The Penn Gymnastics team suffered another heartbreaking loss this Saturday after a defeat at Rhode Island by a score of 186.375 to 182.625.
The Quakers (2-3) had just come off of a loss to Yale before trying to regain their footing with a win against Rhode Island.
But it proved to be a tough day for the Quakers, with 14 falls out of 24 routines. Penn coach Tom Kovic even described the meet Saturday as the most disappointing competition in the 19 years he has been at Penn. Coming in, he believed that Penn was evenly matched going against the Rams, but the meet was an aberration from Penn's normal performance.
"I believe in my heart that this is a great team, but something went completely off kilter today [that was] completely uncharacteristic of the type of student athletes we have on the team," Kovic said.
Sophomore Stephanie Ortiz believes that the team needs more confidence.
"Sometimes people get timid in competitions when you don't want to fall and don't want to mess up, and that's when you fall and mess up," she said. "So we have to work on being more confident and aggressive."
Despite the loss for the Quakers, there were some individual highlights. Penn senior Emily Petkun went on to win the all-around competition with a score of 37.400. She finished the day in first place on balance beam, scoring 9.525 and placed fifth in the floor routine with a 9.325.
Ortiz finished fifth in the all-around competition with a 34.575.
"I am happy that I did well, but I definitely care more about how the team does than how I do individually," Petkun said. "I am still disappointed with the outcome."
Another solid individual performance was turned in by Penn sophomore Kimberly Chin, who finished second on the uneven bars with a score of 9.700 and third on the balance beam with a score of 9.350.
In the end, the Quakers will hope to recover from this loss, beginning with their home meet this Friday against Wilson.
"I have the utmost confidence that this team can turn around and move forward in the right direction," coach Kovic said.
