Gymnasts easily fly past three opponents

After the Penn gymnastics team's first rotation Saturday, scores were lower than expected. Senior co-captain Mary Pedersen worried, "Are we going to go out and do the best routines of our lives and not get rewarded?" The Quakers didn't need to be anxious. Penn (3-2) crushed much weaker squads from Ursinus (0-4), Brown (4-5), and Cornell (0-2). "We started out with vaulting, and I was kind of concerned," Pedersen said. "Nikki LeBrasseur did her best vault yet, and the score just wasn't there. But then beam and floor went on, and everything went back to normal." The meet was run like an invitational, with two teams competing at a time, while the other two watched and waited. Before the meet, Penn thought the off-rounds were going to be the most difficult for the team. There were people everywhere, which proved distracting at first. But once warmups were over, and the meet began, the Quakers were prepared mentally for competition. "It was chaos," Pedersen said. "We really had to focus to get through." The crowd, however, seemed to add more power to Penn. Cheering loudly throughout the meet, the fans provided a clear home-gym advantage. "The crowd was great, especially on floor," junior Rebecca Anderson said. "The noise was really concentrated." With the fan support as a launching pad, the Quakers were superior to their opposition. Penn scored 183.05 total points. The Quakers' closest competitor was Brown, with 169.525, followed by Cornell with 161.625 and Division III Ursinus with 132.325. The high team score will help Penn in its drive to make its first-ever appearance at the ECAC championships. The top seven squads qualify and the Quakers are currently ranked fourth. "This is the most consistent team we've had in my four years here," Pedersen said. "In the past, we've had injury problems, but this year everyone's here and we're strong. We've got a really good shot at Ivies and ECACs." Pedersen shattered her personal best on the floor exercise with a 9.625, and the overall team mark on beam with a 9.575 on her way to a record-breaking 38.175 all-around victory. The beam team of freshman Lori Taylor, juniors LeBrasseur and Burton, senior co-captain Mona Nedjar, Anderson and Pedersen received a 46.96 overall to set a new school record. "We've never been this strong at this point in the season," Penn coach Tom Kovic said. "I keep telling them to hang in there and stay and fight, and now it's all paying off." A row of new inspirational signs hung from the mirror behind the floor mat in Hutchinson Gym. They read like a litany of little things that could be easily forgotten: Chin up.?Smile.?Have fun. This week's practice sessions will ensure the Quakers remember each one. Penn will use this final week before the Ivy Classic to perfect and clean up its routines. Consistency is the key. "It's purely fine-tuning of a strong machine," Kovic said. "We're hitting upwards of 90 to 95 percent of our routines, but we've got to get it perfect." The team expects to improve still more, and peak at Ivies. "It's going to be a showdown on neutral ground," Pedersen said. "The team that wins is going to be the team that hits."