Junior McCaleigh Marr celebrates with her teammates after completing her beam routine during a meet against Cornell at the Palestra on Feb. 6.
Credit: Sukhmani KaurJust days away from the Gymnastics East Conference Championships, Penn's gymnastics team was named regular season champions, leading to it being seeded at No. 1 for the conference championship this weekend.
The Quakers broke many records over the course of their season, including the program record for points at a meet, which they broke twice. The team first scored a new program record of 195.375 at Towson University in mid-February, and again this past weekend at the University of Maryland with a record of 196.225. At Maryland, Penn also broke the Ivy League meet record.
Additionally, there were numerous individual standouts throughout the season. Sophomore Kristen Kuhn was named the Ivy Classic Co-Champion with a career-high score of 9.900. Junior McCaleigh Marr tied a program record on the beam with a score of 9.950, and junior Ariyana Agarwala tied the program record on vault with a score of 9.900.
"I am so proud of this team and the hard work and focus they've put into becoming regular season champions," head coach Kirsten Becker, 2013 College graduate, said via Penn Athletics. "This has been one of, if not the most successful and consistent years in our program's history, and it's all due to our team's commitment to training and preparation. They've shown their resilience no matter the circumstances and challenges we've faced throughout the last two years."
"They are truly a unit and support one another endlessly. We are very proud of them and this accomplishment and are looking forward to competing at the conference championship this weekend," Becker said.
Back in September, the gymnastics team joined the new GEC, a gymnastics-only conference, along with seven other schools on the East Coast. It consists of several other Ivy League schools including Yale University, Brown University, and Cornell University, and also consists of West Chester University, Southern Connecticut State University, William & Mary, and the University of Bridgeport.
With a national qualifying score of 194.875, Penn is ranked as the top seed at the GEC Championships, followed by Yale and Brown. This means that the Red and Blue will be participating in Session 2 events of the meet.
Catch the Red and Blue competing this Saturday, March 19, during the GEC Championships at 6 p.m. in Providence, R.I.
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