Scarlet Knights edge Gymnastics in nailbiter

Only in gymnastics can four inches mean this much. That most miniscule of measurements, representing the width of the a balance beam, spoke volumes about the difference between Penn's performance last night at Hutch Gym and Sunday's outing at Palestra during the Ivy Classic. Over the weekend Penn seemed confounded by the apparatus. Quakers gymnasts seemed to spend more time on the mat below than on the actual beam. By the end of last night's meet against Rutgers, another tiny margin proved to be Penn's undoing. While the Quakers were phenomenally sharp in hitting their routines, they came up just short against talent-laden Rutgers. On an already emotional evening when the team honored its departing seniors, Penn dropped a heartbreaker, 183.825 to 183.75, to the Scarlet Knights. As the tight score indicates, the meet went down to the wire. While one Quakers gymnast after another executed brilliantly in the floor exercises, Rutgers faltered on the balance beam. Penn had entered this last rotation trailing by 1.5 points, a large sum to make up. Obviously too large, even on this magical night. Although Penn wasn't able to notch the victory, falling to 8-4 on the season, emotionally the result helped it past a major threshold. With the disappointment of placing second in the Ivy Classic still painful, the team regrouped wonderfully. "We knew we couldn't come in on a let down after Ivies," senior co-captain Nicole LeBrasseur said. "We just came together totally as a team. Everyone worked together, and we had a great day." LeBrasseur helped key the resurgence, scoring above 9 in all three events in which she performed. As she mentioned, last night marked the most complete effort the Quakers have put together all season. From senior co-captain Monique Burton's victory in the all-around competition to sophomore Lori Taylor's gritty showing on the beam, the Quakers proved the power of team unity. Freshman Meredith Daly explained the phenomenon, saying, "I think tonight was the kind of environment where everybody started hitting their routines, and it just caught on." And catch on it did. The team executed with a crispness it hasn't had all season. Sophomore Michelle Arnheim broke down the evening to one word -- fun. "We didn't care about what was going on. We all just went out and had a good night. This is by far the most fun I've had at a meet all season," she said. Perhaps, though, tonight's finish, the best of the Quakers' up-and-down year, was just a matter of fate. After the squad received a well-deserved day off Monday, it used a hard workout to get ready for the Scarlet Knights. However, the team's equipment hadn't found its way back to Hutch by Tuesday, so the Quakers got an unprecedented two-day break. "I think the two days off really let us rest, which allowed us to focus on what we had to do against Rutgers," LeBrasseur said. For Penn coach Tom Kovic, the team's performance came as a complete surprise. Going up against a squad as strong as Rutgers, he didn't give his hard-working team much of a shot. But after last night, Kovic, too, is a believer. "This was absolutely the best performance of the season. We only missed three routines throughout the whole competition, and that is very, very good," Kovic said. The best part of this meet for the Quakers was breaking the 180-point barrier. They reached this plateau for the first time in a month last Sunday in the Ivy Classic. Throughout the month of February, they suffered through a bit of a scoring drought. It's precious cumulative scores like this one that determine whether they will qualify for the ECAC championship meet. So even if Penn couldn't come up with a victory last night, the Quakers will certainly benefit from the tidy score they put together. Besides, when you lose by 75 one-thousandths of a point, it's hard to be too upset.