Yianni Diakomihalis isn’t looking at Penn State wrestling commit PJ Duke as a youthful upstart.
Duke beat two national champs in the same day at the Senior World Team Trials, and his reward is facing a guy who won four at Final X.
Simply put, Diakomihalis is one of the best college wrestlers ever.
Only seven wrestlers have won four national titles, and Diakomihalis is one of them, winning four for Cornell.
Diakomihalis is as hard to wrestle as his last name is to spell, and he knows all about PJ Duke.
WHAT YIANNI SAID
Diakomihalis got to know Duke during Duke’s visits to Cornell as a high school recruit bur the relationship even predates that.
Due to Duke’s friendship with Diakomihalis’ younger brother, Elijah— who is Duke’s age and also is from the state of New York— Yianni has known Duke since he was in the seventh grade.
Duke won his first New York State Title when he was in the seventh grade, and no, that’s not a typo.
But Diakomihalis said in an interview on FloWrestling’s “The Bader Show” that it “didn’t really click” how good Duke was until last year’s World Team Trials, where he took third.
“I was like ‘woah, hold on.’” Diakomihalis said with a laugh. “Clearly, he’s gotten better.”
Duke has continued to get better in 2025, winning another state title and beating national champions Antrell Taylor and Ridge Lovett— both of Nebraska— at this year’s World Trials, held this past weekend.
“He’s cutting weight for 70 (KG), I think he’s at a decent size,” Diakomihalis said. “Pretty strong, it looks like. Obviously, he’s young, so you would think he’s going to get better , right?”
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“When we talked about the 2028 Olympic team, well he’s going to be a guy that I might have to beat.”
But is the future Penn State wrestling star ready to be a force on the Senior Circuit right now?
“I don’t know,” Diakomihalis said. “I wonder what he’s going to do. I know the U20 trials are in two weeks. He’s sitting in the finals there, also at 70. I don’t know if making Final X is going to affect him competing there or not. But if not, (I’ll) probably watch him there and see what happens and then get ready to rock at Final X.”
So what does Duke do well?
“He’s pretty good at upper body ties,” Diakomihalis said. “He has a good like two-on-one, under hook, seatbelt kind of series. You know, he kind of wrestles almost like he wrestles judo. You know what I mean? Where he’s shooting but he’s always trying to attack the hips or attack your shoulder.
“So I think with him, it’s like good shot selection and just being really disciplined. Ironically, a lot of the things I’ve been working on kind of are relevant in this match, specifically, right? Because it’s like ‘keep your elbows tight, be a good finisher, wrestle really hard. Let’s force him to have to stay in shape and keep up with me for six minutes.’”
NOT A KID
The narrative going into this bout is going to be that of a grown man vs. a kid but Diakomihalis (the grown man) doesn’t see it that way.
“He is 19 and he just beat… of all the other senior-level wrestlers we have available, he beat them,” Diakomihalis said. “This is the No. 2 guy in America. So I’m going to come in there and wrestle him like my World Championship is on the mind. Because it is.”
Final X is scheduled for June 14 in Newark, New Jersey.
