Quakers cruise by Cornell

Stranded night not enough to slow Penn After awakening early in the morning to make the 40-mile trek from Binghamton, N.Y., to Ithaca, N.Y., the Penn gymnastics team proceeded to vault over Cornell Saturday. The Quakers were unable to make the trip all the way to Cornell because Interstate 81, the road leading to Ithaca, was iced over. The gymnasts had to pull off the road and spend the night in a hotel in Binghamton. "The ride was very scary," Molly Sullivan said. "There were a whole bunch of cars driving off the road. Everyone was really shaken up. But once we got to the Comfort Inn, we ate dinner and everyone started joking around and feeling better." Once the Quakers were able to get up to Cornell, they made the best of it, bouncing back from a season-opening loss to national powerhouses Rhode Island and Towson State last weekend to score their first victory of the season. In the overall competition, Penn outscored Cornell 174.85 to 164.225. "Just watching warm-ups, you could tell we were a competitive level above Cornell," Quakers coach Tom Kovic said. Sullivan placed first in the floor competition with a personal-best score of 9.5. Sophomore Meredith Daly also set a career-high with a 9.225 on the vault. Sullivan was the top performer on beam, with an 8.75. "I think I did well on floor," Sullivan said. "That was one of my better routines. I wasn't very happy with my beam, but it was OK." Sophomore Kathleen Gunn, the only Quaker to compete in all four events, finished first in the overall competition with a cumulative score of 34.975. "We did better than our first meet," Gunn said. "We hit a lot of our routines, but there's still room for improvement." The inclement weather was not the only obstacle in getting the meet underway. Cornell was only able to secure two judges for the competition, as opposed to the usual four. This forced the gymnasts to go one at a time, instead of the usual blocks of two. The match lasted about three hours, or twice the time of a normal meet. "You always look forward to the first [Ivy] meet," Kovic said. "This is a real boost to our team's morale. We can use it as a stepping stone at a point that our schedule is starting to intensify." · The Quakers (1-2, 1-0 Ivy League) will be competing tonight at 7 p.m., in the Freedom Classic at Temple. Other teams participating include Ursinus and West Chester. "The Temple-Penn rivalry is always a good one," Kovic said. "We have very evenly matched teams this year."