STORY LINES:
• Senior Gabe Dean has had more than his share of memorable moments at the Southern Scuffle, and he would cement his legend in Chattanooga with yet another finish atop the podium.
• Dean leads a Cornell contingent that will attempt to claim its first Scuffle team title since 2011 when it hits the mats for the two-day tournament beginning on Sunday, Jan. 1 at McKenzie Arena.
• Dean, the three-time defending Southern Scuffle champion at 184 pounds, first made a name for himself in 2014, posting a shocking upset of Penn State's Ed Ruth, snapping the three-time national champion's 84-match win streak.
• In 2015, after a pair of losses at the Las Vegas Invitational, Dean jumped back into the national spotlight by pinning then-No. 1 Max Thomusseit of Pitt in the finals.
• In 2016, Dean swept through the tournament with wins over EIWA foes in the semis (Navy's Matt Miller) and in the finals (Lehigh's Nathaniel Brown), the latter a rematch of his 2015 NCAA championship match.
• Now, with two tournament outstanding wrestler awards already in his pocket, he will attempt to become the third four-time Scuffle champion (Cornell's Kyle Dake from 2009-12 and Minnesota's Cole Konrad from 2003-06).
• Dean, a leading candidate for the Hodge Trophy, has dominated all season long and has won 11 of his 15 matches this season by fall with five victories over wrestlers ranked in the top 13 — all bonus point wins.
• Earlier this year, Dean became the sixth wrestler in meet history to win three Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational titles after earning a first period fall over 11th-ranked Jordan Ellingwood of Central Michigan in the semifinals and and a tech fall triumph over No. 8 Zack Zavatsky of Virginia Tech in the finals.
• The tournament can be viewed live with a subscription to FloWrestling.
• Cornell will welcome back a pair of senior NCAA qualifiers in All-American Dylan Palacio (No. 2 at 157) and Owen Scott (197) for the second semester, with both scheduled to return for the Scuffle.
• The Big Red has big goals — Cornell is eyeing yet another top five team effort at NCAAs and has a number of wrestlers with national championship and All-America aspirations.
• Dean, 2015 NCAA finalist and two-time All-American Brian Realbuto and 2016 All-American Palacio headline an experienced and talented lineup.
• In addition, two-time NCAA qualifier Mark Grey (133), 2016 NCAA qualifier Joey Galasso (149) join first-year starters Noah Baughman (125), Will Koll (141) and Brandon Womack (165), while Craig Scott and 2016 NCAA qualifier Jeramy Sweany are competing for the top spot at heavyweight.
• Taylor Simaz (157) and Ben Honis (197) had great success over the first semester and will continue to compete a spot in the lineup and are among 18 total entries for the Big Red at the event.

THE STREAKS:
• Cornell has won 10 consecutive EIWA team titles, the longest streak in conference history.
• Head coach Rob Koll's teams have racked up 14 Ivy League titles in a row, the longest title streak in any sport in conference history.
• Cornell has won 73 consecutive Ivy League dual meets dating back to the 2001-02 campaign.
• The Big Red has crowned at least one EIWA champion in each of the last 15 seasons and in 25 of the last 26 years.
• The Big Red is 51-1 (.981) in its last 52 duals against current EIWA competitors dating back to 2010-11.
• Cornell is 90-4-1 (.953) in dual meet action against current EIWA teams dating back to 2004-05, including 82-0 against teams other than Lehigh.
• Cornell has placed in the top five at the NCAA championships in six of the last eight seasons and in the top 10 in 12 of the last 14 years (nine straight).
• Cornell is 98-21-1 (.821) in dual meet competition in the last seven seasons.
• The Big Red is 38-5 (.884) in its last 43 home duals dating back to the 2009-10 season.
• Big Red wrestling has won 70 consecutive dual meets against unranked teams dating back to the beginning of the 2007-08 season.
• Cornell has won 32 straight meets against New York state opponents.
• The Big Red has claimed a record five consecutive New York State team titles.

CORNELL HISTORY AT THE SCUFFLE:
• The Big Red has headed South each year since 2005, collecting three team titles (2009, 2010, 2011) and top six finishes in each of its 12 appearances.
• Included has  been six top three team efforts.
• Cornell has crowned 21 individual champions at the event, including at least one in each of the last eight years.
• Four-time NCAA champion Kyle Dake (2009-12) is one of two wrestlers to win four Scuffle titles, joining  Minnesota's Cole Konrad (2003-06), with Gabe Dean looking to join them this year.

