Yianni Diakomihalis


Yianni Diakomihalis is an American freestyle and folkstyle wrestler. In freestyle, he is the reigning Pan American champion and a two-time youth level World Champion. As a folkstyle wrestler, Diakomihalis is a two-time NCAA Division I champion out of Cornell University and four-time New York state champion as a high schooler. As of May 16, 2020, he is ranked #2 in the NCAA pound for pound rankings and is the top-ranked wrestler at the 141-pounds rankings.

High School

Diakomihalis attended Hilton High School in Hilton, New York along with his brother Greg, who's a five-time NYSPHSAA champion. He made the varsity team in eighth grade and won the Division I state championship that same year at 99 pounds, defeating future Cornell teammate Vito Arujau in the finals. As a freshman, he also won the state title now at 113 pounds and that was repeated at 120 pounds as a sophomore. As a junior, he became one of the eight four-time NYSPHSAA champions in the history of the New York when he walked through the competition at 138 pounds. As a senior, he found himself unable to compete at the state championships after he suffered an injury that led him out of the tournament. He graduated in 2017 as a four-time NYSPHSAA champion with a 243-3 record on a win streak of 210 matches.

University

As a high school sophomore, Diakomihalis committed to Cornell University. He has competed at 141 pounds in both of the seasons he competed on.

2017-2018

During regular season, he won the Bearcat Open, New York State Intercollegiate, and the Cliff Keen Invitational and compiled a record of 28-1. Post-regular-season, he won the EIWA championships and later went on to win the NCAA championship, joining Kyle Dake as the only Big Reds to do so in their true freshman year of competition and earning notable victories over top-ranked Bryce Meredith, #2 Jaydin Eierman, #8 Dean Heil and #11 Tyler Smith.

2018-2019

During regular season, he won the Mat Town Open I and the South Beach Individual and capped a perfect 13-0 record in dual matches, ending the regular season unbeaten. He went on to win his second EIWA championship and earned the Outstanding Wrestler award in the process. At the NCAA championships, he most notably defeated the #2, #3 and #5 ranked wrestlers in Jaydin Eierman, Joseph McKenna and Dominick Demas to claim the National title. Post-season, Diakomihalis was named EIWA Top Wrestler and was the finalist for the Dan Hodge Trophy.

2019-2020

Did not compete as he took an Olympic redshirt year.

2020-2021

Diakomihalis will compete in this season and was added to the rankings, in where he's ranked #2 pound for pound and #1 at 141-pounds.

Freestyle

Youth level

Diakomihalis is an accomplished cadet freestyle wrestler, he is a two-time World champion and two-time UWW National champion. As a junior, he placed third at the 2016 UWW Nationals.

Senior level

2019

After opting for the Olympic redshirt, Diakomihalis attended his first senior level tournament in the US Open. He went 6-0 with notable wins over Frank Molinaro, Jordan Oliver and Zain Retherford at the finals.
Not long after, he competed in an exhibition match against three-time World medalist Bajrang Punia. He won the match on points.
After he won the US Open championship, Diakomihalis sat out of the World Team Trials Challenge and earned himself a spot on to face Zain Retherford. In the first match, he was beaten 4-10 and the second match ended with a lot on controversy; Retherford was down 4-6 when he got a takedown for two points, Diakomihalis ended up earning two more to apparently win the match 8-6, however, there were problems with the scoring and that led to the match being scored 6-6 with an advantage to Retherford, winning the match and the Final X series.
A month later, Diakomihalis competed at the prestigious Yasar Dogu Grand Prix. He defeated four opponents such as his Final X opponent Zain Retherford, Ali Rahimzade and Ismail Musukaev to claim the championship.
Two weeks later he went on to compete in the Waclaw Ziolkowski Memorial at Warsaw, Poland. He defeated four opponents including Ismail Musukaev to claim the championship.
Due to Final X' controversy, a rematch between Zain Retherford and Diakomihalis took place in an special event called Final X: Yianni vs. Zain. He lost the bout on points, losing his chance to represent the United States at the World Championships.
On December, he competed at the US Nationals. He defeated three opponents before getting heavily upset by Joseph McKenna in the semifinals. He advanced to the finals of the consolation brackets but forfeited his final match.

2020

In his first tournament of the year, Diakomihalis competed at the Pan American Championships. He defeated four opponents including Agustín Destribats and NCAA Division II champion Jose Rodriguez to claim the championship.
Diakomihalis was scheduled to compete at the US Olympic Team Trials on April 4-5 at State College, Pennsylvania. However, the event and the Olympics were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving him and all the qualifiers unable to compete.

Freestyle record

! colspan="7"| Senior Freestyle Matches
! Res.
! Record
! Opponent
! Score
! Date
! Event
! Location
! style=background:white colspan=7 |
Ottawa, Canada
! style=background:white colspan=7 |
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
! style=background:white colspan=7 |
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
! style=background:white colspan=7 |
Warsaw, Poland
! style=background:white colspan=7 |
Istanbul, Turkey
! style=background:white colspan=7 |
New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
! style=background:white colspan=7 |
New York City, New York
! style=background:white colspan=7 |
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

Youth freestyle record

Junior level

! colspan="7"| Junior freestyle results
! Res.
! Record
! Opponent
! Score
! Date
! Event
! Location
! style=background:white colspan=7 |
Las Vegas, Nevada
! style=background:white colspan=7 |
East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania

Cadet level

! colspan="7"| Cadet freestyle results
! Res.
! Record
! Opponent
! Score
! Date
! Event
! Location
! style=background:white colspan=7 |
Tbilisi, Georgia
! style=background:white colspan=7 |
Akron, Ohio
! style=background:white colspan=7 |
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
! style=background:white colspan=7 |
Akron, Ohio
! style=background:white colspan=7 |
Fargo, North Dakota
! style=background:white colspan=7 |
East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania

NCAA record

! colspan="8"| NCAA Championships Matches
! Res.
! Record
! Opponent
! Score
! Date
! Event
! style=background:white colspan=6 |2019 NCAA Championships at 141 lbs
! style=background:white colspan=6 |2018 NCAA Championships at 141 lbs

Stats

! Season
! Year
! School
! Rank
! Weigh Class
! Record
! Win
! Bonus

Awards and honors

;2020
;2019
;2018