Gymnastics vaults into ECACs

All the Penn gymnastics team wants is a little respect. The Quakers set the team scoring record five times on their way to winning the Ivy championships, but they still are not satisfied. The top seven gymnastics teams in the East Coast Athletic Conference are meeting in Vermont Sunday. For the first time, Penn will be among them. "There's a difference between hoping and knowing," coach Tom Kovic said. "In years past, I've been hoping the team would win the Ivy championships. This year when we went into Ivies, I knew the team would come out on top. We knew as a team we would come out on top. It's kind of a spooky feeling knowing that would happen." Penn qualified in fifth place, ahead of the Elis and the host Catamounts. Also competing Sunday will be squads from New Hampshire, Towson State, William & Mary and James Madison. "To be at ECACs now is monumental," Kovic said. "It's a real tribute to our team." UNH and Towson are clearly the favorites, with average scores close to 190 points. Fourth-seed James Madison is an unknown factor to the Quakers. Penn has faced Towson and William & Mary before, beating the Tribe by .55 points at the Towson Invitational earlier this season. Defeating Yale for the third time this year will not be enough. The Quakers believe they can finish as high as fourth. "It comes down to one meet to show what we can do," senior co-captain Mona Nedjar said. "We have one chance to show off how strong we've gotten and how competitive we are. It feels good that I've been here and I helped make it happen." Penn will be following the Olympic rotation at the ECAC Championships, the same as it uses in home meets. The Quakers will start on vault and uneven bars, then sit and watch through a bye round. Once other teams have completed their rotations, Penn will continue to its strongest event, balance beam. The Quakers will finish up the meet on floor exercise. Though this leaves them on a bye during the final round, unable to control their destiny, the Quakers are happy with the order of competition. "We start on vaulting," Kovic said. "That's a good first event because it's explosive and the team can go as hard as they can. We'd like to end up in the middle of the pack, and I think we can finish in the top four." Impressive goals, considering Penn started the season just hoping they could make it through the year healthy. In the past, the Quakers have been devastated by injuries. "Realizing potential" was the key phrase. The team believes it is physically and mentally prepared for the championships "We're anxious to get in and compete," Kovic said. "The team is beat up, but so is every other team. The conditioning the team has been through has kept them in good shape. Physically, they're still the best prepared team I've ever coached, and it's paid off." "Everyone's been ready," junior Heather Kahn said. "This week has been to maintain everything and heal physically. To make this meet successful, we have to go out there and do the best we can." Despite the big name and prestige of this event, the Quakers are not worrying. After all, they are not expected to win. Penn hopes to finish at least fifth, equal to the team's seed. "There's really no pressure," Kovic said. "During the season, there was concentrated pressure to stay with the training regimen and compete forcefully. This is a meet to enjoy, to cap off a great season." Another goal of this season was to achieve a 90-plus-percent hit rate for routines. Though the Quakers have achieved this several times, the team is now aiming for perfection. "We haven't had the meet yet where they hit every single routine," Kovic said. "They achieved what they've achieved without it. To go through a flawless competition would be the icing on the cake." Though senior co-captain Mary Pedersen will be continuing on at the NCAA Regionals, this will be the last meet of the season for rest of the Quakers. The three Penn seniors are facing the ECAC championships with mixed emotions. "Penn gymnastics is no longer just a little Ivy League team," Nedjar said. "This shows how far we've progressed. We're going to show everyone in the ECACs how good we are."