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(03/20/98 10:00am)
The Quakers travels to James Madison today to compete in their final meet of the year at ECACs. For the Penn gymnastics team, the true test of the season has arrived. When the team bus pulls into Harrisonburg, Va., today for the ECAC Championships, there will be no resting on collective laurels for the 1998 Ivy Champs. The Quakers have had an impressive run this season. While winning the Ivies and compiling an 8-1 dual meet record, the Red and Blue have risen to the top of the ECAC rankings. All that matters little, however, when the Quakers take to the bars Saturday night in their first event. Penn paced the conference rankings for team score all season, only to be unseated this week by upstart Vermont. The Quakers, who have never captured an ECAC title, will be one of the favorites at the meet (Saturday, 7 p.m., at James Madison University). "I'm excited. Big meets are more fun. Everyone is full of energy, so it gets a lot easier to compete," freshman Sarah Bruscia said. "The momentum just gets going." Bruscia's comments echo the sentiments of most of her teammates. Despite the pressure of having been ranked No. 1 for most of the season, the Quakers are excited and ready to build on last year's outstanding performance. As host in 1997, Penn set a team scoring record and placed second as a team, landing three gymnasts in the top ten in the all-around. Last year's victors, James Madison, have fallen to the middle of the pack in the ECACs this season. Though all eight competing teams will be on equal footing at tonight's banquet honoring the seniors, there are four teams that stand out with legitimate championship hopes – Penn, UVM, William and Mary and Yale. Penn has defeated both William and Mary and the Elis, but has not yet seen the current No. 1 UVM Catamounts. Though the competition will be fierce, the format of the competition will be equally as difficult. The traditional vault, bars, beam floor rotation has been shuffled for the Quakers, who will be starting with bars, then moving to beam, floor and vault. The eight-team format makes the ECACs an extremely long meet; with byes between events, the meet can stretch almost four hours. Penn coach Tom Kovic believes his team will be unfazed by the changes. "Bars is a good starting event for us, we're capable of going in and hitting six out of six routines," Kovic said. "They've just got to pace themselves for that long period of time." The Quakers have several athletes with chances to win their events. Nadler is the reigning floor co-champion, while tri-captain Kathleen Gunn holds the No. 1 spot in the all-around, 0.044 points ahead of rival Katie Kleiner of Yale. Freshman Jenn Capasso, ranked No. 1, leads a group of four Quakers ranked in the top 10 in beam, an event in which rival UVM has no one ranked in the top eight. For Kovic, the meet will be emotional regardless of the team's place. It marks the final competition for senior tri-captains Gunn, Carin Kaplan and Shilpa Rao. Nothing would be more rewarding than ending this remarkable season with a first-ever ECAC Championship. "This is the strongest, most coachable group that I have had the pleasure to work with in ten years. They are three of the most supportive tri-captains that a coach could ever wish for," Kovic said. "What better way would there be for them to cap it off than to give their best performances at the ECAC Championships and come home a winner?"
(03/19/98 10:00am)
Two Penn athletics teams have become harbingers in the field of college sports psychoanalysis. In early February, Dave Wohl, vice president of SportsTrac, Inc., addressed the Penn gymnastics team in a basement classroom at Hutch. "The mind is one of the few relative unknowns left in athletics," Wohl said to the Ivy-champion gymnasts. SportsTrac, a computer hand-eye coordination and concentration test for athletes, has achieved success working with several major league baseball, NBA and NHL teams and is seeking to expand beyond the professional athletic market. The company has no data on female athletes, Wohl told the gymnasts, and saw the Quakers gymnastics squad as an opportunity to test a group of competitive, goal-oriented individuals. As vice president of SportsTrac, Dave Wohl, a 1971 University graduate, returns to his alma mater. Wohl lit up the Palestra as a member of the Quaker's 1971 NCAA Elite Eight basketball team. A three-year starter, the Big Five Hall of Famer averaged a career 15.1 points per game. A two-time All-Ivy first teamer, Wohl moved on from Penn to average 6.2 points per game in a five-team NBA career. He first discovered SportsTrac while working as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Lakers. While a Lakers coach, Wohl often had conversations with Lakers team physician and SportsTrac co-founder Michael Melman. In November of 1996, Wohl left his position as executive vice president of basketball operations for the Miami Heat to join SportsTrac, Inc. He felt Penn would be a natural choice for SportsTrac to venture into the college market. "I think Penn represents the difficult extreme of combining great academics with very high quality athletic teams," Wohl said. "I knew that any of the teams we would be able to track here were going to have very highly competitive athletes, very intelligent athletes and athletes who were used to really structuring their time and being able to remain competitive." Wohl approached Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky last year about bringing SportsTrac to Penn on an experimental basis. As teammates and college roommates, Bilsky and Wohl often discussed the mental aspects of the game of basketball. "I don't want to make it sound like this is a generational thing, but I think that the mental aspect of the game and the fundamentals, or the strategy of it, basically got more emphasis, maybe, back when we played then it does today," Bilsky said. "I think now there's a little bit more emphasis on the physical aspects of the game. So, I think you could probably describe us as cerebral players." Wohl decided to test SportsTrac with the Quakers' football and gymnastics teams. SportsTrac uses a video-game like system to track athletes on a daily basis. By controlling a small knob on a paddle, the athlete tries to keep a diamond-shaped marker balanced in the center of the computer screen. The computer causes the marker to drift left and right at speeds which grow increasingly difficult to control. The test ends when the marker touches one of the