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Competing at the Mid-Atlantic Regionals, the men and women saw their seasons come to an end as the teams both finished sixth. Both teams would have needed to finish in the top two out of more than 25 teams in each field to advance as a team to Nationals.
This Friday, at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships, has the potential to be the greatest, most successful day in the history of the University of Pennsylvania’s cross country program.
At Friday’s Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, the men’s side came in 24th of 35 total teams, and the women placed 31st from a pool of 33. Saturday’s Princeton Invitational saw the Quakers finish in seventh of 21 teams on the men’s side and ninth on the women’s of 20.
With the teams almost halfway through the season, Penn's top two rookies have had a significant hand in the success that both the men’s and women’s teams have achieved, helping to score points at the past three meets and contribute to the dominance of the program.
After a fourth-place finish at the Paul Short Invitational, Penn men's cross country walked away from Lehigh University ranked second in the Mid-Atlantic Region of the NCAA. With their No. 2 ranking, the Quakers have approached historic territory, matching the best ranking in program history.
After recording impressive results in the Quakers’ first three meets of 2017, including a second-place individual finish at the Main Line Invitation, Hong’s expectations for the season are higher than they have ever been before.
Now, riding an incredible wave of momentum, the Quakers turn their attention to the Paul Short Invitational. After the Red and Blue take the 90 minute trek up to Bethlehem, both the men and the women will be greeted with the longest course that they have seen thus far. The men have an 8K, and the women face a 6K —a mile longer than the previous longest course.
The men’s team finished first and the women’s team finished second in their respective fields of five teams. Competing along with Penn were Villanova, Haverford, Lehigh and Swarthmore.
Despite the graduation of some of their best runners, the Penn men’s and women’s cross country teams got off to a scorching hot start at the Rider Invitational. To the outsider, this would seem like a surprisingly dominant result. To senior Chris Luciano, it was anything but.
The men, on their way to a dominant first-place finish, packed a remarkable nine runners into the the top ten spots. Leading the charge was senior captain Christopher Luciano, whose 15:24.79 was just milliseconds behind the event’s top finisher, Zachary Michon from St. Joseph’s.
The Penn Cross Country program has never been more successful than it was in 2016. So much so that Coach Steve Dolan said that their accomplishments “raised the bar in terms of what’s possible.” While the team has entirely new leaders this season, the mindset remains the same: the Quakers are the team to beat in the Ivy League.
Penn Cross Country qualifying for Nationals didn’t play out in the way you’d expect.
The women, having just placed third as a team at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship meet, spent the first half of the ride back to campus with their collective breath held.
This past Friday, Penn cross country took on some of the nation’s best — and the men and women proved that they were up for the challenge.
Out of 31 teams, which included seven of the nation's top twelve women’s teams and six of the top twelve-ranked men’s teams, the Quakers finished 14th and 20th, respectively.
The cross country team continued their winning streak this weekend with both the men’s and women’s teams taking first at the Main Line Invitational on Friday afternoon.
Most students on campus last Friday stayed cooped up in an air-conditioned room, shying away from the unbearable Philadelphia heat. The Penn cross country teams did not.