Carissa Lim helped lead Penn gymnastics over Ancient Eight rival Yale on Sunday with a 9.725-point performance on floor en route to victory in the team's first Ivy dual of the season.
Credit: Ilana WurmanThis weekend, even the snow couldn’t stop the tumbling, flipping, and twisting of Penn gymnastics.
The Quakers defeated Yale on Sunday in their first Ivy dual meet of the year by a score of 189.575-188.725. The meet, originally scheduled for Saturday, was pushed back a day due to the storm. In addition to the overall win, the squad earned a split in the four events and at least a share of all four event titles.
The Red and Blue (1-0, 1-0 Ivy) began the competition on the bars, earning a team total of 46.825, which was the lowest of their four team scores but only .025 points behind the Elis (0-2, 0-1 Ivy). For the second week in a row, the Quakers started off their first event slowly, but picked up the pace at the end.
The Quakers finished strongly on the bars with scores of 9.625 and 9.700 from sophomore Kyra Levi and senior Elyse Shenberger, respectively. Shenberger’s score was good enough for a share of first place in the event.
Next, the team moved to the vault, where they scored a team total of 47.500. Morgan Venuti and Ally Podsednik were the highest scorers for the team, both earning a 9.675 and a share of the event title.
The Quakers received their highest event score of the day on the floor, 48.150, for the second week in a row. Their performance on the floor was led by Carissa Lim, who earned a share of the event title with her score of 9.725. Rachel Graham also put forth a strong effort with a score of 9.700 and a third-place finish.
The last event of the day was beam, where the Red and Blue’s scores totaled 47.000, an improvement from last week. Junior Kelly Tan led the way, taking home the event title with a score of 9.725. In addition, Amber Hu posted a 9.675, second best in the event and a .400 point improvement from last week.
Penn also had two gymnasts perform exhibitions during the meet – meaning that they competed despite not being one of the team’s six listed gymnasts in the lineup for their particular event. Freshmen Alberta Massey and Nicole Swirbalus made their collegiate debuts, with Massey scoring a 9.250 on vault and Swirbalus scoring an 8.700 on floor.
Next up for the Quakers is their first home meet against Centenary on Jan. 31.
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