Last weekend, gymnastics beat out four opponents in New Haven, Conn. — so its loss to Penn at home hit hard.
The Ivy rival traveled to Ithaca, on Sunday to battle it out in Newman Arena at Bartels Hall.
Cornell earned just 187.95 points to Penn’s whopping 192.4 points.
Despite the team loss, the Red saw some success with the individual events. Freshman Amy Krueger snatched the individual title on vault for the Red, with a 9.5 final score.
Senior Samantha Henry scored a 9.8 on floor, sharing the first place title with the Quaker’s Sydney Kraez. Junior Madison Smith earned another shared first place title on beam with Penn’s McCaleigh Marr.
Senior Evelyn Patient achieved a personal record on the uneven bars, ending with a score of 9.775.
“[I] practice every day like it’s a meet,” Henry said. “I have a mindset like I’m in a competition.”
Associate head coach Melanie Hall commented on the successes of the entire team at the Red’s Penn faceoff, and their ability to seamlessly rack up scores.
“In practice, they really focus on the small details,” Hall said. “Once you have the tumbling down, the little things can be picked apart by the judges.”
The team has struggled with maintaining a consistent lineup this past season — injuries and illnesses have plagued the team’s more consistent players.
Hall mentioned that, due to the nature of the sport, something as minor as a toe injury can wipe out a player for an entire meet or even longer.
“We’re making sure people are ready to go in, because we can never expect an injury or illness,” Hall said.
Although Penn was a hard rival to beat, gymnastics is looking forward to improving in its next competition against Kent State University on Friday, in Kent, Ohio. The team has only three days of practice before they face the Golden Flashes.
Following this away meet will be the long-awaited dual-meet with Cornell wrestling on Feb. 16.