While both the women and men were bested by the Wildcats, each squad finished best among the rest in second place out of six and seven, respectively. 

This Friday, Penn men’s and women’s cross country will travel to nearby Haverford College to compete in the Main Line Invitational, an early-season race that the Quakers have regularly competed in.

Both teams were victorious at the Bison Open at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., scoring a total of 29 points each in the one-day meet.

Friday’s Bison Open at Bucknell will serve as an early season benchmark for young Penn cross country.

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.

Last week hurt for Penn cross country, but there’s no time for the Quakers to hang their heads — the next chapter of their season begins on Friday.

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.

The Quakers hope to continue their upward trend this weekend at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational hosted by the University of Wisconsin.

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.

From the moment he stepped onto that track in Franklin Field, Dolan knew he had a special runner in Chris Luciano.

With so many contenders, our staff faces off to debate: Which team has the best chance to finish the fall as an Ivy League Champion? 

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.