DP Sports Player of the Week: Anthony Russo

An outstanding individual effort is all the more valuable when it propels a team to victory, and Penn men's cross country's Anthony Russo exemplified that on Friday.

En route to leading the Quakers to a win at the Ivy League Heptagonal Cross Country men's championship, the junior finished as the individual runner-up in 24:38.3, behind Columbia's Kenny Vasbinder, and 2.5 seconds ahead of Yale's Robert Miranda. Russo's finish was the best by a member of the Red and Blue since Tom Awad's performances in 2014 and 2015, when he won back-to-back individual titles.

The only Penn runner to earn first-team All-Ivy honors, Russo led a quintet of Quakers to top-20 finishes and a winning total of 62 points, which was good enough to edge Harvard at 65 points and Princeton at 68 points.

The team victory was the Red and Blue's first title since 2016, and it represented the program's fifth overall Ivy League men's title. Senior Will Daly joined Russo in finishing in the race's top 10, and three of Russo's junior classmates — Ryan Renken, Daniel Cohen, and Alex Roth — finished 14th, 17th, and 19th, respectively. In addition to Russo's first team All-Ivy recognition, Daly and Renken earned second team All-Ivy spots.

Russo's showing capped off a stellar junior year in which he was the first Penn runner to cross the finish line in five of his six races, including two runner-up outings in consecutive weeks to end the season at the Penn State National Open and the Ivy Heps. 

As a sophomore, Russo placed 10th at the Ivy Heps before earning second-team All-Ivy honors, and he placed 21st at the same event as a freshman.

With the indoor track season now fast approaching, Russo won't be stopping any time soon.