Gymnastics lands fourth at ECACs

Six more school records fell this weekend, as the Penn gymnastics team claimed a fourth-place finish in the closest ECAC Championships in history. The Quakers established a new team scoring record with a 191.900, eclipsing the 191.600 the team recorded in the first meet of its season against Cornell. Yale, a team Penn had lost to twice previously, won the championship with a 192.975, followed by William and Mary (192.825) and James Madison (192.450). This was Yale's first-ever ECAC Gymnastics Championship, and the first title for an Ivy League team since Penn took the crown in 1998. "It was a great job by Yale," Penn coach Tom Kovic said. "I was really happy with their performance, happy that an Ivy team won the ECACs." Although the Quakers placed true to their No. 4 seed in the tournament, they believed their finish was not representative of the team's overall performance. "We competed against some strong teams," Kovic said. "Finishing fourth isn't indicative [of our effort], considering that we were out of first by a point." Penn freshman Anna Wilson was the individual star of the meet, winning the all-around with a 39.225. That score broke her own school record set last weekend at Air Force. "It feels good to be able to break my own records and set high standards for myself," Wilson said. The freshman phenom also won the floor exercise with 9.975 points and tied for first on the uneven bars with a 9.900, again breaking her own school records in the process. On the floor, Wilson received a perfect 10 from one of the two judges. She was also fourth on the vault with a 9.625. "For her to do what she did, it is a great achievement," Penn coach Tom Kovic said. "It was more or less a culmination of great effort and a great attitude throughout the year." Brown (189.575), host Cornell (188.200) and Vermont (176.125) rounded out the rest of the field this weekend. Senior tri-captain Jenn Capasso ended her Penn career with a sixth-place finish in the all-around and also took fourth on the balance beam. The Quakers established new team records on the uneven bars (48.300) and on the floor exercise (48.875). "I think the team did a great job," senior tri-captain Sarah Bruscia said. "We kind of ended the season how we started it off [with a team scoring record]. It was really exciting for us." In addition to Wilson's record on the bars, senior tri-captain Kelly Haberer (9.675) and freshman Tricia Chan (9.600) established new personal bests on the event as well. The Quakers must now wait to find out who will be invited to compete in the NCAA Regionals, to be held April 7 in Ann Arbor, Mich. The process for determining which teams make Regionals is quite complicated. The meet takes the top 18 teams in the country and seeds them nationally. It then takes the top three teams from each of the six regions and seeds them within the region, for a total of 36 teams from six regions. After the qualifying teams have been determined, they take the top six gymnasts who are not competing with a qualifying team, plus the top individual from each event, to compete in the all-around. Regardless of any NCAA invitations, the Red and Blue's performance on Saturday was typical of their season, with an impressive overall team score, more broken school records and new personal bests.

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