COLLEGE WRESTLING: Cooney moves into starting spot for Cornell Rams

Two years removed now from a heart condition that sidelined him for an entire wrestling season, Nodaway Valley graduate Elliot Cooney is finding that he’s wrestling more like himself again.

The Cornell College junior worked his way into starting at 141 pounds for the Rams this winter and finished the season 12-17. Of his dozen wins, five were by fall, one was a tech fall and four were by major decision. Only two of Cooney’s wins came by decision.

“Last year was a little slow for me, but this year I feel like I got a little closer, back to where I was,” Cooney said. “By the end of the year, I had a lot of success, so I was really happy with that. I saw a lot of growth this year, which was nice.”

It wasn’t that Cooney didn’t see success throughout the season. He collected eight wins in the pre-Christmas portion of the season and four more after the break. It was the fact that he was wrestling more “his way” by the end of the season that made his growth so satisfying. One example of that was the Pete Wilson Wheaton Invitational, held the last weekend in January, where Cooney beat Max Sanderfoot of Milwaukee School of Engineering by 10-2 major decision. Cooney said that was a quality late-season win for him.

“The Pete Wilson meet was the weekend where I really started to see it was feeling better. I had a really good match against the MSOE kid. He’s a tough kid and I got a major on him in that tournament,” Cooney said. “That was a good tournament for me and I really started wrestling pretty solid after that.”

Cornell was ranked among Division III NCAA wrestling programs for much of the season and Cooney enjoyed being a part of the team’s success. One high point for the Rams was defeating rival Coe College by one point in a dual meet. It was their first win over Coe since the late 1990s.

“I can’t see myself wrestling anywhere else but Cornell. The team is like a family and the team did really well this year. We’ve seen a lot more success this year as a team, winning duals,” Cooney said. “I’m going to be staying up by Cornell this summer, training a lot and trying to continue to get better. I just want to keep on what I’ve done this year, progressing and finishing my wrestling career strong.”