Gymnastics to face West Chester again

Tonight at 6 p.m. in Hutchinson Gymnasium, the Penn gymnastics team (4-5) will face West Chester (1-8), a team the Quakers already defeated earlier this season at the Freedom Classic. Including today's meet, there are only two regular season matchups left until the post-season championship tournaments begin. And with this year's campaign quickly drawing to a close, the Quakers are beginning to reflect on just what they have accomplished and where they hope to go. Before the season began, Penn set a number of goals for itself. For Quakers coach Tom Kovic, the three most important of those were winning the Ivy League championship, finishing in the top 10 nationally in grade point average and earning the top seed in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference. But individually, many of the Quakers gymnasts also had their own expectations to fulfill. Sophomore Carin Kaplan, for one, fulfilled her goal of competing in all four events last week against Temple. And after leaving the gymnastics team her sophomore year, senior Shelly Waldman just hoped to make a successful come back. "I took two years off, my sophomore and junior years, but I decided to come back because I really missed gymnastics," Waldman said. "One of my goals is getting to do the routines I did before and hit them." For freshman Molly Sullivan, fulfilling her expectations has meant performing her best at every meet by "sticking all the tricks." She has already succeeded in breaking the 36.0-point mark in the all-around a number of times, including a personal best of 36.3. Sullivan has also posted personal bests in the vault (9.4975), floor exercise (9.575) and beam (9.45) this season. The Quakers have clearly progressed since their first meet in early January. "We showed good progress at Temple," Kovic said of last week's meet against the Owls, where Penn set a season-high in team points. "I am very, very proud. Temple was a stepping stone to reach our goals." "We showed at the last meet our potential to score," Kaplan added. "We are near our peak, and we seem to be more cohesive and hitting more percentages." However, with the championship competitions looming on the horizon, the Quakers are still looking for a leader to emerge. "It can come from anyone, ranging from a freshman to a senior," Kovic said. "Someone needs to take charge and get the fire burning." Although statistically the Temple meet ranks as the Quakers' best, Kovic points to Penn's disappointing performance at the Towson State meet earlier this year as a turning point. "It was our poorest performance, but it provided us with a wake-up call," Kovic said. Now a more immediate concern for Kovic is keeping everyone healthy. "The body is the tool of expression," he said. "Everyone is banged and bruised, but they are still working really hard. Gymnastics is a demanding sport." The Quakers' morale has matured as well. The Temple meet clearly displayed the team's camaraderie. "They can't dwell on poor performances," Kovic said. "Being a true champion depends on how one deals with adversity and learns to deal with tough times. Especially since it happens in the gym and also in the real world."

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