With all eyes focused on the Cliff Keen Invitational every first weekend in December, multiple wrestlers come away each year after making an early statement.

One such this year was Cornell freshman Jaxon Joy.

Joy coasted to the title at 149 pounds, a weight class that was one of the deepest and featured three of the top four ranked wrestlers in the nation. In winning the title, with bonus-point victories in the semifinal and finals, Joy was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler.

It was his semifinal win over #2 Kaleb Larkin of Arizona State that caught everybody’s attention. After a takedown 29 seconds into the bout, Joy locked up cradle after cradle after cradle to secure a 15-0 technical fall in the first period.

In the final against #22 Eligh Rivera of Princeton, he once again locked up a cradle, and this time picked up the fall 2:18 into the match.

“I think there's definitely a lot of areas for improvement,” Joy humbly said in an interview this week, just like he said in an interview immediately after his final win. “I’m critical of myself, I’m just trying to get better.

“I do think it went very well. But I also like to go back and watch, and I can see some areas in need of improvement. I’m ready to get back to work.”

His coaches have seen his steady improvement since he arrived in Ithaca from Wadswoth, Ohio.

“He's excited, but motivated to continue to succeed, to continue to progress and really move forward,” Cornell coach Mike Grey said. “I would say, he put himself in a really good position as we head towards March.

“We knew he was a special kid. We knew that he has a ton of talent. He's doing what we thought he would.”

Joy was a top-25 recruit on FloWrestling’s 2024 Big Board, and took advantage of a greyshirt season last year at Cornell. During that year he hit multiple open tournaments, wrestling in more than 30 matches, but maybe more importantly he got to train daily with Cornell great Yianni Diakomihalis.

“Last year was very important for me,” Joy said. “We have so many great partners in our room. We have world-level guys like Yianni and Vito (Arujau) that I can go with daily.

“But I'd say more importantly, it was just like a great year of just bonding with friends. Learning how to live away from home. It helped mold me into who I am now. Just extremely beneficial.”

Now Cornell has one of the best 1-2 punches in the NCAA with their combo of Joy at 149 pounds and All-American Meyer Shapiro returning at 157 pounds (he was not enrolled the first semester but will be returning to the lineup).

“You could say a lot of Jaxon’s growth is due to his training with Meyer,” Grey said. “Having two really talented guys back to back in your lineup, it’s a really good thing. It will be huge for us once we roll into all of our duals, being able to depend on them to score points and win big matches.”

Open Competition

With the end of the first semester coming to a close, Cornell is finally getting back some missing pieces at the lower weights. Now with multiple capable starters at both 125 and 133 pounds, the coaching staff will let them battle to see who earns the starting spot.

At 125 pounds, Marcello Milani has been holding down the starting spot, and advanced to the quarterfinals at the Cliff Keen Invitational.

Sophomore Tyler Ferrara finished third at the recent Cliff Keen Invite and has made his way up to #17 in the national rankings at 133 pounds. He avenged an earlier 1-0 loss to #11 Dillion Campbell of Virginia Tech by beating him in the third-place match, 8-1.

Waiting to return to the mat, Greg Diakomihalis (125 pounds) and Brett Ungar (133 pounds) will now be battling for those starting spots they once had. Diakomihalis has battled a slew of injuries, with his lone full season coming back in 2021-22. Ungar moved up to 133 pounds last year but was limited to only eight matches.

Ungar is scheduled to get back into dual action at the Journeymen Collegiate Wrestling Duals (December 21), while Diakomihalis aims to return to the Southern Scuffle (January 3-4).

“We are going to have multiple entries at the Southern Scuffle in those weight classes,” Grey said. “We are going to let all of those guys compete (for those starting spots). That will be our first look at all four of them in that tournament.

“We’ll continue to assess and see where things are as we move into the second half of our schedule.”

Milani and Ferrar qualified for the NCAA Championships in their first season in the lineup last year, while Ungar was a two-time NCAA Qualifier at 125 pounds back in 2024 and 2023.

One spot that looks to be solidified is at 141 pounds.

Vince Cornella was Cornell’s starter and qualified for the 2024 NCAA Championships but was unable to compete due to injury. He sat out all of last season but has made his way back onto the mat recently.

This past weekend, Cornella’s results on the mat spoke for themselves. He went down to the Patriot Open and secured the title with a 4-0 record, outscoring those foes 61-7. In the final, he took out #15 Tom Crook of Virginia Tech, 10-4.

“He is our clear guy at 141 now,” Grey said. "Hopefully, we get to have him every event we go to the rest of the way."