LAST TIME AT THE SCUFFLE:
• Junior Gabe Dean became the ninth three-time Scuffle champion and senior Nahshon Garrett won his second title as the Cornell wrestling team finished fourth in a loaded 2016 Defense Soap & Flips Wrestling Southern Scuffle field.
• Cornell finished the two-day tournament with four wrestlers on the podium and 98.5 points to finish behind only Penn State (183), Oklahoma State (158) and Lehigh (104.5).
• Dean swept through an all-EIWA semifinals, defeating Navy's Matthew Miller 10-5 in the semis and Nathaniel Brown of Lehigh 8-2 in the finals.
• During the tournament he became the 23rd Big Red wrestler to 100 wins (104-5).
• The victory over Brown was a rematch of last season's NCAA and EIWA championship matches.
• Garrett, the No. 1-ranked wrestler at 133 pounds was even more dominant, earning bonus points in each match en route to the title.
• He busted out quickly in the finals against Penn State's Jordan Conaway, majoring him 14-4 for the crown.
• That came after earlier in the day taking an injury default win over Kaid Brock of Oklahoma State after dominating the first 90 seconds.
• He took a tech fall victory over Minnesota's Sam Brancale in the quarterfinals after earning a fall and a tech fall in victories on day one.
• Also finishing on the podium were junior Brian Realbuto at 174 pounds and 165-pounder Duke Pickett, both of whom finished sixth.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES TO KNOW:
• Junior Brian Realbuto (101-17) became the 25th wrestler in Cornell history to reach 100 wins with a 3-2 decision over No. 4 Kyle Crutchmer of Oklahoma State on Dec. 16.
• Senior Gabe Dean enters the weekend with 132 career wins, good for eighth on the school's career list.
• With 11 falls and 15 bonus point wins in his 15-0 start, Dean has an amazing 5.533 NCAA dominance ranking - the school record for a season is Kyle Dake's 4.784 during his senior season (2012-13).
• Dean also ranks third all-time at Cornell in individual winning percentage (132-6, .957), behind only Dave Auble (.981, 51-1) and Dake (.972, 137-4).
• Dean joined Jace Bennett '15 as the second four-time New York state intercollegiate champion in school history and just the fourth overall in meet history.

TEAM NOTES TO KNOW:
• The Big Red has won 14 consecutive Ivy crowns and 73 straight Ivy matches.
• Cornell's 14 straight Ivy League titles build on the Big Red's record of consecutive Ivy titles by the same team in a sport. The wrestling team has won three more than Cornell had in men's gymnastics (from 1967-68 to 1976-77) and men's lacrosse (1973-74 to 1982-83), as well as Princeton in men's lacrosse (1994-95 to 2003-04).  
• Every four-year member of the Cornell wrestling team who has enrolled since 1980 has won at least one Ivy League title during their career.
• The Big Red holds a 32-match win streak against teams from New York dating back to 2004, including 18 consecutive at home.
• Cornell registered its fifth consecutive New York state intercollegiate title, matching Buffalo's run from 1974-78 as the longest in tournament history.
• Since the Friedman Wrestling Center opened in January of 2003, the Big Red is 66-13-1 in dual matches (.831).
• Head coach Rob Koll became the ninth Big Red coach in any sport to reach 250 career victories with a sweep at the Grapple at the Garden in 2014 and now sports a 271-88-5 record in dual meets.
• The Big Red is 255-81-3 all-time against teams from New York state in its history — Army (11-17-1), Binghamton (7-0), Brooklyn Poly (2-0), Buffalo (7-4), Clarkson (2-0), Colgate (29-2), Columbia (88-13), Cortland (17-1), Geneseo (1-0), Hofstra (19-4), Ithaca (12-3), Long Island (1-0), Manhattan (1-0), NYU (2-0), Queens (1-0), RPI (2-0), RIT (7-0-1), St. Lawrence (0-1), Syracuse (42-35-1), Union (2-1) and Wagner (2-0).
• The Big Red's coaching staff has combined for 11 All-America accolades and three individual NCAA titles at a total of two different weight classes as collegiate athletes.

NEXT UP:
• Cornell continues dual meet season at home at the Friedman Wrestling Center for a pair of matchups against ranked teams in two weekends.
• The Big Red host No. 25 Drexel on Friday, Jan. 13 at 6:30 p.m., then welcome No. 5 Missouri on Saturday, Jan. 5 at 1 p.m.