side boundaries. "The test is comparable to balancing a broomstick. Most of you could do it," Wohl said. "But if I kept making the broomstick shorter and shorter eventually it would get to the point where you couldn't do it anymore." Before tracking, the athlete takes a daily survey which asks questions regarding sleep, caffeine intake, use of medication and other factors. After completing five trials, the athlete is given a numerical score based on hand-eye coordination in the test and concentration, how closely the five test scores were clustered. The athlete then views a graph plotting that day's scores in relation to previous scores. SportsTrac feels that the data obtained from the graphs can be used in several ways. The company, whose main premise is that getting the athlete's body and mind together is the key to unlocking performance potential, believes comparing scores with data on injury, medication and other factors can diagnose which problems are or are not affecting performance. The company also feels that daily tracking helps an athlete to hone mental focusing and concentration techniques. SportsTrac also delivers warnings to athletes, signalling when there is an increased risk of injury. This feature of SportsTrac was discovered during research studies conducted by the company in cooperation with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. Falling concentration levels in tracking patterns were discovered among athletes who suffered injuries related to an inability to perceive impending danger. The Colorado and California-based company developed its athlete-testing system from Critical Tracking Task Tests begun by the U.S. military in the 1950s to daily assess the concentration and preparedness of fighter pilots. SportsTrac began five years ago, tracking pitchers on the L.A. Dodgers, and has expanded, working with several professional sports. One of SportsTrac's biggest success stories has been PGA golfer Len Mattiace. When he scored a 4.0 or better in his tracking, Mattiace broke par 46 percent of the time; when he scored above a 4.3 he shot par or better 70 percent of the time. While using SportsTrac, he went from 96th to 75th on the PGA money list and noticed a two-stroke difference in his scoring average. "The greatest correlation between [SportsTrac System] scores and performance is in sports where focus and concentration are preeminent to your performance," Wohl said. Gymnastics certainly fits the criteria. "Gymnastics is very dangerous," junior Molly Sullivan said. "If you don't concentrate and don't pay attention to what you're doing, you can get seriously hurt." As the biggest Quakers sport, the football team was a natural selection for SportsTrac to begin with. Jerome James Jr., director of football operations at Penn, helped to coordinate the team's use of SportsTrac. James felt that the use of the system, like any first-year program, suffered strengths and weaknesses but was relatively successful. "It worked pretty well," James said. "I think the coaches were relatively happy with the way the data was being presented to them. It gave them a better sense of who their players were, and how they are affected by their day-to-day schedules." According to James, SportsTrac fit in perfectly with a new approach the football team was implementing this year -- looking at the player holistically, as a person on and off the field. "We implemented a program with psychological services, where if players are stressing, they have an opportunity to go up and talk to representatives and kind of get some things off their chest," James said. "In that way, SportsTrac would be really good, because now I could [look at a below-average score] and say, 'All right, what's the problem?' They might not want to go in with me to the detail that they might with someone up at psychological services. In that sense, SportsTrac certainly helped." There were, however, some logistical problems. With a consistent test group of 40 players but only one SportsTrac system, time was often a problem. James feels that the team will probably continue to use SportsTrac in the future. The gymnastics team was a logical next step for SportsTrac, presenting an opportunity to track female athletes in a sport where concentration and coordination on an individual basis are key. "SportsTrac provides me with an opportunity to look to see how an athlete tracked that particular day, to see how much sleep they got," Penn gymnastics coach Tom Kovic said. "I can make a decision on whether or not we need to hold back a little bit with that particular athlete as far as practice is concerned." Though he has been pleased with the program so far, Kovic still relies predominantly on talking to his athletes about how they are feeling. Because it is the first year of SportsTrac use, Kovic realizes that his team has only been able to take advantage of some aspects of the program. For the gymnastics team, this year's use of SportsTrac is very much a test of whether the program will be beneficial in the future. Dave Wohl will return in May to talk with the team after the season and help them fully interpret their data. Regardless, Kovic feels that though some take tracking very seriously and others not at all, his team has benefitted somewhat from SportsTrac. "Sometimes they finish their tracking and you hear them say, 'Shoot!' " Kovic said. "That's them being competitive with themselves and that's good. I don't think they forcibly tell themselves that they have to work any harder or any less. If they happen to test poorly that day, they subconsciously focus harder in order to get through." As a coffee drinker, tri-captain Kathleen Gunn liked seeing how factors such as caffeine affect concentration. "The concept's interesting, but one of the problems is that it's not set up for gymnastics," Gunn said. "None of us smoke and there are only 10 questions on there, but one of the questions was 'What was your nicotine intake?' " While SportsTrac is still in the testing process of working with college teams, it has provided some help to players and coaches at Penn. The experimental aspect is what Steve Bilsky is most intrigued by. "It's almost like a research study, an academic approach, which is why Penn fits," Bilsky said. "I think if the coaches think it's good, and the athletes feel it can improve performance, SportsTrac might be something we use for a long time." From here, the next step for SportsTrac is to work with Penn men's track and field and golf in its select study of the use of SportsTrac in a college setting.
