NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Head Coach Barbara Tonry has yet again assembled a challenging schedule for the women’s gymnastics team this year. The schedule features three home meets and 11 straight weekends of competition beginning with a Jan. 17 trip to New Hampshire, where the Bulldogs will also face unfamiliar foes Utah State and Ball State.
Following their meet at New Hampshire, Yale will travel to State College, Pa., to face national power Penn State. The Nittany Lions finished the 2009 season ranked ninth in the national polls. At this meet, the Bulldogs will also face Penn State’s Big Ten foe Iowa and defending Ivy Classic champion Cornell.
After their trip to Penn State, Yale has four straight meets in
New Haven, beginning with a Jan. 30 home matchup with Penn. The
Bulldogs will then travel across the Elm City to meet crosstown
rival Southern Connecticut State and Ithaca College from New York.
The next weekend, on Feb. 13, Yale will square off with Springfield
College before meeting SCSU yet again on Feb. 20. The
Bulldogs’ second meet against the Owls will be located in
John J. Lee Amphitheater, and another Connecticut school,
Bridgeport, will appear as the third competitor. Yale closes the
month of February with the Ivy League Classic at Brown. The meet
will feature Brown, Cornell, Penn and Yale, the four Ivy League
schools with gymnastics programs.
The month of March provides what will likely prove to be
Yale’s most difficult stretch of the season. On March 7, the
Elis meet Rhode Island College and Springfield College before
traveling to Rutgers on March 13. In addition to the Scarlet
Knights, Yale will face five-time defending ECAC champion Towson.
The Bulldogs then appear in a three-way meet with Maryland, George
Washington and Auburn hosted by the Terrapins. Auburn finished last
season ranked No. 16 in the national polls. Following the meet at
Maryland, Yale will travel to Temple on March 27 for the ECAC
Championships, looking to improve on last year’s
seventh-place finish. Yale hopes to qualify gymnasts for the NCAA
Regional Championships held at Penn State on April 10 before
concluding the season with the Collegiate Championships at Texas
Women’s University.
report filed by Trey Chandler '11, Yale Sports Publicity