ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell gymnastics host Brown, Penn and Yale the 48th Ivy Classic Championship on Sunday in Newman Arena as they celebrate 50 years of gymnastics at Cornell.
MEET INFO
Ivy Classic Championship
Brown, Penn and Yale
Newman Arena
Sunday, Feb. 23 at 1 p.m.
Live Stats | Watch
A LITTLE HISTORY
Gymnastics was inducted at Cornell in 1974 lead by the first head coach Gretchen Dowsing. Cornell earned its first dual meet win on Feb. 11, 1975, when it topped Cortland, 84.76-54.13. After three years, Cornell gymnastics went 8-1 in dual meet competition and finished second in the Ivy, second in New York state and ninth in the region in 1977. Three-time All-Ivy gymnast Renee Hack competes nationally in England, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Japan as a member of a U.S. national team. By 1988, Cornell had won five Ivy League titles and 20 individual titles.
In 1990, the Ivy League no longer officially considered gymnastics a championship sport as only four schools continued to sponsor it at the varsity level. The Ivy League championship became the Ivy Classic meet. Amid Title IX challenges in 1992, the program was unexpectedly cut for a year. Nine brave students-athletes fought for the gymnastics program to be reinstated, and the program was back for the 1993 season.
In 2002 the Big Red earned their first Ivy Classic title in 14 years and continued, over the next few years, breaking multiple school records. The 2005-06 season was one for the history books. Cornell won the Ivy Classic title and made the USAG team finals for the first time in program history, along with claiming the first ever top three finish by a non-scholarship program.
Cornell then went on to win three consecutive Ivy League titles in 2008, 2009, and 2010 along with six individual titles. In 2011-12, Cornell finished second at the Ivy Classic and qualified 12 individuals to compete at the USAG Collegiate Nationals. Melanie Standridge made history as the first Big Red gymnast to earn All-America honors for four straight seasons.
Since 2012, the program has seen new horizons with eight individual records and three team records being broken, along with two Ivy team championships and 15 individual titles. Most recently, in the 2023-24 season, the gymnastics team set a new program record with a team score of 195.025.
ABOUT THE MEET
This will be the first meeting of the between Cornell and the Brown Bears this season and the 86th of all time. The Bears are 4-8 midway through the season and 2-3 in conference play. Their highest team score comes from their last meet at Yale with a 193.375. Sophomore Emily Ford was recognized by the GEC as the Specialist of the Week as she set a new career-high on bars and tied her season-high on beam to lead the team on both events and tie for second overall on beam. Brown last won the Ivy Classic title in 2023.
The Big Red will face Penn for the second time this season. Cornell last saw Penn on Feb. 2 in a dual on senior day where the Quakers won 194.750-193.400. Penn is now 11-4 on the season and perfect in conference matches (5-0). They won their third straight meet at Southern Connecticut State with a season high 195.150, winning all four individual events and the all-around champion. Manama Fofana received GEC Newcomer of the Week for the second time this season after securing the floor title with a career-high score of 9.850. That mark was tied for the best event score among all GEC freshmen last week. Penn is the reigning Ivy Classic Champions.
Yale beat Cornell in their first meet of the season with a score of 193.700. Since then, Yale is 8-7 going 6-2 against GEC opponents. Yale hosted Towson, New Hampshire and Brown in their last meet where they placed third. Sophomore Ella Tashjian recorded a meet-high 9.900 on floor to tie a career high for Tashjian who recorded the same score four times last season. First year Ellie Kearns tied for second on floor with a 9.850. The Bulldogs recorded the best floor score of the meet with a 49.075, the fourth time this season that Yale topped the 49-point mark. Yale last won the Classic title in 2022.
LAST TIME OUT
Cornell gymnastics was second at the George Washington quad with a score of 191.825.
The host George Washington won with a score of 196.550 followed by Cornell, then University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with a score of 190.800 and then Ursinus at 190.625.
Sydney Beers finished fourth in the all-around with a score of 37.400 and Beers achieved the highest placement of any event, placing fourth in the vault. Her highest event was the vault with a 9.750. Avery Byun and Dahlia Jhaveri both tied for sixth on the bars with a 9.675. This score is both of their season high marks. Byun finished the highest on the beam for the Big Red with a 9.700 to tie for 11th.
UP NEXT
Cornell gymnastics will be on the road for the rest of the season starting at SUNY Brockport on Feb. 28 at 7 p.m.
