Gymnasts down Owls

Pennsylvania gymnastics -- they just keep going and going. When the Quakers hosted crosstown-rival Temple last Thursday night, they expected a tough meet. They even thought they had a chance at winning it. It never even crossed their minds that they could set the school record for the second meet in a row. But they could, and they did. Penn (1-2) displayed a balanced attack against the Owls (3-2), beating them 183.8-180.5, shattering its own school record set last weekend at Yale, in the process. "It was an absolutely great meet," Penn senior co-captain Mary Pedersen said. "We're progressing, and our scores are going up." There is a lot of history between these two squads. Temple coach Ken Anderson and his Penn counterpart Tom Kovic have been friends since they competed against each other in high school. The two coaches tied for first place on the vault in their first-ever collegiate competition. That long relationship between the coaches tends to soften the rivalry a bit. "Tom Kovic and I are both gymnasts from Long Island," Anderson said. "Tom ended up as a freshman at Temple the same year that I started at Southern Connecticut. The first meet of the season was Temple at Southern Connecticut. We both performed pike Tsukahara vaults for the first time in our careers, and both landed them with a 9.25. We tied for first place, and we've been good friends ever since." The most recent meeting in the ongoing contest was two weeks ago at the George Washington Invitational. Then the Owls emerged victorious, finishing ahead of Penn by 1.2 points. But this time the meet was at Hutchinson Gym, on the Quakers' home floor. "I expected a tough battle," Anderson said. "The talent [at Penn] has gotten much stronger. I did think my team had the edge, but they had to do the job." And the Owls just couldn't do it last night. Temple was inconsistent, completing only one beam routine out of six cleanly. By contrast, this meet was filled with repetitions of past glory for the Quakers. Junior Monique Burton set a personal record on floor exercise for the second time this season, receiving a mark of 9.55. Pedersen topped that with her third triumph in the all-around. And senior Lynn Aronica beat her own two-year old vaulting record with a 9.675. After breaking Penn's overall record score against Yale, the Quakers were extremely confident. But they were still winless on the season. This victory has pushed the team's belief in themselves even higher. But Kovic expects even greater things from his team in the future.

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