Gymnasts face Ivy opponents

It's just another day in practice?but not quite. Instead, the Penn women's gymnastics team will be going into Hutchinson Gym tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. for a preview of the Ivy Championships. The Quakers (2-2) overcame the unfriendly confines of Hollinger Arena and old equipment to defeat West Chester 176.975 to 170 Tuesday night. Though the scores were lower than usual, the Division II Rams were not a challenge for the Quakers. "It was a more relaxed meet," junior Monique Burton said. "We are a stronger team than West Chester, so there wasn't a fear of us losing the meet." Many team members competed in new events, and freshmen got their first chance to shine. They all rose to the occasion. "We walked in with the attitude that we were going to win," senior co-captain Mary Pedersen said. "It was important to do your best and not just shirk it off. Everyone stepped up and did well." The Quakers will be facing Ursinus, Cornell and Brown tomorrow. And though two of the visiting teams are Ivy rivals, the Quakers are not worried. Ursinus is a Division III school. Brown has just had its gymnastics team reinstated this season after two years of inactivity. An injunction forced Brown, which was deemed in violation of Title IX, to reestablish the sport. The Big Red squad was also threatened with extinction last year, but Cornell reconsidered to avoid a costly legal battle. So Brown and Cornell have been more preoccupied with just keeping their gymnastics teams alive. Opinions about the quality of the opposition vary. Some of the Quakers do not think the Bears or the Big Red will prove to be a challenge. Others think back to history, when both Brown and Cornell had much stronger squads. "It's definitely going to be a challenge," Penn senior Lynn Aronica said. "When you get three of the four Ivy gymnastics teams together, you're going to have a good meet." "Brown and Cornell haven't been scoring that high this season," Pedersen said. "But we can't just sit back. We've got to go in there and attack." The only Ivy squad Penn has met thus far is Yale, so the Quakers are looking forward to this opportunity to see the others. The Ivy Championships are next weekend at Brown, and no one is taking any chances. "This is a preview to the Ivy Championships," Pedersen said. "Every year Ivies comes down to a Penn-Yale head-to-head battle." Building for the future is always important. Due to this year's many rule changes, the Quakers added difficulty to their routines earlier in the season, and now the stress is on perfecting them. Penn knows another high-scoring performance will help the team's chances of qualifying for ECACs. "We've really been emphasizing clean routines," Pedersen said. "That's our strong point. People on other teams are starting to throw harder tricks and are missing them. We've upped our difficulty, but we've done it intelligently. We're not putting out routines we can't do." Due to the fact there are four teams competing, the meet will be conducted like an invitational. There will be two events at a time, with breaks in between. This format may prove to be the most difficult element of tomorrow's competition. "At an invitational you sit back and watch, and we don't want to do that," Aronica said. "We want to focus more on ourselves and prepare. We have to concentrate on pulling it all together." The Quakers are convinced they have the competitive edge. And tomorrow, the focus will definitely be on Penn.