Towards the end of spring break, the basketball teams -- and respective fan bases -- from Harvard and Yale gathered at the Palestra for the Ivy League's one game playoff.

Track is a unique sport in that months of training all boil down to one race on one day that is over in a matter of minutes. The story is no different for Penn’s women’s 4x800-meter relay, as just nine minutesseparate four runners from glory. For the first time in nearly a decade, Penn will be represented in the championship heat for the 4x800m relay with a squad of junior Taylor Hennig, freshman Candace Taylor, and sophomores Ashley Montgomery and Carey Celata.

One week after splitting up to opposite coasts for the Florida Relays, Sam Howell Invitational and Stanford Invitational, the Red and Blue will be competing as one unit at this weekend’s George Mason Invitational in Fairfax, Va., albeit without a number of key contributors.

Penn track and field may be known for traveling distances quickly on the track, but this weekend, the program will take its traveling abilities to the extreme. In the course of only a few days, the Quakers will send athletes to compete in Florida, California and Princeton in what should will serve as their biggest competitive test to date of the still-young season.

The former track athlete Timothy Hamlett went missing on Dec. 26 and was last seen near the George Washington Bridge.

The first week since Spring Break has seen the Sun break through its winter haze, lighting up Penn’s campus with a newfound radiance.

As a bookish, unathletic high school freshman, Elton Cochran-Fikes shuddered at the idea of anything having to do with sports. Little did he know that, less than a decade later, he would become the first Ivy League athlete to run a mile in less than four minutes.

After a monumental performance at the Armory Invitational this past weekend, the Quakers are yearning to continue their campaign at the Sykes & Sabock Challenge Cup in State College.

In his first competitive action since earning All-American honors at cross country Nationals, star junior runner Thomas Awad headlined the efforts of Penn track and field at the New York Armory Invitational over the weekend.

Franklin Field may have met its match. “We sort of pride ourselves with Franklin Field for having one of the premiere facilities on the East Coast,” coach Steve Dolan said.

After two small meets at Lehigh to bring in the indoor season, Penn track and field is looking to take on all comers.

If Saturday is any indication, this could be a fun year for Penn track. In their first indoor track meet of the season and the last before break, the Red and Blue picked up victories in an impressive 15 events at the Lehigh Fast Times in Bethlehem, Pa.

The fall season may be coming to a close, but on Saturday, Penn athletics’ potential MVP got yet another chance to cement his status amongst the schools elite athletes.

And then there was one. While almost all of Penn’s cross country runners ended their seasons last weekend, junior captain Thomas Awad is the lone Quaker that still has one more race left in his season.

If the Heptagonal Championships showed two Penn cross country squads on opposite ends of the Ivy spectrum, this weekend represented a return to equality within the program.

So now we know where Penn cross country stands in the Ivy league, but where does that put the program in the larger scheme of things? The Red and Blue will provide an answer to this question this Friday as they look to improve on their results from Ivy Heptagonals two weeks ago at NCAA Regionals.

After the women’s team was unable to break through at Heptagonals – finishing last as a team in the Ivy championship meet – junior Tom Awad took first in the men’s race, leading the men’s team to an impressive third-place finish.