(03/06/98 10:00am)
The final home stop on the "best season ever" campaign of the 1998 Penn gymnastics team has come in to view. On Saturday, the Quakers entertain Ithaca College and the University of Bridgeport (1 p.m., Hutchinson) in the team's last tri-meet of the season. What a difference a year makes. In 1997, the Quakers finished their dual meet season at Bridgeport, falling by five points to the Purple Knights. Bridgeport, led by Tiffany Dickey -- currently an assistant coach at Penn -- broke the elite 190-point barrier, while Penn -- which netted 185 points in the meet -- was still striving to break the elusive 186. The tables have since turned, as the Quakers (6-1 in dual meets) have broken 186 on several occasions this season. They are the heavy favorites going into Saturday's meet. Penn's regional qualifying score of 186.462, good enough for first in the ECACs, is a full seven points higher than Bridgeport's. With former All-American Dickey now patrolling the sidelines alongside Penn coach Tom Kovic, the Quakers look to chalk up two more victories as they take on the Purple Knights and the Ithaca Bombers. The Quakers are coming off of a stellar performance at the Ivy Classic, where they claimed their second-straight league title, while setting meet scoring records and taking home three of four events along with the all-around championship. "It should be a great meet," Penn tri-captain Carin Kaplan said. "I think our team is coming off of a pretty exciting weekend so I hope that everyone is still pumped up." The meet also marks the last time that Penn tri-captains Kathleen Gunn, Carin Kaplan, and Shilpa Rao will compete for the Red and Blue at home. The three seniors hope to steer Penn to victory on Saturday as the final pages are written in a storied chapter of Penn gymnastics. "It's a very special meet for the seniors. They are three very special individuals who have just committed themselves fully to this program," Kovic said. Gunn, who won the all-around at Ivies, hopes to put the finishing touches on an excellent Penn career. Last season, she finished as ECAC champion on bars, runner-up on vault, and fourth in the all-around. All-ECAC Academic Honor Roll. She also became only the third gymnast to qualify individually for the NCAA Regional Championships. "It's going to be a little bit emotional having it be our last meet of the season at home, but I'm excited," Gunn, a native of Ann Arbor, Mich, said. Kaplan, second-team All-ECAC on beam in 1997, has performed solidly for the Quakers on both floor and bars this season. 1997 NCAA Academic All-American, Academic All-ECAC and Academic All-Ivy, Kaplan continues a Penn gymnastics tradition of high performance both on the mats and in the classroom. "I think it will be pretty emotional. I've been doing gymnastics since I was four years old so this could be the last time," said Kaplan, a Rochester, N.Y. native. Rao, the Quakers' team leader on bars with a regional qualifying score of 9.444, won her strongest event at the 1997 Ivy Classic and was named second-team All-ECAC. While Saturday's meet presents a chance for Penn fans to bid farewell to the tri-captains, it also provides an opportunity for the Quakers to improve on their regional qualifying score. "It's just one more chance to get a good qualifying score for regionals and also be able to keep our first-place seed for ECACs," Gunn said. Following this weekend's tri-meet, Penn heads to the ECACs at James Madison, where the Quakers hope to defend their current No. 1 conference ranking and take their first-ever ECAC team championship.
(03/03/98 10:00am)
The Penn gymnastics team is in a state of celebration after winning its second consecutive Ivy championship. A rainbow of pastel chalk covered the sidewalk path from 33rd Street to the entrance of Hutchinson Gym yesterday, announcing the return of the Ivy Classic champion Quakers gymnastics team. "Awww yeah!! Who won Ivies? We did!" Penn won their second consecutive Ivy title and fifth in the past eight years, with an Ivy Classic record score of 187.350. Penn breezed past their competition, outdistancing second-place Yale by more than four points in setting the meet record for largest victory margin. "It was just an electrifying competition. I've never seen a team as hungry as Penn was Sunday," Penn coach Tom Kovic said. "You could see the competitive fires in their eyes, they were destined to win a title." The Quakers, who took home firsts in three of four individual events and the all-around, began the day on the vault, wary of the traditionally strict New England judges. "We did well on vaulting, but came up with lower scores, and that concerned me," Kovic said. "Kathleen Gunn did what I consider the vault of her career. I figured she could've had a 9.65, but she ended up with a 9.350. That was tight judging but the score held up for the entire competition." In addition to winning the vault, tri-captain Gunn brought home a second-place finish on bars, a fourth on beam and tied for third on floor en route to a first place 37.975 on all-around. Though Penn performed well on vault, they trailed Cornell by a fraction of a point in that first event. The Quakers ignited, however, running away from their Ivy foes in the next three straight. "We had a really good bar performance. Then, after bars, beam was just awesome," freshman Jenn Capasso said. "We were able to stay focused with so much going on around us." Capasso, who won the beam title with a 9.7, was not the only person to notice the Quakers' focus and determination. "The team's focus was just awesome. Their determination was almost scary," Kovic said. "It's a coach's dream to be able to get a team into that kind of psychological mindset where you're not having to constantly push them and encourage them. They took the baton and ran." Capasso's lead-off performance on beam sparked Penn to a team beam score of 47.225, almost two points ahead of the next closest team. "It really got exciting during the beam. It's such a nerve-racking event," said Molly Sullivan, who won the 1996 all-around and took fourth on Sunday. "Beam pretty much makes or breaks the meet." Following the beam performance, the Quakers exploded for a 48.450 on the floor routine. The Red and Blue were led by Becky Nadler and Molly Sullivan, who notched first and second place floor performances, respectively. "We always present to the judges before the competition, and the judge actually said to us, 'If you want a good score, finish strong'," Sullivan said. "So we went out there and we were like, smile and just do the exact same thing you've been doing in practice and the momentum will just keep going." In four events, Penn nailed 13 top-six finishes. All-around champ Kathleen Gunn, ranked No. 11 in the all-around in the ECAC, easily outdistanced Yale rivals Katie Kleiner and Stacey Johnson, ranked second and fifth in the ECAC, respectively. The two Elis struggled to finish in the top seven Sunday. While Gunn placed in four events, the key to Penn's victory, though, was a total team effort. "Everyone stepped up," Kovic said. "Look at Kirby Thorpe, who has been struggling with a new bar routine, hit a terrific routine on Sunday. Shannon Stafford, who has had nagging injuries the entire season, went in and did a marvelous job." Penn's 187.35 placed them easily ahead of Yale, Brown and Cornell, who battled for second through fourth, all finishing within a point of each other. For the Quakers, Sunday's meet strengthened their ECAC ranking as the No. 1 team, while fueling their quest for a first-ever NCAA regional appearance. Though the afternoon rain may have washed away the celebratory pastel graffiti, no one can dispute the success of the Red and Blue at Sunday's league meet at Brown.
