At the NCAA Wrestling Championships in St. Louis this past weekend, junior Micah Burak concluded a stellar season with a seventh-place finish at 197 pounds to earn All-American honors.

Penn’s team of five NCAA qualifiers came away disappointed in their overall performance but they are celebrating junior Micah Burak, who finished seventh to earn All-American honors at the NCAA Wrestling Championships this weekend in St.

Five members of the Penn wrestling team began the NCAA Championships Thursday with high hopes and championship aspirations.

Seniors Zack Kemmerer and Bryan Ortenzio, transfer senior Erich Smith, junior Micah Burak and freshman Steve Robertson will compete this weekend at the NCAA Wrestling Championships in St. Louis.

The squad finished fourth overall in the tournament held at Princeton’s Jadwin Gymnasium on March 3-4 and will send five wrestlers to the NCAA Championships this weekend in St. Louis.

This weekend, five Penn wrestlers will compete at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Championships. While three Quakers have already qualified for the NCAAs, the other two need to win to qualify.

For the 21st year in a row, the Penn wrestling team tamed the Tigers. In their regular season finale, the Quakers defeated Princeton, 24-10.

Saturday, Penn wrestling will travel to the Garden State to take on Ivy rival Princeton on its Senior Day in the Quakers’ last regular season tune-up before the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships.

After wrestling almost exclusively at 197 pounds last season, Graziano was called up to heavyweight only after regular starter and last year’s Ivy League Rookie of the Year Kyle Cowan went down to a season-ending shoulder injury.

Saturday, despite being significantly undersized, sophomore Steven Graziano won in the 285-pound weightclass, 5-2, against Columbia’s behemoth — No. 27 Kevin Lester. His win in the final round gave the Quakers a 19-18 victory over the Lions.

Cornell may have already claimed the Ivy League title, but there’s still a lot at stake for the Penn wrestling team.The Quakers face Columbia at the Palestra this Saturday before traveling to Lewisburg, Pa., to compete against Bucknell Sunday.

For most people, gaining or losing 10 pounds is a major transition. For some on the Penn wrestling team, though, it’s nothing out of the ordinary.

Ortenzio came to Penn and impressively started as a freshman. Although he had an average year, at 20-18, he has since worked hard to improve. His record was a solid 31-13 during his junior year. Returning this season after a semester away, Ortenzio is having a career year.

After falling to Harvard, 23-19, in the morning, the Quakers recovered with an afternoon win over Brown, 30-7.

After dropping a match to Harvard, the Red and Blue then made the trek to Providence, R.I., determined not to lose twice in the same the day.

Losing five of their first six matches, the Quakers’ comeback attempt fell well short in a 23-13 defeat to the No. 24 Pride.

Although Penn has a slim chance to win the Ivy League, some Quakers’ grapplers are having great individual seasons.