Quakers are young, but talented

First league meet vs. Big Red may be springboard to title for Penn gymnasts The Penn gymnastics team will head to Cornell tomorrow for the opening of the Ivy League season. The Big Red squad, which was nearly disbanded three years ago, is now back in contention and should provide an early-season test for the Quakers. Penn (0-2) opened the season last week with a three-team meet against Rhode Island and Towson State. Although the Quakers finished third, their performance was nonetheless impressive against tough competition. The team earned 179.625 points, 12.425 behind the winning Towson State squad. The score, which is calculated by combining the best scores of each of Penn's six competitors in the four events, was one of the best season-opening scores for the Quakers in recent years. Each gymnast can participate in any or all events, but at this point, only sophomore Kathleen Gunn carrys the full load for the Quakers. As the season continues and the gymnasts improve, more of the team will likely compete in all of the events. This season's team is younger -- seven of its 10 members are underclassmen -- and smaller than in recent years. But Quakers coach Tom Kovic is confident that these disadvantages do not mean that the squad cannot win the Ivy League championship. "Our goal is to be the top team in the Ivies," Kovik said. "We'd also like to finish in the top three at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference championships. We're not an extrordinarily deep team just because of our numbers, but we have good leadership and a good class of 1999." The Quakers' four sophomores, Kovic believes, will make a big difference in the success of the team. "We've lost two great gymnastics classes, with the graduation of the classes of 1994 and 1995," Kovic said. "So, it is important that last year's freshman mature, and they have done that."

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