(02/27/98 10:00am)
the Penn gymnastics team heads to Brown this weekend for the 1998 Ivy Classic. The Penn gymnastics team heads to Brown Sunday to compete in the 1998 Ivy Classic, looking to capture its fifth team title of the past eight seasons. While taking home the first-place hardware is paramount, the Quakers are also looking to settle the score in a heated rivalry and leave the Yale Elis in the dust. If last week's basketball loss has you suffering from rivalry withdrawal, turn your attention to Brown's Pizzitola center, where Penn and Yale square off for the third time this season. Penn won Ivy Classic titles in 1991, '92, '94 and '97, while ECAC and Ivy foe Yale paced the Classic in 1993, '95 and '96. "The Yale-Penn rivalry is a very healthy rivalry," Quakers coach Tom Kovic (71-42 lifetime record) said. "When those two teams get together, whether it's a dual meet, an invitational meet or a championship meet, both teams want to come out on top." The neck-and-neck rivalry has continued this season. Yale stole a heartbreaker from the Red and Blue on January 31, winning by a mere half-point in the Quakers' only dual meet loss of the season. Last week, Penn rebounded at the Towson Invitational, downing the Elis by 0.7 points. "It is definitely to our advantage to have a victory over Yale under our belts going into the Ivy Championships this coming weekend," Penn sophomore Lizzie Jacobson said. "I think it will help give us confidence, so we can go out there and really show what we can do." Penn has several competitors who are looking to make some noise at Sunday's meet. Junior Molly Sullivan hopes to reclaim her all-around title, which she won with a 37.225 score her freshman year. Last season, Sullivan, despite suffering a shoulder injury and an illness, pulled out a 37.375, which gave her the second-place finish. Tri-captain Shilpa Rao was Penn's only titlist in 1997, winning the uneven bars. Rao also placed third on the beam. "Molly Sullivan, Lizzie Jacobson and Kathleen Gunn are all going to be contending for top all-around slots. Jenn Capasso, on balance beam, has had a very consistent year," Kovic said. "I'm confident that we're going to place several gymnasts in the top six this weekend. To come out with a couple of individual champions, that would just be icing on the cake." Among those expected to place is senior tri-captain Kathleen Gunn. Gunn, the 1997 ECAC bars champion, was expected to shine last season at the Ivy Classic but injured her head on the bars and had to pull out of the competition. One of the biggest factors affecting the scoring of Red and Blue gymnasts may come from an outside source. Penn competitors Sunday must deal with the traditionally more stringent scoring standards of New England judges. "Scoring in New England is going to be tighter, no doubt about it," Kovic said. "So my message to my team is not so much to pay attention to the scores but to pay particular attention to execution and individual performance." While Penn and Yale battle it out for the top spot, Cornell and Brown, the only other Ivy schools offering gymnastics, will be dueling for third. Though the Big Red stole one from the Bears at Ithaca earlier this season, Brown's home-gym advantage could mean the difference this week. The Ivy Classic marks the traditional transition from dual meet season to post season. Penn, currently ranked first in the ECAC, hopes to use the Ivy Classic as a springboard to their first-ever ECAC team championship and first NCAA regional tournament appearance in team history. The Quakers, who ended last season ranked No. 11 in the region, are looking to join the ranks of the elite seven teams who qualify for regionals. "We've had a successful dual meet season, and now we're looking to the post season and to get in and be successful there," Kovic said. "The seventh slot [in the NCAA Northeast Region] right now is Rutgers, with a scoring average of 186.8. Our current regional qualifying score is 185.6, so we're about a point behind. That's reachable."
(02/24/98 10:00am)
The Penn gymnastics team put together its fourth highest score of the season in Maryland. At an early-Sunday-morning hour in which many college students were just beginning to call it a night, the Red and Blue gymnastics team was preparing to face some of the toughest competition it has seen all season. On Sunday, Penn's gymnasts loaded up the bus and headed to Towson, Md., for the six-team Towson Invitational. The Quakers placed fourth in the field, which included three teams ranked in the NCAA Southeast Regional. The home team, Towson, finished first for the 13th consecutive year. Though the Quakers were forced to count a handful of missed routines, they did manage to scrape their way to a solid 185.725 showing, their fourth-highest point total of the season. "I think the one thing that stood out this weekend, as far as the team is concerned, was that they they were scrappy competitors -- they hung in there, they were tough," Quakers coach Tom Kovic said. "They were up at 5 o'clock in the morning to take a bus to Towson." The six-team format made the competition a difficult one. Unlike standard dual meets, which last under two hours, the Towson Invitational went close to three hours. Having six teams also meant that each team rotated through two bye stations in addition to the day's four events. With a long day in front of them, the Quakers needed to start the day off right in their first event, the balance beam. In hopes of achieving this, Kovic turned to a freshman, Jenn Capasso. "She's our lead-off on balance beam. That was our first event of the competition, which is a tough event to start on, but she rocked her routine," Kovic said. Led by Capasso and Lizzie Jacobson (who also scored a 9.575), Penn managed a 47.150 team score on the beam, higher than all but Towson and GW. "I take my role as starter on this event really seriously," Capasso, who added a personal-best 9.425 on vault, said. "I think it's really important that the first gymnast set the tone for the upcoming teammates by hitting that first performance." Several other Quakers performed well on Sunday as well. Molly Sullivan took home eighth in the all-around with 37.350 points. Lizzie Jacobson also pitched in with a strong all-around performance. "Lizzie did a really nice job. It doesn't really show in her all-around score but she was extremely strong on balance beam and was heroic in a way," Kovic said. After junior Shannon Stafford went down with a leg injury, Jacobson was forced to step up and fill the vault slot. "It was a surprise to be asked to vault. I'm sorry Shannon was not able to [perform] due to her knee, but I was more than willing to fill in," Jacobson said. "I had to just be sure to focus in and do what I know how to." As they head into the final stretch of their season, the Quakers realize that even the slightest fraction of a point can mean the difference between victory and defeat. Though Penn lost a heartbreaking, half-point meet at Yale on January 31, they rebounded Sunday at Towson, downing the rival Elis by 0.7 points. Tri-captain Shilpa Rao set an example for the Quakers by making score-improving adjustments to her routines. Shilpa normally attempts a pike tsukhara on the vault, in which the body is bent at the waist more than 90 degrees while the legs are kept straight. On Sunday, though, she attempted a more-difficult layout tsukhara, where the body is kept straight and the back is slightly arched. "The pike tsuk that I've been competing is worth a 9.6 [when done perfectly]. The layout tsuk is worth a 9.8," Rao, who notched a personal-best on the vault and also led Penn on the bars, said. "Since our goals are really high, we want to win ECACs and we'd really like to make it to [NCAA] regionals this year, we really need to be doing the hardest skills as well as the best performance that we can." Getting the extra tenth will be especially important at the Ivy Classic next Sunday. There, Penn will once again try to assert its Ivy dominance by beating the Elis in its third confrontation with Yale this season.
