Gymnastics beats Yale to take Ivy lead

Penn grabs several top scores as they beat the Elis for only the second time in nine years. Over the past three days the Penn gymnastics team has taken turns beating up on its animal foes -- the Yale Bulldogs and Temple Owls. In Tom Kovic's tenure as head coach of Penn gymnastics, the toughest Ivy opponent for him and his squad has been Yale. Heading into Saturday's meet, only once in his nine years had the Quakers been able to pull out a victory. After last weekend's strong showing against the Elis, Kovic not only improved his own personal score with Yale (2-2, 0-1 Ivy League), but showed the rest of the country how deep Penn is this season. While Kovic was extremely pleased with the Quakers' performance against last year's Ivy champions, the 183.8-179.25 win did not surprise him. "I knew they were scoring well," said Kovic. "And I do not want to say I was overconfident, but I was pretty confident that my team could get the job down and they did." While the Bulldogs did lose some members from their championship team of a year ago, this year's Penn squad (3-1, 2-0) was simply more talented than Yale, according to tri-captain Kathleen Gunn. "I think this year we have a lot more depth than in the past two years," Gunn said. "From our first girl down, everyone has the potential to score high. While last year maybe we had some weaker routines in the lineup, I feel like this season everyone has potential to score well in their events." The junior from San Diego, Calif., showed her leadership skills versus Yale, grabbing first place on the bars, second place on the vault and third place with her floor exercise. The other Quakers taking charge against the Elis were the two rookies. Jacobson and Nadler tied for first on the beam with 9.6, with Nadler taking another top finish on the floor routine and Jacobson finishing in fifth on the bars and the vault. Just two weeks ago, Jacobson set a school record on the beam with a 9.725. The native of Fridley, Minn., has surprised herself with her immediate impact. "It really has surprised me having it go so well from the beginning," Jacobson said. Speaking of thrilling, two days after the Quakers caged the Bulldogs, Penn travelled to North Philadelphia to challenge Temple. The Owls (3-5), according to Kovic, are a consistently top-seven team in the Eastern College Athletic Conference and always give the Quakers fits. The 185.68-183.25 victory over Temple was a major confidence boost for the young Quakers who continue to impress Kovic. "Temple did look a little flat out there last night," Kovic said. "But we were just real crisp and executed our routines well." Although the meet took place at night, that did not help the nocturnal Owls. On the beam, Penn took three out of the top five places including tri-captain Carin Kaplan's second-place tie with teammate Molly Sullivan. On the vault, Sullivan, a sophomore from Jackson, Ga., grabbed second place and came in third on the floor routine. Overall, Penn capped three days of competition with victories over two top-10 squads and moved up to second place in the ECAC's and eighth place in the NCAA. "During the past three meets we have improved our self-confidence," Kovic said. "Now it will be important for us to maintain our consistency and we should be fine."