Classic revenge for Gymnastics

For the second straight year, the Penn gymnastics team lost an early season meet against an Ivy League rival. Once again, the Quakers earned their revenge when it counted most. Penn won its third Ivy Classic Championship in a row yesterday in the Palestra by defeating Brown, Yale and Cornell. Penn's score of 188.925 was its highest of the year and marked the second straight week the Quakers have put together a season-best performance. Brown finished a close second with 186.100 points. Yale beat out Cornell in a close race for third, scoring a 182.575 while the Big Red recorded a 182.100. Penn easily defeated Cornell and Yale in January but lost to Brown 182.700-182.575 on February 7. Last year, the Quakers lost to Yale before coming back to defeat the Elis at the Ivy Classic. History repeated itself yesterday as Brown fell short against Penn's best performance of the season. The Quakers were led by senior co-captain Molly Sullivan, who won the all-around competition with a 37.625. The win also put closure on Sullivan's Ivy career, as she won the individual competition as a freshman but had come up short the last two years. "I had a few little mistakes here and there but I really improved on beam," Sullivan said. "I was really surprised about [placing first on the beam.]" The meet started off well for the Quakers when freshman Katie Laatsch landed her bars routine. Penn was plagued by five falls on the bars last weekend at the Towson Invitational and it seemed like the Quakers breathed a collective sigh of relief when Laatsch was able to hit her routine. Penn received tremendous contributions from its freshmen throughout the meet but their biggest impact was on the bars. In addition to Laatsch's opening routine, Sarah Tudryn won the event with a score of 9.45. Christy Paino finished third with a 9.35. "I wasn't really thinking about how I would do individually," Tudryn said. "Our workouts in practice last week helped a lot. The event was really important because it got us going." Tudryn suffered a severe ankle sprain less than a month ago but was able to come back to not only compete on the bars but to win it in her very first Ivy Classic. Penn coach Tom Kovic called the clutch performances by Tudryn and other freshmen a very encouraging sign about the future of the program. The next event for the Quakers was the beam, which Kovic was expecting to be the team's strength the whole year. Yesterday, it was. Penn earned a 48.375 on the beam, its highest event score of the competition. The Quakers had the top three beam performers in the meet and five of the top seven. Trailing Sullivan's first-place 9.800 were sophomore Sarah Bruscia's 9.775 and junior Becky Nadler's 9.700. Sophomore Jenn Capasso and junior Joci Newman also placed high with fifth-place and seventh-place finishes, respectively. "I was really nervous since I knew we were really close to Brown, and we had to hit our routines," Bruscia said. "The beam and bars were the most important events for us." Midway through the competition, the Quakers were trailing Brown by .725 points. But Penn was about to compete in the floor exercise, their most consistent event this year. Penn placed three gymnasts in the event's top five while compiling a score of 48.325 on the floor. Nadler finished tied for second with a 9.75, just ahead of senior co-captain Shannon Stafford's 9.700 and Sullivan's 9.675. "The seniors knew this was their last Ivy League Championship and last performance in the Palestra and they savored every moment of it," Kovic said. "What better way to go out than win three in a row!" The Quakers sealed their win on the vault, their final event of the day. Penn put together a solid score of 46.650 to end Brown's hopes of its first Ivy Classic Championship of the decade. For Penn's seniors, yesterday was the perfect way to end this season's Ivy League competition. The result also kept the other Penn gymnast's Ivy Classic record flawless. Penn's 1999 title gave the Quakers six Ivy Classic wins in the decade. Sullivan says she can't even imagine how well the Quakers will do next year. With only two seniors graduating, an Ivy Classic dynasty built in the 1990s could continue for Penn into the 21st century.

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