Gymnasts blame loss on refs

Setting records doesn't always guarantee a win. The Penn gymnastics team learned this the hard way. Although the Quakers set a school record Saturday with 182.875 points, they still lost to Yale in New Haven, Conn. What made the weekend even more frustrating for Penn (0-2, 0-1 Ivy League) was the fact that the Quakers had beaten the Elis the previous Friday at the George Washington Invitational. That win gave Penn confidence it could beat Yale again and solidify its position at the top of the Ivy League. But even after Saturday's loss, the Quakers are still confident of their skills. They felt possible home-team favoritism in scoring was a bigger issue than the overall outcome of the meet itself. Penn coach Tom Kovic launched several inquiries into the rationale behind the judges' decisions on behalf of the Quakers, but to no avail. "It's tough to win away, especially when you head for Yale," Kovic said. "After two events, we were up by a point, and I think they were shaking in their boots a little bit. The judges weren't giving credit for skills that we were performing, claiming we didn't complete them as meticulously as we expected. We didn't get the benefit of the doubt, and Yale did." "The judging was not as consistent as it could have been," Penn junior Staci Standen said. "There's a home-team advantage. Yale has its own judges, and they hate to see the home team lose." Despite the Penn loss, the beam team of juniors Heather Kahn, Rebecca Anderson, Monique Burton and Nikki LeBrasseur, and senior co-captains Mona Nedjar and Mary Pedersen improved 1.325 points from their performances at the Invitational. And although the Penn bars team was a little weaker, it still hit all of its six routines. Pedersen also won the all-around competition with a personal best of 9.6 on vault, and eclipsed the old Penn all-around record with a 38.05 overall. Pedersen beat four Yale team members on her way to her second all-around title this season. However, Penn believes this meet marks one of those times when a loss isn't really a loss. The Quakers have been inspired by their second-straight outstanding performance against a talented Yale squad. They hope this meet will serve as a foundation for the rest of the season, culminating in the Ivy Championships. "We know that we're the better team," Kovic said. "In a neutral setting, on neutral ground, we'll prevail." "The Ivy Championships isn't determined by your win-loss record," Standen said. "It's determined by one meet on one day, and that's what we're striving for. We'll be out for revenge at the Ivy Championships. We've seen them perform, we know we can beat them, and come March 5, we will." With their scoring problems left behind in New Haven, the Quakers are sure practice will solve their other competition difficulties. Penn will try to put the past behind it again when it meets Yale in the Ivy Championships at Brown. "The loss is a disappointment, but it's also an incentive," LeBrasseur said. "We handled the pressure incredibly well. We'll go into Ivies wanting to prove that we're a better team, while Yale will be overconfident." "We know we're a good team, and we can beat Yale," Burton said. "Maybe we didn't this weekend, but we can in the future."

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