PHILADELPHIA – It's championship weekend! The University of Pennsylvania gymnastics team is gunning for its fourth-straight Gymnastics East Conference (GEC) championship title Saturday evening at The Palestra.
 
The Quakers will compete in the second session at 6 p.m. with Yale, Brown, and Bridgeport since they clinched their fourth-straight GEC regular-season crown on Monday.
 
Meet 13: 2025 GEC Championships
Saturday, March 22 | 6 p.m. | The Palestra | Philadelphia, Pa.
Watch (ESPN+) | Live Stats | Meet Notes | Tickets
 
Record Breaker
Skyelar Kerico successfully executed a stuck Yurchenko 1.5 on vault against West Virginia, scoring a 9.925. It's the highest vault score in Penn gymnastics and GEC history. The Toms River, N.J. native now holds the Penn record on vault and in all-around.
 
The Freshmen Phenom
Manama Fofana secured her conference-best fourth GEC Newcomer of the Year award. Fofana had a great overall showing versus West Virginia, highlighted by her 9.850 on floor. Her vault (9.775), beam (9.750) and floor score led all GEC freshmen last week. Her floor performance was third-best among all GEC gymnasts.
 
All-GEC Accolades
A conference-best 10 Quakers took home 21 All-GEC honors including a record 17 first-team honorees.
 
Jordan Barrow, Fofana, Kerico and Marissa Lassiter represent the Quakers on the first-team vault with Olivia VanHorn being named to the second team. On first-team bars, it's Barrow, Zara Gazdak, Kerico and Sophia Paris with Lassiter on the second team.
 
First-team beam includes Barrow, Mimi Fletcher, Kerico and Alisha Werlen; Samantha Wu is on the second team. On floor, Fofana, Gazdak and Kerico received first-team laurels while Lassiter was a second-team honoree.
 
Kerico made the first team in all-around for the second straight season with Lassiter joining her.
 
RTN Rankings
Penn is the highest-ranked team in the GEC at No. 47, followed by Yale (No. 55), Brown (No. 56), Bridgeport (No. 60), Cornell (No. 61), William & Mary (No. 68), West Chester (No. 70) and Southern Connecticut (No. 73).
 
Individually in the Northeast Region, Kerico and Barrow are tied for No. 6 on vault with Fofana at No. 10; Kerico is No. 2 on bars; on beam, Fletcher is No. 5; Yale's Ella Tashjian is No. 4 and Brown's Maya Davis is No. 10 on floor.
 
Rotation Notes
*In addition to her record-breaking vault performance, Kerico also finished as runner-up on the floor exercise and balance beam against WVU, scoring a 9.825 in both events.
 
*Penn had eight total podium finishers against the Mountaineers. Barrow (9.825) and Paris (9.800) placed second and third on the bars. Fofana and Werlen tied at 9.800 for third place on beam. Fofana picked up another third-place finish on floor (9.850).
 
*The overall score of 195.625 was the second highest this season and seventh best in school history.
 
Last Year at the GEC Championships
In New Haven, Conn. last March, the Red and Blue hoisted their third straight GEC championship trophy, recording the second-best score in program history at 196.225 to lead the field.
 
The Quakers scored a 49.000 or higher on three rotations, headlined by Kerico, who became the school's first-ever two-time GEC individual champion by picking up wins on the balance beam (9.900) and the all-around (39.300). She was also the first Quaker to win an all-around conference title since Dana Bonincontri took ECAC gold in 2011.
 
Barrow was runner-up on vault (9.825), Paris (9.875) and Kerico (9.850) took home second and third place on bars, Wu (9.875) finished behind Kerico on beam, and Kerico came in third on floor (9.875).
 
The title was the first three-peat in program history and gave head coach Kirsten Becker the most conference championships for any Penn gymnastics coach.
 
Follow the Action
Both sessions (including the opening four at noon) will be streamed live on ESPN+ with live scoring provided through Virtius.
 
For the latest on Penn gymnastics, follow @PennGym on X and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.