On Sunday in Providence, the Penn gymnastics team placed third out of four teams at the Ivy Classic for the second straight season.
With a score of 190.15, the Quakers finished behind host Brown and Yale, but managed to edge out Cornell. After struggling to do so all season, the Red and Blue managed to top 190 for the third straight meet.
While Brown, led by all-around gymnast Diana Walters, won the Ivy Classic for the second consecutive year easily with 193.375 - a season high for the Bears - the rest of the field was separated by a total of .225 points.
Coming in to the meet, Penn had been outdone by the Big Red twice this season, but made the most of an unusually weak performance by their Ancient Eight rival. Cornell finished last with 190.025.
Meanwhile, the Quakers were unable to avenge their defeat to Yale from earlier this season, as the Elis nudged them out by a tenth of a point. Though the Bulldogs posted a season-high score of 190.250, both teams showed vast improvement over their previous encounter, when Yale took down Penn in an ugly performance, 184.35-183.8.
The highlight of the day was Penn’s phenomenal performance in their final event on the floor. Penn was anchored by solid outings from freshman Rachel Graham and sophomore Carissa Lim, who posted each posted career-high scores of 9.85 and 9.8, respectively.
Junior Kaitlyn Reszkowski also matched a career high on floor with a 9.775.
Overall, the Red and Blue posted the highest team floor total of the day with a 48.85 on the apparatus - the highest floor mark since the 2011-12 season for the Quakers.
Unfortunately for Penn, that stellar type of performance wasn’t seen in the earlier events, and consistency remained the team’s largest issue this season.
The Quakers notched just a 46.35 on vault - their lowest score of the season and worst vault outing in over five years. Bars continued to slow the team down as it has all year, and Penn earned just a 47.4 on the event. The Red and Blue also recorded a 47.55 on beam.
Next Saturday, Penn will head over to Normal, Ill., to face Illinois State for the second time this year. The Quakers lost to the Redbirds at the Palestra 190.4 to 187.9 in January. Illinois State is coming off of an interesting outing Friday - while the Redbirds notched a season-high 193.2, they finished in last place at the Illinois Classic.
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