NCAA Wrestling Tournament 2023: Yianni Diakomihalis' fourth title highlights epic final round, full results
At the 2023 NCAA Wrestling Finals, Cornell’s Yianni Diakomihalis won his fourth NCAA wrestling and joined the most exclusive club in college wrestling. He defeated Ohio State’s Sammy Sasso 4-2 in the finals to make history as only the fifth wrestler to win four collegiate crowns.
Pat Smith (Oklahoma State), Cael Sanderson (Iowa State), Kyle Dake (Cornell) and Logan Stieber (Ohio State) are the only wrestlers to ever do it before Diakomihalis.
“I’m in a very tough weight class, I’m wrestling quality guys. And they’re coming to get me. And that’s what they should do, right,” Diakomihalis said. “There’s some special people in my life I wouldn’t be here without like my dad, Mike Grey — you saw the letter from my mom — and brothers, Vito. Vito wrestled out of his mind.
“I could sit and talk for 30 minutes about all those people. The people who think this is me, I’m just a face. You know what I mean? There’s so many people that pushed me through it. I don’t even know what kind of person I would be without those people.”
The Cornell superstar had a two year gap in between in his first two titles and last two. He initially took an Olympic redshirt and then was unable to wrestle in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic where all Ivy League schools opted out of competition.
“It’s tough,” he said. “I see people telling me I’m old and it’s an advantage. It’s tough. College wrestling is very hard. Six years of it beats you up. I’ve had more surgeries than I can count on both my hands. That doesn’t even count the injuries I’ve had without surgeries. It’s been a really tough road. It’s been a lot.
“And like I just keep talking about it, the people around me that are keeping me on this path, they’re doing a lot more of the work than I am. My dad’s the one who probably hasn’t slept a minute since I’ve been here. Mike’s the one who is spending time away from his family to answer my stupid phone calls about a position that we’re going to work on in practice in five hours. I mean, it’s so much the other people. And I just can’t express enough. I’m just the guy you see.”
Below are the full results for the NCAA Wrestling Finals starting with the first bout at 157 pounds:
157: No. 1 Austin O’Connor (North Carolina) vs. No. 2 Levi Haines (Penn State): O’Connor wins by decision 6-2
165: No. 1 David Carr (Iowa State) vs. No. 2 Keegan O’Toole (Missouri): O’Toole wins by decision 8-2
174: No. 1 Carter Starocci (Penn State) vs. No. 2 Mikey Labriola (Nebraska): Starocci wins by pin in 2:46
184: No. 1 Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa) vs. No. 3 Aaron Brooks (Penn State): Brooks wins by decision 7-2
197: No. 1 Nino Bonaccorsi (Pitt) vs. No. 7 Tanner Sloan (South Dakota State): Bonaccorsi wins by decision 5-3
285: No. 1 Mason Parris (Michigan) vs. No. 3 Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State): Parris wins by decision 5-1
125: No. 4 Matt Ramos (Purdue) vs. No. 2 Pat Glory (Princeton): Glory wins by decision 4-1
133: No. 1 Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State) vs. No. 3 Vito Arujau (Cornell): Arujau by decision 10-4
141: No. 1 Real Woods (Iowa) vs. No. 2 Andrew Alirez (Northern Colorado): Alirez wins by decision 6-4
149: No. 1 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) vs. No. 2 Sammy Sasso (Ohio State): Diakomihalis by decision 4-2
More on the 2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships
The 2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships were held March 16-18 at the BOK Center in Tulsa (Okla). The tournament consists of 330 wrestlers in total across 10 weight classes. Each weight class features wrestlers seeded No. 1 through No. 33.
Over the course of the three-day tournament, wrestlers can achieve national champion status by going 5-0 in their bracket, through Saturday night’s finals. The top eight placewinners in each bracket are considered All-Americans.
Losing one match does not eliminate a wrestler from competition. The consolation bracket is designed to determine the remaining spots on the podium (third through eighth place).
Since there are 33 wrestlers in each weight, the competitors seeded No. 32 and 33 compete in a “pigtail bout” prior to the first round to determine who matches up against the No. 1 seed in Round 1.
Losing the pigtail drops the wrestler to the consolation bracket where there is still an opportunity to finish as high as third place in the weight class.
The 2024 NCAA Wrestling Tournament is set to take place in Kansas City (Mo.).