12— The Daily Collegian Friday, February 11,1977
Korman, UConn host gym men
. By GARY SILVERS
Collegian Sports Writer
Remember the Summer Olympics? Remember
the gymnastics competition? Remember Peter
Korman? Well you can stop remembering now, for
the all-arounder is back. Back to haunt the NCAA
and back to avenge a 211.95-211.55 defeat his team
suffered last season. His base Southern Con
necticut. And his target —Penn State.
Yes, the Lions will have their paws full tomorrow
night, especially competing up north, where they've
been victorious only once
“This is Southern Connecticut’s biggest meet of
the year,” Lions’ coach Karl Schwenzfeier said,
“and their gym should be packed to the roof. The
crowd there is very enthusiastic, but unlike here,
doesn’t support or applaud the opposition.”
But they do support Kormann, who Schwenzfeier
rates as one of the top NCAA gymnasts in the
country.
“He’s typical of all the Olympians,” Schwenzfeier
(Olypmic coach) said, “because he drives himself
very, very hard. When you get into a sport like
gymnastics, you must be organized and must be
Gymgals' rise to fame parallels Carter's
By BARB SHELLY
Collegian Sports Writer
In the world of collegiate
gymnastics, Penn State’s
women’s team has done what
Jimmy Carter has done in the
world, of politics. Both have
risen from near obscurity to
the limelight in four years.
Four years ago, the
women’s team held its home
meets in the practice gym at
White Building, “which may
or may not have been cleaned
the night before,” said Ellen
Coccagna, one of two seniors
on the team who has wit
nessed the change firsthand.
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Penn State’s record back then
was similarly unexciting.
This year the Lady Lions
are ranked third in the nation
and compete before capacity
crowds in Rec Hall.
“What happened, at Penn
State is an example of what’s
happened all over the
country,” senior captain
Karen Shuckman said. “The
caliber at nationals is 300 per
cent better.”
Coccagna agreed. “The
difficulty of gymnastics has
increased greatly,” she said.
“Penn State has risen in
relationship to the national
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able to put out. Kormann does.”
Ju st like the rest of the SConn gymnasts. They’re
young, but even more important, they’re proven
champions. All-arounders McCutcheon and Miller
bested Lion gymnast Joe Stallone (10th) in the AA
competition at the National High School Invitational
championships last year, while teammates Rich
Ellis (Massachusetts champion) and Stu Goldstein
(Connecticut champion) dominated the schools in
New England.
“On paper, they have a tremendous amount of
talent,” Schwenzfeier said, “and we’re going to
need at least that 214 (final score against Temple
last weekend) to beat them.”
But why fret? If the Lions did it once, there’s no
reason why they can’t do it again. Right?
“Well in most of the events last weekend,”
Schwenzfeier said, “we just hit on our top four rou
tines (only four of a possible six scores appear in
each event total). In other words, we were lucky
that’s all we needed.”
And they better hold their lucky charms tightly,
for without senior Bob Desiderio (broken ankle),
level.”
Shuckman described Penn
State’s team in 1974. “It was
pretty much an ex
tracurricular thing,” she
said. “The girls participated
in high school. They went to
the gym a couple hours a day,
because they liked to go. None
of them considered gym
nastics a driving force in their
life.”
Yet, that was ,the year
Shuckman was the national
all-around champion. “I got
back and everybody said
‘wow, how’d you do that?’ ”
Shuckman said.
RCA
the Lions can use all the help they can get.
“Yes, but with the exception of Desiderio,”
Schwenzfeier said, “we’re progressing very, very
well. He’s quite a talent though and will probably be
red-shirted.”
However, where there are injuries, there must be
replacements. And thanks to Desiderio and other
ailing veterans, the freshmen are getting an op
portunity to gain something extremely valuable
experience.
“The injuries have opened doors for many of the
freshmen,” Schwenzfeier said, “and they’ve been
putting in some excellent routines. That’s very
important for the future ”
But the present is what’s bothering the Lions now
and more specifically, how to beat Southern Con
necticut.
“Would you believe (Yony) Muffoletto (rings
specialist) is the only healthy body we’ve got,”
Schwenzfeier asked. “We’re really pressing hard.
But the guys are in very high spirits now and that’s
what it takes to win. We’re going in as underdogs,
but plan to make it very interesting.”
The . next year, Judi
Avener’s first season as head
coach, Penn State went to
nationals as a team and
wound up fifth.
“You couldn’t just walk on
the team now if you felt like
doing gymnastics,” Shuck
man said. “It has to be worth
a little bit more to you.”
“In 1975 we got through
nationals by being con
sistent,” Coccagna said,
adding that little difficulty
was involved in the routines.
“Last year we were all
taking it pretty seriously,”
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11-17
Shuckman said about gym
nastics. “It was a year to
learn how to be serious about
it.’’ She called 1976 a “tran
sition year.”
Penn State • took another
fifth place at nationals last
year. “We didn’t have a super
meet at nationals,” Coccagna
said. “We had peaked too
soon.”
As for the present season,
Penn State is undefeated in
six meets so far. and figures to
return unscathed from
tomorrow’s meet at Southern
Connecticut.
Paul Simon, Penn State’s top ali-arounder, will challenge Peter Kormann at
Southern Connecticut tomorrow night.
Volleyballers back in action
It will be something old and something new
for Penn State’s undefeated volleyball team
as it resumes action tomorrow in what
promises to be a highly-competitive
quadrangular meet.
The Lion spikers, 5-0 in collegiate match
play, will invade West Point, N.Y., to do
battle with Army and East Stroudsburg State
College, teams they have seen before this
season, and a tough Delaware squad, a group
they have yet to play
The Lions crushed Army to begin their 1977
campaign and should do the same tomorrow.
Penn State, however, just did get by ESSC
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two weeks ago at Princeton. Although the
Lions took two of the three games played, the
scores of 15-13, 10-15, and 15-12 indicate just
how close these teams are.
This match is not an Eastern Collegiate
Volleyball League tilt, although ESSC is an
ECVL divisional foe.
Delaware is a typical eastern volleyball
team in that it has become a power to be
reckoned with in just the past few years. Lion
Coach Tom Tait reports that Delaware has
everybody back from last year’s squad, plus
a 6-5 player from California everybody is
talking about. CB
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