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Penn State Wrestling: Bold predictions for the NCAA Championships

By Chris Snyder

Penn State's Aaron Brooks is introduced before his match in the finals at 184 pounds during the third session of the Big Ten Wrestling Championships, Sunday, March 6, 2022, at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.220306 Big Ten Wr 040 Jpg
Penn State's Aaron Brooks is introduced before his match in the finals at 184 pounds during the third session of the Big Ten Wrestling Championships, Sunday, March 6, 2022, at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.220306 Big Ten Wr 040 Jpg /
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Penn State Wrestling
Cornell wrestler Yianni Diakomihalis (Mandatory Credit: Douglas DeFelice-USA TODAY Sports) /

Bold Prediction – No. 2

Yianni Diakomihalis will not win the title at 149

“Holy cow! Chris has completely gone off his rocker and he’s about to predict a national title for Beau Bartlett?!?”.

No, actually this bold prediction has nothing to do with Penn State Wrestling or Beau Bartlett.

“Hold on. I thought these were bold predictions for Penn State?”.

That’s a fair question, however, I’m going to go off-script slightly and give a non-Penn State Wrestling bold prediction. I mean I’ve already gotten so many Nittany Lion predictions wrong in the past, why not throw out another incorrect statement about someone else?

I’ll give you a little backstory on the top two seeds in the 149 bracket.

Tariq Wilson from NC State is the No. 2 seed and he spent the majority of his five year college career wrestling at 133 and 141. Wilson finished third at 133 in 2018 and he took home third last year at 141.

However this season he bumped up to 149, and while his bonus point percentage has dropped slightly, his winning percentage has been perfect (15-0).

At the top of the 149 bracket is Cornell’s Yianni Diakomihalis. The only thing he’s done in his three-year career at Cornell is win the national title twice at 141 and only drop a single match. A 9-6 decision loss to Jaydin Eierman back on December 30, 2017.

And this is exactly why saying Diakomihalis won’t win the title is bold. The 149 bracket, like a lot of the other brackets, is loaded with top-tier wrestlers with a metric ton of experience. It’s been some time since Yianni has faced someone with the hunger and drive of Wilson.

Side note, if Beau can get past Sammy Sasso in the second round then a possible quarterfinals match against No. 5 Kyle Parco could be in the works. And if the result from earlier in the year is duplicated, then Bartlett could face Diakomihalis in the semifinals.

I’m not making any predictions this will happen, just merely pointing it out.

Now, back to Penn State Wrestling predictions!

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