2023 NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP

March 17, 2023

Yianni Diakomihalis

BOK Center

Cornell

Semifinals Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: Yianni Diakomihalis, Cornell, finalist at 149. Yianni, thoughts and feelings on how it went?

YIANNI DIAKOMIHALIS: Yeah. I almost blew that one. Shane is a very tough kid. He pushed me and gotta be ready for that. I think I kinda had a way I thought the match could have played out in my head, and he came out there and wrestled tight and tough to get to. And I had a great game plan, and I was able to make it happen. Sometimes you gotta make it happen, and thankfully I got that in me somewhere.

Q. Could you take us through specifically how you made that happen? You went and got the takedown and got near fall points. In that moment, how were you able to make that happen?

YIANNI DIAKOMIHALIS: Kinda all match, he was shutting me down. I was going my left swing. My 1-2, I threw different 3, 4, 5 attacks at him, and he's down block, down block, down block. So I'm like, I gotta make it happen. I felt a one, two, three type action. And I'm like, oh, I can get that. He got the takedown, and here it comes, boom, boom, boom, and thankfully I guessed right.

Q. Yianni, Spencer is not a teammate of yours, but going into this tournament, you two were locked together to try to create history. When you saw what happened to him, did it have any impact on you at all?

YIANNI DIAKOMIHALIS: Now that I'm done with my match, kinda think about it more, but in the moment, it was like, wow, I didn't know what to think. He's been one of those guys that's been very dominant, probably more dominant than I've been.

Credit to Ramos for -- I didn't get to see it, but wrestling a great match, I'm assuming. You gotta feel for him a little bit, right? I'm kind of in a similar position. The whole arena is waiting for you to lose. Maybe they're not cheering against you, but secretly in the back of their head, it gets a little louder when the other guy is going to score. It's tough. It's tough having that for Spencer, and you can't help but feel for him a little bit. It's tough to have that taken from you.

Q. Your teammate, Vito, is also a finalist. So getting to see that, did that give you any extra confidence or help ease some of the pressure? Are you more locked in and focused on your matches whenever you're in these situations?

YIANNI DIAKOMIHALIS: You know, I would love to tell you that I'm locked in on my match, but Vito is as much of a brother to me as my literal brothers are. He's been so close his freshman and sophomore year, kinda feels like, you know, those matches go a different way, and he's in the national finals. So for him to break through and wrestle as good as he did, it's like, man, you're awesome.

Daton is a really, really good wrestler and Vito dominated him. It's a testament to the kind of wrestler he is, making incredible jumps year after year getting better. It just what we do.

THE MODERATOR: Yianni, congratulations. Good luck tomorrow.