Just a sophomore, Penn gymnastics captain Caroline Moore came in clutch for her team with a remarkable 9.875-point floor performance to seal the Quakers' comeback victory over Yale on Saturday.
Credit: Peter RibeiroThe epic last-rotation comeback by Penn gymnastics in its home opener against Yale was certainly a team effort, but the way sophomore captain Caroline Moore put the team on her back was a performance the likes of which Penn Athletics has rarely seen this year.
Even as the meet began poorly for the Red and Blue overall, Moore was on a mission as soon as she entered the Palestra. Penn trailed by 0.950 points after the vault competition, but that already gaudy deficit could’ve been even worse if not for the efforts of Moore, whose 9.700 score individually won the event.
After that surprisingly rough opening rotation for the team, the comeback effort began for the Quakers, and Moore was absolutely at the forefront. Her second event of the day also saw her bring home her second individual win, as she scored 9.800 on the beam to help Penn trim the deficit to a more reasonable 0.525 points entering the team’s final event.
But it was in that final event — the floor exercise — that both Moore and her entire team would enter the history books. All six Penn athletes to compete in the event either set new or tied previous career-highs, with Moore once again leading the way. A vibrant routine saw Moore score a ridiculous 9.875 points, tied with teammate Alex Hartke for the best mark of the day and the fourth-best ever at Penn, as Penn’s overall score of 49.025 points in the floor event was its fifth-best in school history. And just for good measure, Saturday represented only the second time Moore has competed on the floor in her Penn career.
Overall, Moore’s day concluded with three wins in the three only events she participated in, with a team-leading 29.375 points all-around. And most impressively of all, the sophomore was battling strep throat throughout the week, showing no signs of performing at anything less than 100 percent.
Needless to say, without Moore’s historic performance, Penn walks away from the Palestra the victim of a major upset at the hands of a winless Yale squad — and for that, the sophomore is our Penn Athletics’ Weekend MVP.
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