On January 28, 2024, Vince Cornella ’27 suffered a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament injury that caused him to medically redshirt for the 2024-2025 season.
Some 490 days later, Cornella was back on the mat competing in the 2025 U23 National Men’s Wrestling Freestyle Championships in Geneva, Ohio. This was, according to Cornella, always part of his return plan: his goal was to make his return during the wrestling freestyle season, which typically begins in March and runs through the end of the summer.
“The first half of the year was all rehab, getting back on the mat [and] physical therapy, just trying to get back to feeling normal,” Cornella said. “Right around late December and January, I started feeling decent and I thought I would have a solid training cycle leading into the U23 trials.”
He described the entire competition feeling as being “elated,” as it allowed him to return to doing what he loves most, wrestling. He said his injury had made him realize he takes wrestling for granted sometimes, despite his passion for the sport.
Cornella said that during the spring, he trained with his coaches and fellow wrestlers in preparation for the competition. He described the process as “very goal-oriented” since he wanted to have “something to look forward to” and benchmarks to achieve as he worked through his injury.
“Wrestling is a pretty grueling sport, so if you don't have something to look forward to, especially when competing is the most fun aspect of it, training can get a little monotonous,” Cornella said. “I think having those goals always gives you something to look forward to, even if it's just [wanting] to get back to 100% after an injury.”
He credited his readiness for the U23 meet to the long hours he spent training with his teammates and coaches. Cornella was listed in the 65 kg weight class along with 108 other wrestlers from across the country. Cornella’s first match back from injury took place on May 30 as he faced the University of Northern Iowa’s Connor Thorpe.
In a dominant victory, he bested Thorpe in just 52 seconds. Cornella reached the 10-point margin required for a technical fall in freestyle wrestling.
“One of the biggest things that I've worked on in terms of my mental training is worrying a lot less about what my opponents [are] going to do,” Cornella said. “I have confidence in our coaching staff and in my training as a whole so I feel like in every wrestling position, I'm pretty well prepared.”
In the semifinals, Cornella took on Haiden Drury, a member of Utah Valley University’s wrestling team. He dominated the matchup again, scoring 10 unanswered points.
Finally, Cornella took on Evan Mougalian, who competes for the University of Pennsylvania’s wrestling team. In a best-of-three matchup style, Cornella successfully beat Mougalian by pinning him in 49 seconds. In the second round, Cornella defeated Mougalian by a technical fall and scored 16 points to Mougalian’s five. Cornella recorded six technical falls and two pins in total.
“I think the results speak highly of our coaching staff,” Cornella said. “I was very well-versed in some of the specific details of freestyle wrestling as opposed to folkstyle wrestling so I took advantage of the parka game as well as cheap exposure points and that helped attribute to me racking up large sums of points and the technical falls.
While Cornella won’t be competing in any more matches this summer, he says his next goal is to take the momentum from this win and carry it on to his next season competing with Cornell. He said his biggest takeaway from the win was regaining his love for competing on the mat again.
“Something I constantly need to keep in my mind for next season is just enjoy each and every moment you never know when it's gonna be taken away from you through injury or whatever else may happen,” Cornella said.
Zeinab Faraj is a reporter from The Cornell Daily Sun working on The Sun's summer fellowship at The Ithaca Voice. This piece was originally published in the Ithaca Voice.
Zeinab Faraj is the assistant sports editor on the 143rd editorial board and a member of the class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. You can reach her at zfaraj@cornellsun.com.
