Columbia University’s wrestling team is set to compete against Long Island University (LIU) at the Pratt Recreation Center in Brookville, New York, on Saturday. The dual meet will start at 1 p.m. and will be streamed live on NEC Front Row, although there will be no live results available.
The Lions are returning to competition after their holiday break. In their previous outing, Columbia split two dual meets at Rider University. They achieved a decisive victory over Clarion with a score of 32-9 but lost a close contest to the host team, Rider Broncos, 24-19. Aaron Ayzerov won both his matches for Columbia, including a technical fall against Rider that narrowed the deficit to five points late in the meet. However, Rider secured their win in the 197-pound match when Brock Zurawski defeated Jack Wehmeyer by decision.
Columbia’s projected lineup features several nationally ranked athletes according to Intermat and FloWrestling polls. Sulayman Bah is ranked No. 33 by Intermat; Lorenzo Frezza holds No. 18 in Intermat and No. 22 in FloWrestling; Cesar Alvan appears at No. 27 and No. 26 respectively; Nick Fine is listed as No. 30 and No. 33; and Aaron Ayzerov is within the top-20 of both rankings, reaching as high as No. 16 in FloWrestling.
LIU comes into Saturday’s match with an overall record of one win and eight losses this season, holding a home record of one win and two losses. Their only home victory was against Nassau Community College on December 8th, while they most recently lost to Binghamton with a score of 40-4.
This upcoming meet marks the third all-time meeting between Columbia and LIU since LIU became one school through merger. Columbia leads the series with three wins and no losses dating back to January 11, 1972, when they first defeated LIU on the road by a score of 36-15. More recently, Columbia won matches against LIU by scores of 45-3 in January 2020 and 46-0 in January 2021.
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