(02/20/98 10:00am)
The meet was also highlighted by the participants singing the national anthem themselves. When greatness is attained, the bar of achievement is raised. Acceptable and expected levels of performance are redefined. Slightly lower achievement, no matter how respectable or impressive, can sometimes feel like a letdown. When the Quakers scored 189.075 against Brown February 7, they destroyed their previous team scoring record. On Wednesday, the Red and Blue hosted West Chester, Ursinus and Wilson, hoping to reach new heights with a team score in the 190s. Though Penn scored an impressive 186.925 in defeating all three of the visitors, the team was nevertheless disappointed that it did not score higher. "One hundred eighty-seven is respectable, no doubt about that, but when you go 189, it's hard to step down," Quakers coach Tom Kovic, whose team improved to 6-1, said. "We're pleased with that [186.925], but we know we have room for improvement, and we are going to improve." Penn's Wednesday night meet score is more than respectable. The mark is more than a full point higher than every team score this year except the Brown meet. "It was a pretty good meet," said Penn tri-captain Kathleen Gunn, who achieved a personal best of 9.725 on the beam. Gunn paced the Quakers in the all-around with a 37.675. "It wasn't a perfect meet like the Brown meet, which was pretty close to perfect, but I think we came back strong. There were a lot of really great performances," Gunn said. After starting out well on the vault, Penn had some difficulty staying focused on both its bars and beam routines. Tri-captain Shilpa Rao, who took home a score of 9.550 on bars, outshined all of the meet's 21 other competitors on the bars. Rao, however, became another Quakers' casualty in the focus department, falling from the apparatus twice during her beam routine. "It's certainly hard to keep focused when there's lots of people doing lots of different things. You want to be watching them. There's lots of noise, but you just have to focus that much harder," Rao said. "I think we kept it together pretty well considering there were a lot of different things going on." Solid performances on the beam from Molly Sullivan and Kathleen Gunn helped Penn pull out a score of 46.775 before recording its most impressive performances of the day in the final event. The Quakers, who led throughout the competition, scored 47.525 points on the floor routine. "We were a little nervous," Sullivan said. "Once we started competing, and we started getting into the swing of things, we were like 'we know we can do this, we did this before, so let's pull it together.' " Ursinus, an ECAC Division II team, notched 172.950 points. ECAC Division III West Chester, who scored 176.175 points, significantly improved upon last year's showing at Hutch, when they scored just 154 points against the Quakers. "We didn't have a full team last year. We had so many scratches that we couldn't field a full team. Our score tonight was about a six-point improvement on our average this year," West Chester coach Andrea Elkins Girard said. "We did well on bars and we did well on floor. Overall we did okay tonight." While a West Chester banner read "Don't just do it? do it right," the slogan for Wilson College should be "I can." Wilson, who scored 127.975, is a Division III school with an enrollment of 275 students which competes in the Atlantic Women's Conference. In its first year of existence, Wilson fields a team of four gymnasts. "We're just trying to go out there and improve our skills every time we go to compete," Wilson coach Korena Angell said. "Not so much score-wise, just looking at skills, the team looks better on a weekly, or even bi-weekly, basis, and we're happy with that." The meet began auspiciously with technical difficulties involving the playing of the national anthem. Without an a capella group to perform or a CD player cued up to play the Star Spangled Banner, coach Tom Kovic reacted quickly. Kovic enlisted all four of the gymnastics teams in attendance to perform the national anthem. "I can't believe how many girls have dual talents," junior Molly Sullivan said. "We've got girls who can do gymnastics and girls who can sing." However, when asked if she would like this dual-duty of singing and competing to become a future Penn gymnastics fixture, Sullivan, with certainty, replied, "No." In addition to showcasing the Quaker's musical talents, Wednesday's meet enabled the Quakers to solidify their lofty ECAC ranking and improve their NCAA regional ranking. Both rankings drop the season high and low scores for each team. "As far as regional qualifying scores are concerned, in the ECAC we want to be seeded first," Kovic said. "Right now, we're currently first in the ECAC with a qualifying score of approximately 185.5. We're certainly in the NCAA Northeast Regional hunt. We'll certainly give it our best shot at Towson on Sunday." Towson is the site of the Quakers' next competition, as Penn heads south this Sunday, February 22, for the Towson Invitational. At the six-team Towson Invitational, Penn will compete against three teams currently ranked in the NCAA Southeast Region -- Towson, Maryland and GW. Sunday's Invitational will also provide the Quakers with an opportunity for redemption. Yale, who handed the Quakers their only loss of the season with a half-point win on January 31, will also be competing.
