After serving as a power forward for the team for two years, Mike Auger left both the Red and Blue program and the University as a whole at the conclusion of the 2015-16 school year. Now working as a leasing specialist for Hamilton Court apartments, the 6-foot-7 would-be junior has left his athletic career in the dust.

Penn track and field teams boasted record-breaking times and history-making performances this weekend at the Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Championships in New York City. On the women’s side, the Red and Blue earned a total of 13 podium performances to finish second overall. The Penn men weren’t able to find the remarkable success that their female counterparts had, but some epic individual performances exemplified their drive to rank themselves among the very best.

While athletes from women’s basketball, gymnastics, and wrestling have already gotten the MVP nod during the winter season, spring is coming, and so are the stars of spring sports. With that in mind, we turn to women’s lacrosse and Alex Condon as this week’s recipient of the Penn Athletics Weekend MVP award. The junior midfielder tallied eight goals in no. 10 Penn’s impressive 10-7 victory over no. 18 John’s Hopkins.

After giving up a first half lead, the tenth-ranked Quakers (2-0, 0-0 Ivy) defeated the No. 18 Blue Jays (3-1) by a score of 10-7, powered by eight goals – yes, eight – from junior midfielder Alex Condon. Condon’s goal tally, which was a career high for her and one away from both the Penn and Ivy League record books, brings her season goal total to ten over just two games.

Penn men’s swimming and diving hit the water running this weekend at the Ivy League championship meet and took second place overall, their best finish since 1971.

So, despite the loss, the Quakers have a lot to be proud of from this game. It’s now time for them to channel that pride into improvement and to win the next two games against Dartmouth and Harvard in hopes of securing an Ivy League Tournament bid.

On an unseasonably warm day in front of a raucous crowd of more than 1,500 people, No. 17 Penn pulled out a wild upset win in a back-and-forth battle between two top-20 teams, beating back No. 6 Virginia’s persistent attack in an 11-10 win. A stark contrast from the Red and Blue’s easy win over St. Joseph’s, the signature win serves as a reminder of the hard road that lies ahead.

Penn men’s basketball came tantalizingly close to securing a spot at the Ivy League Tournament over the weekend with a thrilling 69-66 victory at Cornell, but failed to free itself from the pack after falling to Columbia the following night, 70-67. A win in New York City couldn’t have guaranteed the Quakers (12-13, 5-7 Ivy) a place in the inaugural postseason tournament, but it would have made it highly likely.

Behind a superb all-around performance from freshman Ryan Betley, Penn overcame a series of Cornell runs to win 69-66 in a game that came down to the final seconds. he Quakers (12-12, 5-6 Ivy), as they have been known to do recently, started the game out strong, opening up a 7-2 lead in the opening minutes.

More than just an Eastern Intercollegiate WrestlingA league match, Penn wrestling [6-8, 4-6 EIWA)] welcomed Drexel [(13-6, 8-3 EIWA)] to the Palestra for a match to not only determine bragging rights for 33rd street but also for a cheesesteak.

In the outdoor season opener, Penn men's and women's tennis will play two matches this weekend, and they both have tall tasks ahead of them. The women's side heads to Maryland to take on the Terps on Saturday before coming back home to face Rutgers on Sunday. Meanwhile, the men have two consecutive home matches on Sunday, starting at 9 in the morning with Old Dominion and continuing with Navy.

Track and field’s indoor season may be one of the shortest in college sports, but it’s nearing a dramatic finish as Penn prepares for the Ivy League Heptagonal Indoor Championships this weekend.

I know what you’re thinking. It’s February. Lacrosse season has barely started. There’s no way the Penn men and women are playing meaningful games already. Well, if I’m as good of a mind reader as I have claimed, then all of you would be wrong.

Hope has blossomed into opportunity for Penn men’s basketball, but the Quakers still have to seize it. Two weeks ago, hope was the only thing the Red and Blue (11-12, 4-6 Ivy) had: at 0-6 and last place in the conference, they seemed all but eliminated. Since, Penn has looked unstoppable in four straight wins, three of them wire-to-wire. Now, the fourth-place Quakers have an opportunity to play their way into the Ivy League tournament and a potential NCAA bid.

First would be head-to-head. Penn won the first meeting between the two teams as it kickstarted its comeback in the league from rock bottom to fourth just two weekends later — but the two teams meet again this Saturday in a high-stakes clash at Columbia. If the Lions were to win, but still end the season on the same record as the Quakers, the scenario would have to go to the next tiebreaker.

This weekend, a number of winter sports teams wrap up their seasons with Ivy League championships. While women's swimming and men's squash finished up last week, their opposite-gender counterparts along with gymnastics and indoor track and field all compete this weekend for postseason glory. 

Don’t sleep on Penn men’s lacrosse. That’s not just a message to the students here at Penn or even to the team’s rivals in the Ivy League. That’s a message to all of college lacrosse.