Penn men's cross country qualifies for first NCAA championships since 1975

If this were men’s basketball, “One Shining Moment” would be playing for the Red and Blue.

Although Penn men’s cross country may not get a soulful theme song as a result of its performance, the squad qualified for the NCAA Championships nonetheless by finishing in the top two at its regional meet on Friday.

Competing in Princeton, N.J., in the Mid-Atlantic Regional, the No. 23 Quakers punched their NCAA ticket with a second-place finish. The 60 points for the Red and Blue trailed only the 44 points put up by No. 15 Georgetown while besting their crosstown rival — No. 22 Villanova — by seven points.

Leading the way for Penn was senior captain Thomas Awad, whose time of 30:49.5 was good for fourth place. Awad, along with the other four point-scorers for the Quakers, earned All-Region honors. Senior Brendan Smith (15th), juniors Nick Tuck (sixth) and Brendan Shearn (12th) and sophomore Ross Wilson (23rd) all joined Awad in the top 25.

Sophomore Patrick Hally and senior Clark Shurtleff rounded things out for the Red and Blue with 28th- and 102nd-place finishes, respectively.

On the women’s side, a sixth-place showing was strong but not enough for Penn as the Red and Blue needed to come in below 75 points to nab the second ticket to NCAA’s from Georgetown. Although junior Ashley Montgomery secured a fifth-place spot and All-Region honors, she was alone among her teammates in the top 25, leaving the Quakers with 158 points, thereby keeping them out of NCAA’s.

Juniors Cleo and Clarissa Whiting finished 26th and 32nd, respectively, while sophomores Abby Hong (40th) and Isabel Griffith (55th) rounded out Penn’s point-scorers.

The top two teams in each region receive slots to Louisville, Ky., for NCAA’s on Saturday, and it took a herculean turnaround from a year ago for the men’s team to pull off the historic performance. The 60-point total for the Quakers represented a 91-point improvement over a year ago — the Red and Blue had not even broken into the top three in the Mid-Atlantic Region since a third-place finish in 2004.

By nabbing the second spot, Penn secured a spot at the NCAA Cross Country Championships for the first time since 1975. This will be the fifth time the Red and Blue make a team appearance at NCAA’s--- previous trips saw the Quakers take 27th place in 1975 and set a high-water mark for the program with a third-place finish in 1971.

For the last several years, Awad has been the lone figure to represent the Quakers on a national stage — he was the sole competitor from Penn at NCAA’s the last two years, earning All-American honors in 2014. But now, he brings the whole team with him, and the Red and Blue have a chance to compete where they haven’t since the year before Forrest Gump started his own — literal and fictional — cross-country trek.

The Quakers now have a week to prepare both mentally and physically for the culmination of their season. And although this NCAA Championship won’t be airing on CBS or with Luther Vandross’ vocals in the background, for Penn, this weekend is just as big.

“One Shining Moment” might not be going on loop right now. But, if it were, it wouldn’t seem out of place at all.

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