(02/18/98 10:00am)
On February 7, the Penn gymnastics team raised its performance level to a higher plane. Spurred on by a foot-stomping homecoming crowd, the Quakers ripped apart three team scoring records and an individual record in an impressive victory over Ivy and ECAC rival Brown. The Red and Blue (3-1) hope to carry the momentum of the Brown meet into tonight's showdown at Hutchinson Gymnasium (6 p.m.). After 11 days off of competition, the Quakers host West Chester University, Ursinus College and Wilson College. "We're looking to go in after a week off of competition to get in there and basically build upon that foundation that we built last week against Brown," Quakers coach Tom Kovic (62-48, in his eleventh year at the Penn helm) said. For Penn, the main focus tonight will be on achieving a high team score. Though Penn shattered its team scoring record with 189.075 points against Brown, Coach Kovic hopes that mark serves as a stepping stone to even greater achievements. "We're looking to maintain that high scoring average in the high 180s and low 190s for the ECAC qualifying score and also for the regional NCAA qualifying. They take the top seven teams in the region," Kovic said. "We're currently ninth and looking real good." Kovic has reason to be optimistic about the Quakers progress. Penn (184.344 average in four dual meets) has improved upon its previous scoring performance in each of its dual meets this season. Since opening with a score of 178.50 in a victory over Cornell, Penn has averaged an increase of 3.525 points per meet over its most recent score. Penn holds high expectations for itself as it heads into tonight's action. "We're going to go into the next one with just that much more confidence," Penn tri-captain Shilpa Rao said after her team's last victory. Tonight's opponents enter the meet having taken a much different road to Hutch. For Wilson College, merely stepping out and competing is a victory. The gymnastics program at Wilson (0-6) is brand new. Coach Kovic called Wilson's efforts this year "gallant." Competing with a team of four gymnasts, Wilson scored 123.275 points in its most recent competition, a tri-meet loss to Brockport and West Chester. ECAC Division II West Chester has a team of gymnasts which Kovic calls "much improved." Last season, West Chester lost to Penn, 184.80-154.825. West Chester has already faced Ursinus in the 1998 season. On February 4, the West Chester Golden Rams defeated the Bears of Ursinus, 176.875-171.875. The Ursinus gymnastics team enters competition fresh from a narrow, 173.325-173.050 loss to Cortland. Last year, Penn defeated ECAC Division III Ursinus, 184.80-172.075. Though Penn has not competed for 11 days, they have been hard at work preparing for the second half of the season. "[The 11-day break from competition] gives us a chance to really look at films, take a look at areas where we need to improve and just refine any weak areas we happen to see and just push forward," Kovic said after the last meet. "We're at a great point in the season right now." Following tonight's action, the Quakers face a test when they head to Maryland for the Towson Invitational on February 22. The Towson Tigers have made 11 straight appearances in the NCAA Southeast Regionals. At last year's competition, Penn placed fourth in a tough field which included GW and Maryland.
(02/17/98 10:00am)
Antawn Jamison. Mike Bibby. Raef LaFrentz. Trajan Langdon. Brian Earl. Brian Earl? The 6'2" Princeton Tigers' sharpshooter finds himself among some pretty elite company as an eligible candidate for the John R. Wooden College Basketball Player of the Year Award. Brian Earl has been selected by the media as one of 30 mid-season candidates for the Wooden Award, based on his individual and team performance. On April 3, the Wooden Award Recipient and All-American Team will be selected from the ranks of this elite group. Princeton's junior shooting guard is no stranger to accolades. Earl has been named tournament MVP in each of his last three in-season tournaments. Earl scored 15 points in each of the Tigers' tourney games, including a game- and tournament-winning backdoor layup against NC State, as Princeton took the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic to start the season. If Earl has made a habit of burning opponents in tournament play, he has become equally accustomed to putting on his game face against Penn. "We're looking forward to playing a tough game, a good game against a good [Penn] team," Earl said following Saturday night's Tigers' victory over Yale. Last season, Earl paced Princeton to two victories over the Quakers, leading the Tigers in scoring each time. At the Palestra last February, Earl grabbed three steals and put 17 points on the board, including a key three pointer as Princeton pulled away to start the second half. On March 4, the Tigers guard notched 19 against Penn on 4-of-5 three point shooting in an 86-73 Princeton win. While he has been consistent against Penn, Earl has a history of being a streak shooter. In late January, the junior bounced back from a Friday night goose-egg performance against Cornell (just his fourth career shutout) by nailing five-of-seven three-pointers en route to 21 points against Columbia the next evening. "When the shots are falling for you early, you get a good feeling about yourself and want to keep shooting," Earl told the Associated Press. This past weekend, Earl demonstrated the same form. On Friday night, he hit just a single field goal in a drubbing of Brown. Saturday, Earl exploded for five three-pointers in a 21-point performance against Yale. While Earl may be looking forward to playing a tough game, Penn fans hope he doesn't have the same shooting touch he possessed the last time these two teams met at Jadwin Gym. Last season, Earl came just two shots away from becoming a 50-40 man (50 percent from the field, 40 percent from three-point land). This season, he is hitting 43.1 percent of his threes and 47.9 percent overall. Earl is already second all-time in Princeton history with 187 trifectas. Though Earl was only a sophomore on the 1996-97 Princeton squad that went 24-4 and placed four players as all-Ivy honorable mention or better, he led the Tigers with12.1 points-per-game. Currently, Earl is scoring at a 13.5 ppg clip, good for second best on this year's edition of the Tigers. If Earl carries his hot hand from Saturday's Yale game into tonight's Ancient Eight matchup, it could turn into a three-point fest. Earl teamed with Gabe Lewullis last season to set a school record for most three pointers in a season by two teammates (133). "Brian's an outstanding shooter," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "But [Mitch] Henderson can make the three, Lewullis can make them, [James] Mastaglio can make them, all five guys can make threes so I'm sure if we give them opportunities they're going to take advantage of that." The Quakers have also had the hot hand from downtown as of late. Penn sophomore Matt Langel is one of the top-ranked three-point shooters in the country, while co-captain Garret Kreitz buried seven treys in the Brown game. "I don't know if it is going to be a three-point shootout, but both of us are good three-point shooting teams," Kreitz said. "We'll probably get our fair share of attempts on three pointers but it's just going to be an all-out war." Though few can predict the outcome, the general consensus seems to be that the game will be a hard-fought battle. "It's always a special game," Tigers coach Bill Carmody said. Perhaps the Penn State web page (yes, Penn State) can help out in this situation. Brian Earl's older brother, Dan, is a point-guard for the Nittany Lions. In high school, Brian made the New Jersey all-state team in 1995, while Dan was named player-of-the-year in 1993. Second-team all-Big 10 as a junior in 1996, Danny Earl redshirted last season with a bad back and is currently requesting a sixth year of eligibility after hurting his knee in December. Danny Earl's bio lists his "Favorite Current Athlete" as none other than? Michael Jordan. Though brother Brian may be suiting up for the Orange and Black, we know Danny's heart lies with the Red and Blue. Penn faithfuls can only pray that Jordan, who scored 22 in his first meeting with Princeton as a frosh, and the Quakers are able to unseat Princeton from its eighth-ranked pedestal.
