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.

There's a lot to catch up on, but here's an overview of the seven Penn Athletics programs in competition this fall:

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.

About a month into her new role as assistant cross country coach, Juli Benson calls the position “a dream come true.”

Ask any member of the Penn cross country team and they will tell you that their focus lies on the months ahead.

It’s not uncommon for graduating seniors to leave holes in a team’s roster -- but this particular one is about the size of the Grand Canyon. With the departure of all-world runner Tom Awad, Penn men’s track and field will look to adjust to life without the two-time defending Ivy Heptagonal champion.

Although Penn boasts countless spectacular student-athletes, the most impressive aspect of their success may not even be the athletic success itself.

Ashley Montgomery is making it look easy for Penn cross country.

This weekend, Penn’s cross country will look to divide and conquer.

Last year, Penn women’s cross country finished last in the Ivy League. This is an indisputable fact. In their year-end Heptagonal meet, the de facto Ivy championship competition, the Red and Blue only managed to finish eighth in the Ancient Eight. And while any single meet result should be taken with a grain of salt, this sort of result would be the elephant in the room.

Over the past few years, Penn men’s cross country has largely been a showcase for one of the top runners in the nation: Thomas Awad. And what a showcase it has been.

A casual observer at the recent Princeton Invitational may have been a bit confused by the sight of the same Penn cross country runner crossing the finish line twice in a one-second span.