The Cornell gymnastics team opened its season at Pennsylvania during winter break on January 13, suffering a 191.250-185.700 loss.
But the news was not as bad as it may have seemed for Red head coach Paul Beckwith.
For starters, many of Red’s preseason starters were injured for the event, causing the score to drop below what Beckwith would expect.
On top of the number of missing starters, the Red did manage to score the second highest season-opening score ever.
“We had a pretty good meet,” Beckwith said when taking the injuries into account. “We knew we weren’t going in at full strength. A lot of the freshmen are really coming through.”
Abby Vedder led the way for the Red, competing in all four events with an all-around score of 36.950.
Penn’s Jenn Capasso was the top all-arounder on the day with a 38.000.
“They hit everything,” Beckwith said of Penn, which set a school record in terms of overall score at the event.
But as Cornell was within two points of the Quakers at this past weekend’s George Washington Invitation, Beckwith feels that his inexperienced squad can make rapid improvement once the upperclassmen are healthy again.
“We had a rash of injuries right at the beginning of the season. Hopefully, we will not have any more, and if that happens we should continue to improve all season,” he said.
The Red will be back in action this weekend at Massachusetts.
Archived article by J.V. Anderton