(02/12/98 10:00am)
Yale senior guard Matt Ricketts made a crucial steal in an Elis' upset win over the Quakers in New Haven. On January 10, the Penn men's basketball team rolled into New Haven looking to down the Elis for its second-straight win to start the 1998 Ivy League season. The Penn faithful fully expected to see their team close out winter break with a victory at 4-8 Yale. Elis guard Matt Ricketts, however, had no plans of watching his team fold. The Quakers closed out 1997 with a hellish December schedule. A five-game losing streak, which included losses to nationally-recognized powers George Washington, Kansas and Rhode Island, ended with the changing year and a solid beating of Brown. Against the Quakers, Ricketts pumped in a career-high 23 points, including Yale's final five points in regulation, to lead the Elis to an upset 71-70 overtime victory. The 6'3" shooting guard also shut down Quakers senior co-captain Garret Kreitz, holding the Penn guard to a mere six points. With 18 seconds remaining, Ricketts stripped the ball from Kreitz -- and the lead from Penn -- taking it in for a layup to send the game into overtime. "The Penn game is the best game I've ever played in college," Ricketts told the Yale Daily News. Ricketts was unavailable for comment yesterday. In just his fifth start of the season, Ricketts nailed 6-of-9 three-pointers as Yale pulled out the win. The Elis won despite missing injured starting guard Gabe Hunterton and losing captain Emerson Whitley, who fouled out with 6:38 remaining. "Well, we certainly didn't do a good job on Matt," said Quakers coach Fran Dunphy. "I thought he played very well." The victory marked the establishment of Ricketts as more than a mere cog in the Yale offensive machine. Later that week, Ricketts made all 14 free throws in scoring 19 points at St. Francis (N.Y.). The solid performances earned the senior his first ever Ivy League Player of the Week honors. "He's always been capable of it. He's playing very well right now," said 12-year Yale coach Dick Kuchen. Ricketts has reemerged as a Yale starter after a difficult year. As a sophomore, he started 20 games while leading the Elis in three-pointers and finishing third in scoring. Last year, though, Ricketts was plagued by a back injury that caused him to miss six games. The Sturgis, Ky., native shot just 32.6 percent from the field and found himself on the bench entering the 1997-98 season. One of the lone bright spots for Ricketts last year was his selection to the Academic All-Ivy Team. "Matt has distinguished himself academically," Elis coach Dick Kuchen (145 victories at the Yale helm) said. Ricketts reemerged this season in a December 10 game against Vermont. In the Elis' overtime victory, Ricketts came off the bench to score 14 points in 44 minutes. He won back his starting job and has since averaged 12.5 points per game. Heading into the contest against Vermont, Yale had won a mere five of its previous 38 games dating back to 1996. Since then, Ricketts has led Yale to a 9-4 record in its last 13 games. The Elis (10-10, 5-3 Ivy) are looking to finish at .500 for the first time since 1991-92. Ricketts matched his Penn mark of 23 points in a loss at Columbia last Friday and responded the following night with a 22-point performance in a victory over Cornell. In eight Ivy League games this year, Ricketts has burned Ancient Eight opponents. In those games, he has averaged 15.6 points while knocking down 48.8 percent of his threes. Ricketts has always been a sharpshooter, owning Yale's seventh all-time mark with 90 career three-pointers. He is also hitting an impressive 87.1 percent of his free throws this year. "Free-throw shooting is mostly mental," Ricketts told the Yale Daily News. "Over Christmas, my dad was saying that the least I could do as a Division I basketball player was to make my free throws." Despite the Elis' hardwood troubles in recent years, they have owned the Quakers number. Yale has pulled out three close victories over Penn since 1996. Ricketts and his teammates will be gunning for another Yale victory when they tip off at the Palestra Friday night against Fran Dunphy's Quakers. "We're not going to change a lot [against Yale]," Dunphy said. "We're not a real trickery kind of team. We'll try to do a good job with man-to-man defense, hopefully, and we'll concentrate on a guy like Ricketts, and on Emerson Whitley [Yale captain, 16.8 points per game]."
