Gymnastics takes sixth at ECAC Championships

(Penn: 6th at ECACs)

Before this weekend's women's gymnastics Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships, four athletes were awarded for their dedication as both gymnasts and scholars.

Representing the Quakers was senior co-captain Lauren Hittner, the 2000 ECAC all-around champion and former ECAC co-Athlete of the Year.

However, the Red and Blue would have to compete without Hittner, who re-tore her anterior cruciate ligament late in the 2001-2002 season.

"It was pretty tough [without Hittner]," Penn sophomore Christy Green said. "I think it was most important to have her as a captain and a leader and an encourager."

And at first it seemed that the Quakers wouldn't be able to do it without her.

In the first round of competition, Penn took to the beam, which turned out to be their weakest event of the weekend.

"The beam was our worst event," Green said. "Beam is a lot of times what makes or breaks the meet. We had a lot of falls, it was kind of tough."

The scores may have damaged the Quakers overall tallies for the weekend, but Penn managed to bounce back to reclaim sixth place with 186.775 points in a field of seven.

The Red and Blue finished fourth last season and second in 1999-2000.

Host College of William & Mary won the championship, barely escaping a strong Yale squad.

The two other Ivy League squads at the championships -- Cornell and Brown -- finished third and fifth, respectively.

Once the Quakers regained their composure after a shaky first round, they slowly built up confidence throughout the remainder of the meet.

"It was tough because we had a rocky start," Green said. "Everything kept building."

The peak of the meet came for the Quakers during the vault competition, when the squad scored a program-record 48.175. The Red and Blue placed three gymnasts in the top 11 in the vault competition.

"We broke our vaulting record -- that was really exciting," Green said. "It was really cool how we handled starting out on a tough note."

Green capped off an impressive sophomore season, placing fourth in the all-around competition.

She also scored a career high on the vault.

"It was really exciting because there were only a few meets where I could put it all together," Green said. "It was really good to put it all together when it really counted."

The freshmen members of the Penn squad were integral in the successes of the weekend.

Rookie Colleen McGue placed ninth in the all-around competition, an impressive feat for a first-year. She also turned in the best scores of her collegiate career thus far in the beam, the vault , the floor exercise and all-around.

Fellow freshman Laura Bouchelle placed fifth in the vault event with a score of 9.725.

"We have a lot of freshman," Green said. "They have grown so much this season. I think they really did a good job of stepping up and performing when we needed them."

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