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The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/2001/02/12/gymnastics-takes-second-at-invite/)

February 12, 2001

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Gymnastics Takes Second at Invite

By ryan | February 12, 2001

Despite the team’s best effort of the year, Cornell’s women’s gymnastics team was edged by Southern Connecticut State University in the overall team competition by a narrow 187.725-187.55 margin.

As hosts of the Big Red Invitational, the Cornell women finished second in a field of five teams.

Cornell faltered in the vault competition, where freshman Denise Hurd was the only member of the team to place in the top six, finishing third with a score of 9.45. While the Big Red struggled, Southern Connecticut State excelled, using the event to propel itself into first.

However the Big Red fought back, as sophomore All-American Abby Vedder won the balance beam event for the fourth consecutive week with a score of 9.75. Also on the beam, sophomore Katie Nicklas and freshman Stephanie Daehler posted excellent scores of 9.575 and 9.55 which were good enough for 3rd and 4th place respectively.

With an amazing tumbling display, sophomore Meredith Long grabbed the floor exercise with the top score of 9.725. In addition, teammates Vedder and Daehler tied for fourth place with a score of 9.7. Head coach Paul Beckwith was extremely pleased with the team’s efforts on the floor.

“Everyone did really well on the floor exercise. Almost everyone on the team scored personal bests on their routines,” said Beckwith.

The Big Red also performed well in the bars with a two-three finish, as freshmen Rachel Goldberg and Debbie George earned scores of 9.6 and 9.425, respectively.

“We’ve struggled on bars all year long because we’re not deep in the event,” noted Beckwith. “Lately, we’ve been improving, but we still had three falls in the event. We had some good individual performances on bars though. Rachel really came through, earning a personal best two-tenths better than her previous best.”

While outsiders may view the loss as a setback, Beckwith makes it clear that the team is on the right path.

“This was our best meet of the year and I’m extremely happy with our performance. Losing was a little disappointing, but our high score is a good reflection of how well we performed,” noted Beckwith.

Next Sunday, the team will compete at the Ithaca Invitational at 1:00p.m.

Archived article by Sun Staff

Related

Worthy or Not Worthy?

By ryan February 13, 2001

Say what you want to about the XFL’s raunchy and crude image, it’s impossible to deny that creator Vince McMahon and his comrades have devised interesting twists to the traditional football rules. Between the no free catch provision and the “steal the bacon” coin toss, these variations have stirred up spicy conversations across Bushland. Though the XFL’s alterations were implemented to heighten public interest, games such as innertube water polo, paddle tennis and bumper bowling — all slight modifications on their respective mainstream sport — were created to assist its athletically ailing participants. In an era where being different is the “in” thing, I thought it was appropriate to give these three “different” activities the newsworthy credit they deserve. And in the spirit of Sports Illustrated’s, “Sport or Not a Sport,” section of its magazine, I will revise that section slightly and speculate on the possibility of these activities being considered worthy of a new Olympic sport nomination. To begin, innertube water polo is an ingenious idea created by some innovative intramural office around the country, perfectly suited for the indolent college student. With all of the beer consumption and hours of television-induced sedation, a college kid would sink to the bottom of the pool without the assistance of a buoy. College students need rubber-ducky floatation devices to keep their asses afloat. After a year hiatus from any contact with water, I dove back into the pool last Wednesday night to participate in a game of intramural innertube water polo. Down by two, we rallied to score seven unanswered goals to win 7-5 in thrilling fashion. On account of an extreme exertion of unknown muscles, high-level of skill and a plethora of old-fashioned fun, I deem innertube water polo as an Olympic-worthy sport. The only requisite is that innertube water polo athletes are restricted from working out and are limited to a regimented diet of beer, pizza and nachos. Unlike innertube water polo, which is for the lazy and under-25 crowd, paddle tennis is for the old and over-70 crowd. This old-man’s modification of tennis is played with wooden-faced racquets, on a mini-sized court. The serve in paddle tennis is underhand, which gives those with back and shoulder problems a day off from the chiropractor. Mathematically speaking, it is a game of halves — the racquet is half as long as a normal racquet, the court is half as big as a normal court and the players are usually half as tall as the normal players. The height of the players is due to an age stipulation in the paddle tennis rulebook stating that participants have to be over the age of 70 to participate. The upshot of this rule is a game filled with short, old men. Nevertheless, the Olympics need some maturity and paddle tennis is a game of skill. Therefore, I support an Olympic nomination for paddle tennis. It even has the possibility of being officially sanctioned if reviewed by the GOC (Geriatric Olympic Committee.) Bumper bowling is the trickiest call of the three. Customized for the six-year old birthday party, bumper bowling could be played by all. The bumpers not only ensure the ball from not drifting into the gutter but they also provide a direct challenge for more skilled bowlers to use the bumper as a rebound device to hit the pins from an angle. To further elaborate, like skee-ball in which some of the greatest skeeters use the side to their advantage to consistently skeet over 300, bowlers could use the bumpers to strategically place the ball in the heart of the pins. The bumper could not only be used as insurance for an ill-advised gutter ball toss, but it could also be used like a flipper in a pinball game to ricochet the ball and amass a game replete with strikes. But who am I kidding, bumper bowling is the farthest thing from an Olympic sport. Therefore, due to the absurdness of the matter, I deem bumper bowling to be unworthy of an Olympic sport nomination. Unless of course, Vince McMahon gets his hands on bumper bowling. I can only imagine bodacious cheerleaders cheering on six-year old players while they dive head-first, slipping and sliding down the lane, manually knocking down the pins. Human bowling definitely is an Olympic-worthy nomination. Archived article by Jason Skolnik
Wrestlers Drop From Ivy Mount

