Gymnastics' road to an Ivy title passes through Towson

The Penn's gymnastics team is going into this Sunday's Towson Invitational in Maryland with a lot of confidence after a decisive final regular-season home meet against West Chester and Ursinus which capped off an almost undefeated season. Last Wednesday, Penn defeated West Chester, 184.80-154.825, and Ursinus, 184.40-172.075. The victories were highlighted by the performance of Penn tri-captain Kathleen Gunn, who was named Eastern College Athletic Conference Gymnast of the Week and Penn's Athlete of the Week after setting four personal records on the all-around, vault, bar and floor competitions. The Quakers (7-1, 3-0) are decidedly the underdogs against teams like Towson State, Maryland, George Washington and Temple. The Owls lost to Penn on Feb. 3, 185.675-183.25, but are coming into this weekend's invitational with a higher average team score than the Red and Blue. "Towson will be a good chance to get a good team score to help our ECAC rankings," Quakers tri-captain Carin Kaplan said. The Quakers need a good team score because only seven teams from the ECAC will be invited to the NCAA Regionals April 5 at Ohio State. Penn faces a tough challenge in making the Regionals, but scoring well Sunday would be a big step in that direction. Because this weekend won't be a dual competition, but rather a low pressure meet similar to last week's final home meet, which Penn's gymnasts used to prepare for the Ivy Classic on March 1. "Towson will be good experience for the Ivies," Penn sophomore Shannon Stafford said. The key event in this invitational is the beam. The Quakers do have a lot of strength in this area, but as will be in the Ivy Classic format, the beam is the final event, increasing the pressure and importance of this event. "The beam makes or breaks the competition," Kaplan said. "But we've been good all season long." In addition to the beam, consistency will be important for Penn to score well. Throughout the season, the Quakers' depth of the team has been key to its success. Depth will be tested in Towson because of all the injuries brought on by the length of the season. The banged -up team will board a bus for a 1 1/2 hour drive to Maryland, but Penn coach Tom Kovic will not use a full team and will allow some of the gymnasts to rest minor injuries in preparation for next week. "Injuries come with the territory," Kovic said. "The key is to be smart and not to push too hard." Sunday's Invitational will be an opportunity to rest and prepare for the Ivy championships, but a good score will raise the team's spirits and confidence going to Yale. "We'll use the meet to mentally prepare for New Haven," said Kovic. "The team is prepared."