Gymnasts go for title

The day of judgement has finally arrived. After months of practicing and living with pain, the Penn gymnastics team's season has come down to one meet -- the Ivy Championships Sunday at Brown. "We're confident going into Ivies," junior Nicole LeBrasseur said. "This has definitely been the focus of our season all year, and now it's finally here. There should be no surprises." A season without surprises is rare for a Penn squad racked by injuries in past years. But now everyone is healthy and the team is the strongest in recent memory. "I am prepared and the team is prepared," Penn coach Tom Kovic said. "Physically, they're the best prepared team I've ever coached. I expect them to put forth their best performance this season." Penn has been working toward this meet all season. With the nationwide rule changes, the Quakers were forced to add difficulty to all their routines early in the year. The only changes since then have been slight adjustments to correct imperfections. Penn thinks it is prepared to go into competition. In fact, the Quakers think they can win the championship outright. "I think we've hit our peak," senior Lynn Aronica said. "We're coming together at the proper time. It feels great to be this strong at this point. We know we can do it in practice, all we have to do is do it in the meet. I know we can." There are only four varsity women's gymnastics squads in the Ivy League, and two of them -- Brown and Cornell -- have already been threatened with extinction. The Bears squad was reinstated after two years of inactivity after the players received an injunction based on Title IX violations. Cornell reconsidered cutting its program to avoid a similar legal battle. "It's a restructuring year for Brown and Cornell," senior co-captain Mona Nedjar said. "I really respect them for all they had to do to with the litigation to keep their teams. But we're definitely focusing on Yale as our main competition." The Big Red and the Bears are much weaker than Penn. The power in the Ivy League can be found in New Haven and Philadelphia. Yale should give the Quakers a tough battle for the title. Beating Yale is the key to Penn's winning the championship. To do that, the Quakers will have to be near perfect. "We should be hitting close to 100 percent," LeBrasseur said. "We've been doing the same routines all year, and we're really, really strong." The Quakers have seen each of the other Ivy squads at least once this season. Penn crushed Cornell and Brown last weekend at Hutchinson Gym. The Quakers and the Elis have split their two meetings, with Penn winning by .425 at the George Washington Invitational in late January, and Yale coming out on top a week later in New Haven. This historic rivalry will be repeated yet again Sunday, and the Quakers are out for revenge. "There's no question Penn's a better team," Nedjar said. "It's going to be a struggle and a challenge, but Penn's going to come out on top. We're looking to demolish Yale." Besides the desire to bring the overall Ivy League championship trophy back to Philadelphia, the Quakers want individual victories as well. Each team member is prepared to give 100 percent Sunday. "I expect a lot out of the team," Nedjar said. "Since gymnastics is an individual sport, it's important that each team member does her best so the team can do well." With or without an Ivy League victory, the Quakers have even loftier goals this season. The ECAC championships are three weeks away, and Penn hopes to qualify as a team for the first time in its history. The first seven teams in the division qualify, and the Quakers are currently ranked fifth. A good team score would help Penn in its tournament bid. "I expect them to perform at their peak and do the best they can do," Kovic said. "There's nothing more I can expect from this team than what they've already done. We want to win Ivies. The score is arbitrary." Arbitrary or not, gymnastics is a sport where hundredths of a point can mean the difference between winning and losing. It is time for a showdown on neutral ground. The Quakers are ready to face the judges.