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Two-time NCAA champion Gabe Dean joins Cornell coaching staff

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by Cornell University

ITHACA, N.Y. – Two-time NCAA champion and four-time All-American Gabe Dean '17 has joined the Cornell wrestling coaching staff as its volunteer assistant coach it was announced today. Dean replaces Donnie Vinson, who accepted an assistant position at North Carolina State under his former collegiate coach, Pat Popolizio.


Dean graduated this past spring as one of the top wrestlers in collegiate history. A three-time national finalist at 184 pounds, Dean posted a career record of 152-7 with 101 bonus wins, both school records, and never finished lower than third at nationals. He is one of just 11 wrestlers in more than 100 years to win four Eastern wrestling titles and was a two-time Ivy League Wrestler of the Year. The four-time, first-team All-Ivy League pick was the 2014 Ivy League and EIWA Rookie of the Year and was a two-time Coaches Trophy Award winner as the most outstanding wrestler at the EIWA meet.


Along the way, Dean became the third four-time Southern Scuffle champion and the sixth three-time Las Vegas Invite champ. He was part of teams that won four EIWA and Ivy League titles and posted a cumulative 52-10 dual meet record in his four seasons along with four top eight NCAA team finishes. Dean's signature win came against Penn State's two-time defending national champion Ed Ruth at the Southern Scuffle as a freshman, snapping Ruth's 84-match win streak dating back to 2011.


The Charles H. Moore Outstanding Senior Varsity Athlete as a senior, Dean has been working with the Finger Lakes Wrestling Club since graduation while continuing train for a post-collegiate wrestling career


Vinson's three seasons with the Big Red were among the program's best ever. He helped tutor three NCAA champions and two runners-up and 11 total All-Americans. Cornell qualified a school-record nine wrestlers for NCAA's in his first two years and won New York State, Ivy League and EIWA titles each year he was on the sidelines.

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