By ryan February 13, 2001

When senior wrestler Jim Stanec was asked to describe how he felt about the team’s performance this past weekend, he didn’t need to peruse through Webster’s to find an accurate adjective. Unadulterated anger was Stanec’s emotion of choice, and rightly so after Cornell missed out on a chance to sew up the Ivy League title when it lost to Harvard, 28-13, on Saturday. Though the Red laid waste to Brown, 40-6, on Friday night, it will be the team’s trip to Boston that leaves a bitter taste in its mouth and disheartening visions of what could have been dancing through its head. “I’m pretty mad,” Stanec said. “We had [the Ivy title] locked up. “It fuels me to destroy the next person I wrestle.” Having knocked off defending conference champion Penn earlier in the season, the Red paved itself a clear path to this year’s crown, only to have Harvard come along and set up an insurmountable road block. “It was really disappointing,” said head coach Rob Koll. “If there was a ball used in wrestling, all the bounces would have gone Harvard’s way. We didn’t create any breaks [for ourselves].” “We just had a bad day,” remarked Tom Waldron. After digging itself an early six-point hole against Brown, Cornell reeled off 40 straight points to smother the Bears. Wins by Alejandro Alvarez, Byron Warner, Waldron, Gabe Webster, Leo Urbinelli, Clint Wattenberg, Stanec, and Randy Stout as well as a forfeit in the heavyweight class gave the Red its third straight Ivy win. But any headway the Red had made in Providence quickly evaporated the next day against the Crimson. Harvard struck in the first match of the day when Wattenberg was upset in the 165-lb class by Pat O’Donnell. And though Stanec won by disqualification in the 174-lb class, the Crimson then swiped the next four matches, accumulating a string of momentum that the Red could never overcome. “We didn’t step up and match [Harvard’s level],” Koll said, adding, “We gave up some big points to them. “It wasn’t as if a lot of matches couldn’t have gone the other way.” “Harvard matched up really well against us,” Waldron noted. “Guys who could have won didn’t.” Waldron and Stanec fared the best for the Red during the weekend, each winning both their matches. Waldron, at 141 pounds took apart nationally-ranked David Dies of Brown, 7-3. Meanwhile, Stanec cruised to a 15-5 victory over the Bears’ Karl Rittger, who was the second-ranked wrestler in the East last year. “It was big for Tom [since] he’s a freshman,” Koll said, adding, “Stanec has wrestled tremendously all season.” If there’s any solace to be found in this weekend’s results, it’s that the Red’s split still keeps it in a three-way tie at the top of the Ivy leaderboard, along with Harvard and Penn. A win against Princeton in two weeks would assure the Red a piece of the conference title. And although a share of the championship may be a let down from winning it solo, Koll won’t deny that it would still be a satisfying consolation. “It’s like kissing your sister,” he said, “but in this case she’s really hot.”Archived article by Shiva Nagaraj