Fresh off its best meet since 2004, the Penn gymnastics team is back in action on the road this weekend at the Towson Invitational.
Penn will compete against Ivy rival Cornell, Ursinis and host Towson at the competition, which takes place in Towson, Md.
The tournament’s history is one of absolute dominance by the host school. Towson has won 22 of the previous 25 Invitational titles, including the last eight. William & Mary and George Washington are the only other schools to win the meet.
The Tigers boast a lineup that includes Lindsay Poplaski, recently named the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Co-Gymnast of the Week for her performance at a tri-meet at Ursinus last week.
Several Penn gymnasts scored career or season highs in the meet last weekend and are coming into the Invitational red-hot.
Freshman Amber Woo and sophomore Dana Bonincontri tied their season highs on vault to earn them seventh and 12th place overall, respectively. Bonincontri also posted a career-high performance on balance beam with a score of 9.800, earning her third place.
Junior Kristen Strausbaugh also had a tremendous weekend on beam coming in fourth and posting a season-high score on floor exercise, 9.825, which earned her first place.
On the uneven bars, Bonincontri and Strausbaugh tied for second place with a score of 9.825, a season high for Bonincontri and a career high for Strausbaugh. Bonincontri also tied her career-high score on the floor with a 9.800, moving her into sixth place.
In the All-Around, the Quakers swept the podium with first place awarded to Bonincontri, second to Strausbaugh and third to Megan Milavec.
The Towson Invitational marks a tune-up for the Ivy Classic next weekend, hosted by Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y.
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