Gymnastics seeks first-ever ECAC title

The Quakers travels to James Madison today to compete in their final meet of the year at ECACs. For the Penn gymnastics team, the true test of the season has arrived. When the team bus pulls into Harrisonburg, Va., today for the ECAC Championships, there will be no resting on collective laurels for the 1998 Ivy Champs. The Quakers have had an impressive run this season. While winning the Ivies and compiling an 8-1 dual meet record, the Red and Blue have risen to the top of the ECAC rankings. All that matters little, however, when the Quakers take to the bars Saturday night in their first event. Penn paced the conference rankings for team score all season, only to be unseated this week by upstart Vermont. The Quakers, who have never captured an ECAC title, will be one of the favorites at the meet (Saturday, 7 p.m., at James Madison University). "I'm excited. Big meets are more fun. Everyone is full of energy, so it gets a lot easier to compete," freshman Sarah Bruscia said. "The momentum just gets going." Bruscia's comments echo the sentiments of most of her teammates. Despite the pressure of having been ranked No. 1 for most of the season, the Quakers are excited and ready to build on last year's outstanding performance. As host in 1997, Penn set a team scoring record and placed second as a team, landing three gymnasts in the top ten in the all-around. Last year's victors, James Madison, have fallen to the middle of the pack in the ECACs this season. Though all eight competing teams will be on equal footing at tonight's banquet honoring the seniors, there are four teams that stand out with legitimate championship hopes – Penn, UVM, William and Mary and Yale. Penn has defeated both William and Mary and the Elis, but has not yet seen the current No. 1 UVM Catamounts. Though the competition will be fierce, the format of the competition will be equally as difficult. The traditional vault, bars, beam floor rotation has been shuffled for the Quakers, who will be starting with bars, then moving to beam, floor and vault. The eight-team format makes the ECACs an extremely long meet; with byes between events, the meet can stretch almost four hours. Penn coach Tom Kovic believes his team will be unfazed by the changes. "Bars is a good starting event for us, we're capable of going in and hitting six out of six routines," Kovic said. "They've just got to pace themselves for that long period of time." The Quakers have several athletes with chances to win their events. Nadler is the reigning floor co-champion, while tri-captain Kathleen Gunn holds the No. 1 spot in the all-around, 0.044 points ahead of rival Katie Kleiner of Yale. Freshman Jenn Capasso, ranked No. 1, leads a group of four Quakers ranked in the top 10 in beam, an event in which rival UVM has no one ranked in the top eight. For Kovic, the meet will be emotional regardless of the team's place. It marks the final competition for senior tri-captains Gunn, Carin Kaplan and Shilpa Rao. Nothing would be more rewarding than ending this remarkable season with a first-ever ECAC Championship. "This is the strongest, most coachable group that I have had the pleasure to work with in ten years. They are three of the most supportive tri-captains that a coach could ever wish for," Kovic said. "What better way would there be for them to cap it off than to give their best performances at the ECAC Championships and come home a winner?"