(02/09/98 10:00am)
The Penn gymnastics team set four school records Saturday en route to an overall Brown destruction. "This was the best team performance in the history of the program!" Penn gymnastics coach Tom Kovic said. With the temporary bleachers of Hutchinson Gymnasium crammed to capacity, the Red and Blue put on a clinic for Brown University Saturday, thrashing the Bears by nine points. The homecoming crowd, which included several members of Kovic's first Penn squad of 1988, witnessed the Quakers rewrite three team scoring records and one individual event record in the 189.075-180.475 victory over their Ivy and ECAC opponent. "Did I ever imagine a score like that? Absolutely," Kovic said. "Every meet I try to prepare myself mentally, and my team mentally, that it's going to be the best performance of their career, so did it surprise me? No. Was I excited? You bet I was!" In its first event, Penn (3-1) broke the team record in the vault with a score of 46.8. Brown (5-3) started the day with a sloppy showing on bars, giving Penn an early four point lead. The Red and Blue never looked back, performing solidly on the bars before smashing the team record on the beam with a 48.225. Jennifer Capaasso and Kathleen Gunn each put 9.7s on the board before Lizzie Jacobson broke the team's individual record with a remarkable score of 9.8. A floor score of 47.7 pushed the overall team score past Penn's old record of 188.775, set at last year's ECACs. "It was our home ground and a home crowd," said Jacobson. "I knew we had it in us and I'm glad we could just pull it out for a good, strong meet." Though a Brown Gymnastics banner portrayed a bear gnashing its teeth on a "Danger! Killer Bears" road sign, Brown's effort was little match for the impressive Quakers. "This is probably the best meet that we've had as a team since I came to Penn," Kathleen Gunn said. The tri-captain narrowly missed breaking a fifth Quakers record with an impressive all-around score of 38.375. "It [189.075] was a big score," Gunn said. "It will help our ECAC standings and just increase our confidence going into some of the bigger meets." "We literally were on fire today," Penn tri-captain Shilpa Rao said. Rao felt Penn's victory set the team moving in the right direction toward success in the upcoming meets and also served as a reprisal for last week's heart-breaking loss to Yale. "It always helps to come out of a meet doing so well for confidence reasons.," Rao said. "We're going to go into the next one with just that much more confidence, the Ivies too. We'll get Yale at Ivies." The meet was extra special for coach Kovic, who presented members of the 1987-88 gymnastics team, his first as Penn coach, with framed certificates and team photos before the meet. "Sure it's special," said Kovic (68-42 in his Penn career). "It's great when you get your alumni and friends back to see how the team is progressing, and to do this well makes us proud." Following the meet, alumni, friends and family of Penn gymnastics were invited to the T-house, where a catered reception was held in honor of the 10-year reunion. Perusing a table of 10-year-old photographs brought back many fond memories for the former Penn gymnasts, many of whom still feel strong ties to the team. "We come back pretty much every year at least for the homecoming meet and then for Ivies or ECACs," Ingrid Zoba said. "A lot of us live in Philadelphia still." The alumni in attendance were extremely impressed with the record-breaking victory over Brown. "I'd like to say that I would never be able to compete on this gymnastics team," alumna Emily Mendell (Levin) said. "They've just gotten so much better. I think it has to do a lot with Tom's recruiting efforts. He's gotten some really good talent. We had a lot of fun, but we're nowhere near as good as this team. "Like I said, I wouldn't have even been exhibition. I would have been a gopher for Tom. Tom would've been like, 'Emily, go get some more ice.' " The Quakers hope the momentum of Saturday's record-setting performance will carry over to their next meet, when they host West Chester and Ursinus February 18.
(02/05/98 10:00am)
The Gymnastics team topped Temple with its best score of the year. After opening the season with a challenging road trip, the Penn gymnastics team eagerly anticipated a return to Hutch. The trip was successful, including a victory at Cornell, a strong second-place showing at the GW Invitational, and a narrow, half-point loss at undefeated Yale, but the team still anticipated competing on their home floor. In their home opener last night, the Quakers(2-1) defeated cross-town rival Temple with their strongest point performance of the season, 185.850-185.275. The meet was decided in the final event. Though the Quakers' home crowd cheered the final-rotation announcement that Penn led 138.650-137.725, the official scorecard reveals that Penn actually trailed at that point by .625 points. Thus, the outcome of the meet was still very much in doubt as Penn headed into the floor routine and Temple prepared for the balance beam. The meet marked the second time this season that the Quakers faced Temple. At the GW Invitational in January, the Red and Blue defeated the Owls by 4.5 points. Penn coach Tom Kovic expected the Owls to come in prepared and ready for the meet. "Temple is very well coached. Ken Anderson has been there 13 years," Kovic said. "I'm looking for them to come in and do the best job they can. Our job is to stick right to the mission of the program this year, and that is to do good, consistent gymnastics." The tenth-year Penn coach hoped the two days of practice since the Yale meet would help the team improve on its routine-hit percentage, landing routines without needing to count falls. Penn opened the event with a solid 46.100 performance on the vault. However, in the next event, the uneven bars, the Quakers witnessed the very problem Kovic was hoping to avoid. "We were a little bit flat on bars, I mean we counted unnecessary falls," Kovic said. The Red and Blue managed to rebound from the bars, shifting the momentum of the meet with an impressive performance on the beam, scoring 47.250 points. Freshman Jennifer Capasso got things moving on the beam, starting the Quakers off with a 9.600. Sophomore Lizzie Jacobson paced Penn on the beam with a personal score of 9.725. That tally was just 0.025 points shy of tying the school's individual beam record, set last year by Becky Nadler. "9.725 on the beam!" Kovic said. "Lizzie was awesome!" Right before the floor routine, Penn tri-captain Shilpa Rao rushed over to her friends in the bleachers. The Quakers fans were urged by the tri-captain, with a smile. "You can make some noise, too, you know," Rao said. Aided by the cheering crowd and riding the momentum of their beam performance, the Quakers put up a score of 47.200. As Temple recorded a score of 46.250 on the beam, Penn nosed ahead for the victory, 185.850-185.275. "[The gymnasts'] confidence level was very high coming off balance beam with such a good performance, that they went in and hit six of the best floor routines that I've seen them hit this year," Kovic said after the meet. This match held extra significance for coach Kovic, who starred at Temple in the 70s and competed against Owls coach Ken Anderson in high school on Long Island. "Ken Anderson and I go way back," Kovic said. "We have a long competitive history and Ken is a personal friend of mine. Am I a proud alumnus of my alma mater? You bet I am. But when push comes to shove, at 6 o'clock, I'm wearing red and blue." Following the long season-opening road trip, the victory over Temple was a huge morale boost for the Quakers, who pulled together as a team in their home opener. "It's great to have the home crowd there. I think the team really got together today and cheered everyone on," tri-captain Kathleen Gunn said. "We carried the momentum through the final events." Gunn achieved an all-around score of 36.975 points for Penn. Penn's season-high score of 185.850 leaves the Quakers, last year's Ivy champs, with high hopes for Saturday's homecoming against a much-improved Brown team (Hutchinson Gym, 1 p.m.). "Now you've got the team just emotionally pumped up and ready to go," Kovic said. "185.850 points basically puts us on track for where we should be." "It's great to be back at Penn competing, and to have a good home crowd behind you is just going to make our team perform better."
