The gymnastics team is looking to clinch its third straight Ivy Classic title this Sunday when it faces Ancient Eight Rivals Brown, Penn and Yale at Providence, R.I.
Two individual wins—one by junior Kerri Lavallee (vault) and the other by sophomore Melanie Standridge (beam)—highlighted the Red’s first place performance last February at New Haven. Cornell also won three different events (vault, bars and beam) as a team during the competition.
The Red is going to Providence this year with high hopes after a second place finish at the Towson’s Shelli Calloway Invitational. Cornell (190.850) had four individual titles but came out short of defeating the Towson Tigers (192.050), who had a superior collective performance.
Out of the three Ivy opponents that the Red will be facing next Sunday, two of them have already been in matchups against Cornell this season. The Red defeated Penn on Jan. 17 (186.800-179.550) but fell to Yale on Jan. 23 (186.125-185.550).
“This year is going to be very interesting,” said junior Irene Leung. “The last two years we knew we were significantly better, but this year the playing field is more leveled and we are working harder to make sure we get the title again.”
Original Author: AJ Ortiz