There's something about great rivalries that makes teams turn in memorable performances. Temple and Penn proved that Friday night. The Quakers were just a little more convincing. Penn defeated the Owls and West Chester at the Freedom Classic at Temple by scoring a season-high 189.550 in its regular-season finale. The meet marked the first time in three chances that the Quakers finished ahead of Temple this year. The Owls had placed higher than Penn at both the George Washington Invitational on January 23 and the Towson Invitational on February 21. The Owls came up short Friday, however, even though they also earned their highest score of the season, a 189.400. West Chester finished a distant third with a 181.550. Penn's previous high score was a 189.325 recorded at Auburn on March 12. The Freedom Classic marked the third time in four weeks that the Quakers have earned new season-high scores, which is a very encouraging trend going into next weekend's ECAC Championships. "We knew it was our last team competition of the regular season, and we wanted to finish well," Penn coach Tom Kovic said. "Now the team needs to train in a way so that they'll be ready for ECACs next weekend." Senior co-captain Molly Sullivan solidified her already strong chances of qualifying for the NCAA Regionals by scoring a 38.225 in the all-around. "My score tied my personal-best which I got at Auburn," Sullivan said. "It's interesting that I got the two scores in back-to-back meets. I thought I had a better meet Friday than at Auburn." The Quakers opened their competition on the bars, normally their weakest event. Penn's event score of 46.225 was one of its best of the year as every competing Quaker scored over a nine. Sophomore Kelly Haberer led the Quakers with a 9.400 and junior Kirby Thorpe added a 9.325. "Bars was a very successful event for us," Kovic said. "Katie Laatsch started us off well as she has been doing lately with a 9.1. Haberer had been having trouble but she hit really solidly." The next event for the Quakers was the vault, where Sullivan led Penn with a 9.500. The Quakers suffered a major setback during the event when senior co-captain Shannon Stafford went down after locking a knee. Stafford was Penn's exhibition competitor on the vault and was trying to prepare herself for real competition in the event at the ECACs. She had suffered an ACL injury last year but had been competing in the floor exercise for several weeks. Stafford was scratched from the floor lineup Friday and her status for next weekend is undetermined. Sullivan and junior Becky Nadler led the Quakers in the floor exercise with scores of 9.750. Sophomore Jenn Capasso added a 9.575 while freshman Sarah Tudryn scored a 9.500 in her first competition on the floor since suffering a severe ankle sprain against Yale on January 30. After three events, Temple held a slim 141.075-140.950 advantage, with the the Owls heading to the floor exercise and the Quakers on their way to the beam. The Quakers were able to erase that deficit with a school-record 48.600 on the beam as four gymnasts -- Sullivan, Nadler, Capasso and freshman Juliani Mariani -- scored at least 9.700. Penn's high overall team score should help its ECAC seed next weekend and was just enough to defeat a Temple team that also gave its best performance of the year. According to Kovic, "the Temple-Penn rivalry has pretty much gone back and forth the last 10 years." This time it was the Quakers' turn to finish on top.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
DonatePlease note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.
