Gymnasts lose championship to Elis in Ivy Classic showdown

Sometimes being a champion means a little more than the place in which you finish. Make no mistake about it -- despite having been edged out by Yale 183.025 to 180.55 for the Ivy League crown yesterday at the Palestra (Brown finished third with 176.175 and Cornell last with 172.525), the performance of the Penn gymnastics team stands as testament to its competitive legacy. On the uneven bars, the event with which the Quakers have had the most trouble on all season, freshman Beth Manley knew she had one dismount in her. Still nursing a tender ankle from a nasty sprain a month ago, she understood some very serious pain might be awaiting her as she completed her bar routine. As expected, her landing hurt immensely, but with it came much-needed points. "It was great," Manley said. "I was so glad to be out there and do the best I could. Sure, it hurt a lot when I landed, but I did what I could for the team." If Manley's performance was courageous, Staci Standen's afternoon effort was downright fearless. After suffering a painful ankle injury of her own just this week in practice, the senior had no business competing in this meet. Apparently, somebody forgot to tell her that. She reeled off a 9.45 on the floor exercises for third place and won the vault with a 9.35. The Quakers' preparation for this meet focused on getting the most out of their bars routine. Immediately the team had the opportunity to find out if all the work would pay off, as it opened on this troublesome apparatus. Although the rotation didn't go brilliantly, Penn coach Tom Kovic really couldn't have asked for much more. Freshman Shilpa Rao stepped up in the face of immense pressure to take a strong third place with a 9.4. "We hit bars a lot better than we have been, and that's what we were looking for," Rao said. It was on the following event that the Quakers' luck went south. Inexplicably, Penn's season-long composure on the beam left it, with a number of routines interrupted by interludes on the mat below. "We had a rough routine on balance beam, and Yale was just balanced straight across," Kovic said. Had they produced their usual excellence on the rotation, the Quakers may very well have been able cut into Yale's lead. After those two events, the team needed something, anything really, to shake it from its malaise. At that point, Kovic huddled his charges, imploring them to put their frustrations behind them and look forward. The team followed his orders exactly, coming out on the floor exercises with renewed vigor. Here seniors Standen and co-captain Monique Burton led the way, energizing both the crowd and their teammates by executing to precision. "They could have crumbled [after the first two events]. They could have just given up. But they didn't. They gave their best for the team and for Pennsylvania," Kovic said. The Quakers' resurgence carried over to the final station, the vault, where they attacked the runway aggressively and scored impressively. Again paced by the duo of Burton and Standen, the two switched places, with Burton finishing just behind the victorious Standen. "Everyone used their disappointment from the beam to energize themselves for the rest of the meet," Burton said. In the end though, it was not miscues that led to Penn's undoing, but rather Yale's fine all-around performance. It fought hard and earned a well-deserved championship. En route to the crown, the Elis' Anna Mitescu picked up victories on the uneven bars and the balance beam, and she also won the all-around competition. Senior co-captain Nicole LeBrasseur surmised her teammates feelings, saying, "Yale was, overall, just better today. We all did pretty well, and we can't complain about the results." LeBrasseur and her mates will be quick to put this setback behind them and look ahead to the remaining portion of the season. The 180 points the team amassed will prove helpful in its drive to qualify for the ECAC championship meet in Pittsburgh at the end of March. Penn hosts its final home meet of the season Wednesday against Rutgers. There will be no memories of an Ivy League championship gone undefended. Instead, these champions will take the attitude befitting a team of their stature as they look forward to seeing their postseason goals to fruition.