Yianni Diakomihalis was a freshman phenom rocketing up the national rankings. 

He won his first 19 matches, knocked off NCAA finalist Bryce Meredith and was well on his way to another statement victory, effectively leading returning All-American Jaydin Eierman 6-3 following a video review stoppage with 30 seconds left in their bout at the South Beach Duals. 

“I was kind of dominating the match,” Diakomihalis said. “(Then) he comes out like a bat out of hell, I nose dive at his legs like a moron and I get put on my back. It was like, ‘Man, I wrestled great for like six and a half minutes.’ But it’s a seven-minute match, not a six-and-a-half-minute match.”

Those chaotic final 30 seconds might have changed the conversation about Yianni and his place among college wrestling’s all-time greats as he began the pursuit of his fourth national title. He entered his senior season at Cornell with a 94-1 career record and, theoretically, the only thing standing between him and a chase to join Cael Sanderson as an undefeated four-time NCAA champ was that 9-6 victory Eierman stole with a late cradle. 

“You know, the Eierman thing is bittersweet to me because it’s half of my losses of all-time (in college),” said Diakomihalis, who took his second defeat a couple weeks into his senior season against Austin Gomez. “But after (Eierman) beat me, I made a huge jump. I started training really, really hard. I trained like a madman for the rest of the season. 

“I got noticeably better after the Eierman loss, so if I don’t take that loss, it’s like who knows what happens in March. Maybe I take that loss to (Dean) Heil (in the NCAA quarterfinals) or to Eierman in the semis. I trained so hard, and it zapped me emotionally, where it was like this thing had been taken from me. I had been on kind of a hot streak, and once I took that loss … (I had) that mentality of start to finish I’m going to attack. I kinda put the skates on and that’s what caused me to lose, and it’s like, ‘I’m going to go get this guy.’ I’ve lost matches shooting, but I’ve won a lot more matches shooting than I’ve lost. I kinda had to learn that lesson.” 

The loss to Eierman became an afterthought three months later when the Cornell freshman completed an iconic run through the 141-pound bracket at the NCAA Championships, wrestling his final three bouts of the tournament with a torn ACL in his right knee. 

Diakomihalis ultimately went on to become the fifth wrestler in Division I history to win four NCAA titles. He captured two at 141 and two more at 149 and finished his career with a 115-2 record — the second-highest winning percentage among four-time national champs. 

His credentials made him a runaway winner in the 141-pound voting for the Flowrestling All-Quarter Century Team presented by Defense Soap. 

“For every match I lost, there’s probably seven more matches I could’ve lost,” Diakomihalis said. “I think that’s what makes great guys great — usually they win those matches. Everyone’s going to lose at some point, but really great guys pull those matches out a lot more than they lose.” 

‘Whatever You Found, I Don’t Want To Know’ 

It was the opening minute of the 2018 NCAA quarterfinals when Heil, the two-time reigning NCAA champ from Oklahoma State, fired off a shot and snagged the right leg of the third-seeded Cornell freshman. 

“He takes a single and I try to limp leg out and it’s actually a good reaction,” Diakomihalis said. “He drove his head through my knee and my knee slid back and my foot slid forward. You can see it on the video — I go to get up (after a stalemate) and my knee buckles and I kinda look at my coach. He was like, ‘Do you need injury time? I knew if I took injury time he was definitely going to get out, so I was like, ‘No, I don’t need injury time.’”

It proved to be a pivotal decision. Diakomihalis dug himself out of a 3-0 second-period deficit with a pair of takedowns — the second of which came with 27 seconds left — and a late rideout to pull out a 6-5 victory. When the match ended, he leaped into the arms of Mike Grey, then an assistant with the Big Red, and they shared a brief conversation during the embrace. 

“I was actually OK (at first),” Diakomihalis said. “It’s the national tournament, there’s so much adrenaline and the place was loud. Then I came off the mat and I run to hug Mike and I’m off the ground longer than I should be and I was like, ‘Be careful putting me down. My knee really hurts.’ We’re kind of like having a conversation as I’m off the ground and he’s like, You’re going to get interviewed by ESPN. Tell them you’re fine.”

Sure enough, ESPN’s Quint Kessenich asked about the knee issue and Yianni responded: “Nothing wrong with me. Just a scare. A hundred percent OK.” 

It quickly became apparent that was not the case, however. 

“I’ve never really talked about my ACL a lot, but I couldn’t walk,” he said. “I got walked by our coach to weigh-ins and kinda hobbled onto the scale. We taped my knee so tight that it kinda propped me up a little bit and then I could flex my leg to hold it up, but of all the NCAA tournaments, I think I’m most proud of that (one). Our trainer checked my ACL and I didn’t know that’s what he was doing. But he kinda made a face and I said, ‘Whatever you found, I don’t want to know. Don’t tell me. We’ll talk about it after, I’m not forfeiting.’ He was like, ‘OK.’ He trusted me, which was cool. I guess he got heat for that, but I would’ve fought him to let me wrestle. 

