winning has come in spurts. Lehigh won every year from 2002-2006. Then Cornell from 2007-2017. Then back to Lehigh from 2018-2021. And then back to Cornell last year. 

This year, Cornell is the favorite again with a projected 142 points to #2 Lehigh’s 107.5. Their dual this season was much closer than that, however. Cornell won 18-15 picking up a key victory at 157 where Lehigh was without regular starter Josh Humphreys, who is the favorite to win the EIWA title this weekend. Lehigh got things kicked off with up an upset at 141 when Malik Hynes defeated Vince Cornella. With Cornella likely getting the #1 seed at 141, this could be a big potential quarterfinal.

Yianni Diakomihalis’s Fourth Title

The first step in Yianni Diakomihalis winning his fourth NCAA title is winning his fourth EIWA title. He’ll once again be a heavy favorite at 149 lbs. Penn’s Doug Zapf will likely be the #2 seed. Yianni defeated Zapf 8-3 earlier this month. 

Yianni has always impressed at EIWAs. Last year he bonused his way through the bracket and his first two years he only had up one regular decision each bringing his total conference bonus point percentage to 83%. Yianni has been a pleasure to watch compete in college and we should embrace and enjoy these last two times we get to do so.

Julian Ramirez vs Quincy Monday Rematch

The match I’ll be looking forward to the most will have to come in the 165 lbs finals, assuming both of these guys aren’t upset. Quincy Monday was ranked #3 in the country behind Keegan O’Toole and David Carr going into the Princeton - Cornell dual on February 4th. Few outside of New York and Julian Ramirez’s circle were giving him a shot at beating the 2022 NCAA finalist. That’s exactly what he did, however. In a wild back-and-forth match, Ramirez scored a late takedown and back points to win 10-6. I expect the rematch to be just as action-packed as the first meeting. 

Patrick Glory Last Tune-Up Before NCAAs

Patrick Glory has been quite the roller coaster from a fan perspective this year. Most of the craziness has come from his weight and whether he will go 125 or 133. While he’s spent time at and legitimately considered going both for the postseason, he’s for sure down at 125 and will be staying there for the rest of the season. Despite the off the mat storylines, Glory has looked solid on the mat. He’s 16-0 with wins over Brandon Courtney, Brandon Kaylor, Dean Peterson, Brett Ungar, and more. He truly looks like the only possible thing that could be standing between Spencer Lee and a fourth NCAA title. EIWAs will be the final weight check and tune-up for the 2X EIWA champion.

Who Will Qualify For NCAAs?

Below are the allocations at each weight for the conference. A wrestler must place within the allocations for his weight or he will have to earn an at-large bid to the national tournament. This also gives you a picture of the deepest weights.

125 - 6

133 - 5

141 - 5

149 - 2

157 - 3

165 - 5

174 - 4

184 - 4

197 - 5

285 - 6