PHILADELPHIA -- In a matchup pitting the top two teams in the GEC preseason poll, the Yale gymnastics team broke the 194 mark Sunday afternoon at the Palestra with its highest team total of the season. The Bulldogs (194.200), picked No. 2 in the preseason, were only narrowly beaten by preseason favorite Penn (194.425). Lindsay Chia, Riley Meeks, Kendal Toy, Raegan Walker and Sherry Wang were victorious in individual events while Sarah Wilson narrowly lost to Penn's Sara Kenefick for the all-around title.
 
The team started the meet on the uneven bars, where the Bulldogs had to overcome two falls. They rallied to finish with a 48.000, just .300 behind Penn. Walker placed first with her highest bar score of the year. With nearly perfect handstands and a stuck double layout, she scored a 9.875. Wilson also had a strong showing on bars with a 9.775. Toy did not fall far behind with a 9.725 thanks to high flying releases like her Jaeger.
 
The Bulldogs moved to the vault for their next rotation, where their 48.425 placed them .450 behind Penn's score. Chia tied for first with a 9.825. Her vault was well-executed with only a small hop on her Yurchenko full. Walker also scored a strong 9.800 despite a few steps on her landing. She still executed the most difficult vault of Yale's rotation.
 
The floor exercise (49.000) was an extremely strong event for the Bulldogs as Chia, Toy and Wang all tied for first at 9.825. The Bulldogs executed great routines, with all of them scoring above a 9.500. Toy was able to execute her double pike with near perfection and only a small step in her landing. Chia had clean twisting form and stuck landings on her passes. Wang followed up her victorious weekend at LIU with another victory this weekend. She had minimal steps on her landings.
 
On beam Walker followed up her impressive weekend at LIU (9.900) with another win at Penn. She scored 9.850 and showed brilliant flexibility on her leaps. Meeks scored her highest beam score of the season and tied for her first win on beam with a 9.850. She had almost no bobbles and a stuck landing for her dismount. The Bulldogs (48.775) edged out the Quakers (48.325) on beam by more than four-tenths.
 
As the Bulldogs progress through the season, they are showing strong consistency and higher scores. Yale will go against SCSU next Sunday at Lee Amphitheater for the team's senior meet.

• Results