At the end of the 2004 season, the Penn gymnasts found themselves at the top of the Ivy League and at the top of the Eastern College AthleticConference.
Now the pressure is on to stay there.
"We just have to put pressure on ourselves and remember that we are Ivy champions and ECAC champions," senior Alexandra Chalat said.
The Quakers opened their season at Sunday's George Washington Invitational tournament where they placed fourth out of seven teams.
The stiff competition exposed, for the first time, this new 2005 squad's various strengths and weaknesses.
"Every team has to start somewhere," coach Tom Kovic said. "At least now we know where we are."
The Quakers fell only to North Carolina, Towson, and George Washington, and accumulated a total score that was within seven points of the score of the tournament's champion, UNC.
"I'm thrilled with how we did," Chalat said. "We beat three teams that we went out to beat and that is such a great accomplishment ... The scores did not indicate how well we did. The only teams that beat us are full scholarship teams."
2004 team Most Valuable Player, junior Emily Petkun, led the Red and Blue with a total score of 37.975 and a fourth place finish in the all-around competition.
On the balance beam -- the Quakers' strongest event on Sunday -- Petkun also placed third, followed by senior Leah Moon who earned the fourth spot. Junior Laura Duros garnered the fifth highest score for Penn with her floor performance. The squad also met success on the vault, where seniors Laura Bouchelle and Yael Sollins placed in the top 20.
Even with such promising performances in these events, the team admitted to struggling on the uneven bars. Petkun alone placed in that event, earning the eighth best score.
"Bars happened to be our nemesis today," Kovic said.
The meet will certainly help gauge the teams current abilities and locate the areas in need of improvement. Still, many of the players attribute any challenges to the nerves that come with a new type of competition in a new year with a new squad.
"We had a rough time on bars getting our jitters out," Chalat said. "All our problems had to do with nerves."
"At the first meet of the season we aren't going to be perfect, but we showed that we have a lot of potential," Petkun said.
Chalat and others point to the difference in the style of high school and collegiate gymnastics as an especially prominent obstacle for the freshman gymnasts.
"It is always an adjustment to go from club gymnastics to a college level," Sollins said. "College level gymnastics are more team oriented as opposed to individual competition. The freshmen adjusted quickly and did very well at the meet."
After a solid start to their season, the Red and Blue will set out to defend its Ivy League title when the Quakers face Yale on home turf this Saturday.
"We know where what we need to work on and we are excited to get back to the gym," Sollins said.
