Gymnastics impresses opponents, but not itself

The meet was also highlighted by the participants singing the national anthem themselves. When greatness is attained, the bar of achievement is raised. Acceptable and expected levels of performance are redefined. Slightly lower achievement, no matter how respectable or impressive, can sometimes feel like a letdown. When the Quakers scored 189.075 against Brown February 7, they destroyed their previous team scoring record. On Wednesday, the Red and Blue hosted West Chester, Ursinus and Wilson, hoping to reach new heights with a team score in the 190s. Though Penn scored an impressive 186.925 in defeating all three of the visitors, the team was nevertheless disappointed that it did not score higher. "One hundred eighty-seven is respectable, no doubt about that, but when you go 189, it's hard to step down," Quakers coach Tom Kovic, whose team improved to 6-1, said. "We're pleased with that [186.925], but we know we have room for improvement, and we are going to improve." Penn's Wednesday night meet score is more than respectable. The mark is more than a full point higher than every team score this year except the Brown meet. "It was a pretty good meet," said Penn tri-captain Kathleen Gunn, who achieved a personal best of 9.725 on the beam. Gunn paced the Quakers in the all-around with a 37.675. "It wasn't a perfect meet like the Brown meet, which was pretty close to perfect, but I think we came back strong. There were a lot of really great performances," Gunn said. After starting out well on the vault, Penn had some difficulty staying focused on both its bars and beam routines. Tri-captain Shilpa Rao, who took home a score of 9.550 on bars, outshined all of the meet's 21 other competitors on the bars. Rao, however, became another Quakers' casualty in the focus department, falling from the apparatus twice during her beam routine. "It's certainly hard to keep focused when there's lots of people doing lots of different things. You want to be watching them. There's lots of noise, but you just have to focus that much harder," Rao said. "I think we kept it together pretty well considering there were a lot of different things going on." Solid performances on the beam from Molly Sullivan and Kathleen Gunn helped Penn pull out a score of 46.775 before recording its most impressive performances of the day in the final event. The Quakers, who led throughout the competition, scored 47.525 points on the floor routine. "We were a little nervous," Sullivan said. "Once we started competing, and we started getting into the swing of things, we were like 'we know we can do this, we did this before, so let's pull it together.' " Ursinus, an ECAC Division II team, notched 172.950 points. ECAC Division III West Chester, who scored 176.175 points, significantly improved upon last year's showing at Hutch, when they scored just 154 points against the Quakers. "We didn't have a full team last year. We had so many scratches that we couldn't field a full team. Our score tonight was about a six-point improvement on our average this year," West Chester coach Andrea Elkins Girard said. "We did well on bars and we did well on floor. Overall we did okay tonight." While a West Chester banner read "Don't just do it? do it right," the slogan for Wilson College should be "I can." Wilson, who scored 127.975, is a Division III school with an enrollment of 275 students which competes in the Atlantic Women's Conference. In its first year of existence, Wilson fields a team of four gymnasts. "We're just trying to go out there and improve our skills every time we go to compete," Wilson coach Korena Angell said. "Not so much score-wise, just looking at skills, the team looks better on a weekly, or even bi-weekly, basis, and we're happy with that." The meet began auspiciously with technical difficulties involving the playing of the national anthem. Without an a capella group to perform or a CD player cued up to play the Star Spangled Banner, coach Tom Kovic reacted quickly. Kovic enlisted all four of the gymnastics teams in attendance to perform the national anthem. "I can't believe how many girls have dual talents," junior Molly Sullivan said. "We've got girls who can do gymnastics and girls who can sing." However, when asked if she would like this dual-duty of singing and competing to become a future Penn gymnastics fixture, Sullivan, with certainty, replied, "No." In addition to showcasing the Quaker's musical talents, Wednesday's meet enabled the Quakers to solidify their lofty ECAC ranking and improve their NCAA regional ranking. Both rankings drop the season high and low scores for each team. "As far as regional qualifying scores are concerned, in the ECAC we want to be seeded first," Kovic said. "Right now, we're currently first in the ECAC with a qualifying score of approximately 185.5. We're certainly in the NCAA Northeast Regional hunt. We'll certainly give it our best shot at Towson on Sunday." Towson is the site of the Quakers' next competition, as Penn heads south this Sunday, February 22, for the Towson Invitational. At the six-team Towson Invitational, Penn will compete against three teams currently ranked in the NCAA Southeast Region -- Towson, Maryland and GW. Sunday's Invitational will also provide the Quakers with an opportunity for redemption. Yale, who handed the Quakers their only loss of the season with a half-point win on January 31, will also be competing.

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