It was a huge weekend for some of Penn Athletics' brightest stars, as four student-athletes donning the Red and Blue took home Ivy League Player of the Week awards.

It was a busy weekend for the Penn men’s and women’s tennis teams with both teams splitting a pair of matches. The women’s squad played their first match of the weekend on the road in College Park to take on the No. 42 ranked Terrapins, falling 6-1.

The Temple Invitational was held on Sunday and Penn men’s and women’s fencing both finished the competition with a winning record. The Temple Invitational is a key point in the fencing season as it is the last match play before NCAA regionals. Gaining momentum going into the final stretch of the season is crucial, and both the women’s and men’s teams left the invitation with some impressive wins.

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.

With No. 2 Penn women’s squash facing No. 1 Harvard in the Collegiate Squash Association national championship for the second straight season after losing a brutal 5-4 decision a year ago, the narrative was almost writing itself: Heartbreak pushes team to success. Underdog upsets favorite. Former loser gets all-too-sweet revenge. But unfortunately, in sports, the Hollywood story doesn’t always hold.

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.

Penn women's basketball had a test this weekend: rebound after a disappointing loss to Yale. And how did it do? Exceptionally well.

The work Penn women's basketball has put in and its dominance over the course of the season should be rewarded with both the Ivy League championship and a chance to make waves on a national level. A collapse in the final stages of the season would be heartbreaking. One title without the other would be a hollow victory. It would be a shame if the conference’s best team didn’t represent it on the biggest stage.

It was almost the comeback of the century. In last place after the first rotation of the Ivy Classic, Penn gymnastics embarked on a furious rally to catch up to its conference foes, but the Quakers ultimately came up just short of their first league title since 2015, taking second place behind repeat champion Cornell by a mere 0.400-point margin.

Penn women’s basketball’s second meeting with Cornell went down exactly like the first: a commanding Penn victory. The Quakers never trailed on the way to a relaxed 47-34 win. The win clinches an Ivy League tournament appearance for the Red and Blue, and the first ever for a women’s team. Stifling defense never allowed Cornell a chance to get into the game, and held the Big Red to a measly 34 points. Here’s how each of the players did.

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.