The Palestra gymnasium, in the heart of Penn’s campus, has, according to Penn’s website, hosted more NCAA tournaments than any other collegiate facility. This weekend, the storied building hosted the EIWA Wrestling Championships, a vital qualifier for the NCAAs, and a title No. 2 Cornell has held for the past two consecutive years. Yesterday, the Red reigned supreme once again, sending seven wrestlers to the finals, and securing the team title in dominating fashion, 35 points ahead of runner up Lehigh.

The big, digital countdown clock on the wall of the Friedman Wrestling Center is slowly ticking down the days left before the NCAA Championships. Today, the clock said 13; this weekend, when the team travels to Penn for the EIWA Championships it will say 11. The Championships are qualifiers for Nationals, and as such are an extremely important part of the process of being ready for the NCAAs, and the Red, currently ranked No. 2 in the country, will be pulling out all the stops to come away with its third straight team title, as well as NCAA berths in as many weight classes as possible.