Gymnastics chalks up an Ivy League title

The Penn gymnastics team is in a state of celebration after winning its second consecutive Ivy championship. A rainbow of pastel chalk covered the sidewalk path from 33rd Street to the entrance of Hutchinson Gym yesterday, announcing the return of the Ivy Classic champion Quakers gymnastics team. "Awww yeah!! Who won Ivies? We did!" Penn won their second consecutive Ivy title and fifth in the past eight years, with an Ivy Classic record score of 187.350. Penn breezed past their competition, outdistancing second-place Yale by more than four points in setting the meet record for largest victory margin. "It was just an electrifying competition. I've never seen a team as hungry as Penn was Sunday," Penn coach Tom Kovic said. "You could see the competitive fires in their eyes, they were destined to win a title." The Quakers, who took home firsts in three of four individual events and the all-around, began the day on the vault, wary of the traditionally strict New England judges. "We did well on vaulting, but came up with lower scores, and that concerned me," Kovic said. "Kathleen Gunn did what I consider the vault of her career. I figured she could've had a 9.65, but she ended up with a 9.350. That was tight judging but the score held up for the entire competition." In addition to winning the vault, tri-captain Gunn brought home a second-place finish on bars, a fourth on beam and tied for third on floor en route to a first place 37.975 on all-around. Though Penn performed well on vault, they trailed Cornell by a fraction of a point in that first event. The Quakers ignited, however, running away from their Ivy foes in the next three straight. "We had a really good bar performance. Then, after bars, beam was just awesome," freshman Jenn Capasso said. "We were able to stay focused with so much going on around us." Capasso, who won the beam title with a 9.7, was not the only person to notice the Quakers' focus and determination. "The team's focus was just awesome. Their determination was almost scary," Kovic said. "It's a coach's dream to be able to get a team into that kind of psychological mindset where you're not having to constantly push them and encourage them. They took the baton and ran." Capasso's lead-off performance on beam sparked Penn to a team beam score of 47.225, almost two points ahead of the next closest team. "It really got exciting during the beam. It's such a nerve-racking event," said Molly Sullivan, who won the 1996 all-around and took fourth on Sunday. "Beam pretty much makes or breaks the meet." Following the beam performance, the Quakers exploded for a 48.450 on the floor routine. The Red and Blue were led by Becky Nadler and Molly Sullivan, who notched first and second place floor performances, respectively. "We always present to the judges before the competition, and the judge actually said to us, 'If you want a good score, finish strong'," Sullivan said. "So we went out there and we were like, smile and just do the exact same thing you've been doing in practice and the momentum will just keep going." In four events, Penn nailed 13 top-six finishes. All-around champ Kathleen Gunn, ranked No. 11 in the all-around in the ECAC, easily outdistanced Yale rivals Katie Kleiner and Stacey Johnson, ranked second and fifth in the ECAC, respectively. The two Elis struggled to finish in the top seven Sunday. While Gunn placed in four events, the key to Penn's victory, though, was a total team effort. "Everyone stepped up," Kovic said. "Look at Kirby Thorpe, who has been struggling with a new bar routine, hit a terrific routine on Sunday. Shannon Stafford, who has had nagging injuries the entire season, went in and did a marvelous job." Penn's 187.35 placed them easily ahead of Yale, Brown and Cornell, who battled for second through fourth, all finishing within a point of each other. For the Quakers, Sunday's meet strengthened their ECAC ranking as the No. 1 team, while fueling their quest for a first-ever NCAA regional appearance. Though the afternoon rain may have washed away the celebratory pastel graffiti, no one can dispute the success of the Red and Blue at Sunday's league meet at Brown.

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