Gymnasts face tough opponents

When someone says a team didn't show up for a contest, usually the team had a poor performance. But since the Penn gymnastics team's last two meets have been cancelled due to bad weather, the Quakers have literally been living the adage. The first of these missed meets -- against Division II West Chester -- was no great loss. Wednesday's meet against West Chester, Division III Ursinus and crosstown-rival Temple, was more important. Tonight the Quakers will battle the elements, and six other squads, as they travel to the George Washington Invitational. "Historically, the GW meet is always special for the team," Penn coach Tom Kovic said. "It's strong competition from the Mid-Atlantic and South regions." Though the forecast for the nation's capital is clear, ice storms are imminent en route. In anticipation of the weather, the Penn Athletic Department has forbidden any vans from leaving campus today. So the Quakers are forced to change their usual transportation routine and load the team onto a rented bus, adding yet more pressure. "Between the cold weather in the gym, and the missed competitions, it's very important to keep morale high," Kovic said. "But they've taken these challenges, and if asked to perform, they will." The Quakers will be facing Maryland, Bridgeport, Temple, William and Mary, host George Washington and Ivy-rival Yale this evening. It is not the size of the meet, but the abilities of the opposition that interest the Quakers. "It's a bigger meet with much stronger teams," Penn junior Staci Standen said. "There will be a huge crowd, and the judges are likely to be more lenient with scores." Because of their opposition's heightened skills, the Quakers have changed their attitude. The team knows what to expect, and the laid back approach has disappeared, Penn hopes. The Quakers will put their most qualified athletes on the floor, with senior co-captains Mary Pedersen returning to the all-around and Mona Nedjar adding the floor exercise for the first time this season to her repertoire. "We've been stressing the presentation of routines, cleaning things up and making skills perfect," Pedersen said. "It's great to go against really good teams." Though the Quakers may be suffering from a lack of competition, they have not taken this time off. The team has been holding practices throughout the storms, and Penn is anxious to show off exactly what it can do. However, the Quakers still worry about how the rescheduling of the missed meets will affect the remainder of the season. "We're disappointed with the cancellations because the meets we missed were supposed to be extra practice for us," Standen said. "Toward the end of the season, we want to spend more time perfecting skills. "Now we're going to be scrambling and having more competitions when we could use the practice." "Meets are wonderful, fun and exciting, but also draining," Nedjar said. "People have been discouraged, but we'll be better than we would have been if we had had a meet on Wednesday." The Quakers will attempt to rise to the challenge in Washington this evening, if they can get there. "We can't take many more of these," Kovic said. "We've got to get in and compete."