“But going into the semis, I was hobbling around. I got a Toradol shot and taped my leg and I could kinda wrestle. But if you watch, if you push me, I stumbled backwards.”

A rematch with Eierman awaited Diakomihalis in the semis. It was filled with more last-minute drama. 

Eierman shot to Yianni’s taped right knee and scored a go-ahead takedown with 43 seconds remaining. Diakomihalis caught Eierman’s leg, stood up and nearly finished a reversal on the edge of the mat before settling for a match-tying escape with 23 seconds left. The match went to overtime and Diakomihalis scored the winning takedown when he dropped in on Eierman’s right leg, lifted him off the mat and collected his other leg for the winning points. 

That was only part of the battle he faced that night and into the next morning. 

“It was hard to walk,” Yianni said. “I had to get help getting out of bed, so that kind of proved to me, ‘All right, you’re a pretty tough dude, because it was like, ‘I can’t even walk and I’ve got to wrestle in the national finals. But I trusted my ability, trusted my coaches and made it happen.” 

Seventy-eight days after his late lead got away on a cradle in the closing seconds against Eierman, Yianni’s freshman season culminated on a dramatic comeback in similar fashion. Protecting a lead in the final minute of the NCAA title bout, Meredith fired off a shot and Diakomihalis hooked up a cradle for a takedown and two near-fall points to pull out a 7-4 win. 

He shot a look in Grey’s direction after time expired and pointed at his head. 

“All year Mike’s been telling me I can be a national champ, and the difference between me winning and losing is up here — gotta have the mind,” he said in an interview with Kessenich afterward. “He’s been training my mind all year and it showed up today. It showed up this whole weekend, so I’m super thankful for that.” 

The Results Are In 

The Flowrestling team started with every NCAA champion from the last 25 years and pared the list down to four at every weight after tabulating the results of a staff vote. We let wrestling fans weigh in with a social media vote, and the results are in at 141 pounds. A trio of two-time national champs slotted in behind Diakomihalis. 

1. Cornell’s Yianni Diakomihalis 

2. Michigan’s Kellen Russell 

3. Ohio State’s Jesse Mendez 

4. Penn State’s Nick Lee 

The First-Teamers

125 — Iowa’s Spencer Lee

133 — Ohio State’s Logan Stieber

141 — Cornell’s Yianni Diakomihalis 

The Top Two At 141

The battle between the top two vote-getters at 141 pounds played out inside the Cornell practice room after Russell joined Grey’s staff in 2021. But how would it go with both wrestlers at the peak of their college success?

“It would be interesting because I probably would’ve taken 30 shots and he would downblock and try to go behind 30 times and who knows what would’ve happened,” Diakomihalis said. ”I think I would’ve gotten out from him — knock on wood — and he definitely would’ve gotten out from me. I’m sure it would’ve been a pretty tight match.” 

Yianni credits Russell for teaching him some top-position tricks that “helped my top wrestling not be so effort-full, which, if anything kind of gave me more energy on my feet.” The two-time NCAA champ from Michigan also helped his Cornell understudy sharpen his skills on his feet.  

“We wrestled a lot and because he’s so hard to score on I think my offense improved a little bit, my timing got a little better because if I did’t perfectly time a shot, he was going to downblock and score,” Diakomihalis said. “He really helped elevate my offense and my top wrestling.” 

Facts, Figures And Those Who Missed The Final Cut At 141

— The last quarter century has produced 16 different NCAA champions at 141 pounds. 

— There were eight two-time champions at the weight during that 25-year stretch — Oklahoma’s Teyon Ware, Ohio State’s J Jaggers, Russell, Ohio State’s Logan Stieber, Heil, Diakomihalis, Lee and Mendez.  

— Earlier this week we broke down the 141-pound candidates and the weight's propensity for producing two-time champs.

— Three four-time NCAA champions won at least one title at 141 — Cornell’s Kyle Dake, Stieber and Diakomihalis. 

— Ten different schools won a 141-pound NCAA title during the last 25 years. Ohio State led the way with six, followed by Oklahoma (four), Cornell (three), Iowa State (two), Michigan (two), Oklahoma State (two), Penn State (two), UC Davis (one), Iowa (one) and Northern Colorado (one). 

— Ohio State led the way with seven NCAA finals appearances at 141 since 2001 and the Buckeyes won six of those title bouts. Iowa is second with six finals appearances, followed by Oklahoma with five. 

— Last week we mentioned Cornell’s 4-0 record at 133 during the past 25 years. The Big Red is also undefeated in 141-pound title bouts at 3-0. 

— Juniors have captured 10 of the 141-pound titles since 2001. Seniors are second with eight. Sophomores and freshmen each collected three titles. The freshmen titles were all won by true freshmen — Teyon Ware, Dake and Diakomihalis.