Pennington attended the University of Texas, and swam for the Texas Longhorns swimming and diving team in Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) and National Collegiate Athletic Association (National Collegiate Athletic Association) competition.
She qualified for the 1980 Summer Olympics, but could not participate because of the United States-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics. She was the recipient of the Honda Sports Award for Swimming and Diving, recognizing her as the outstanding college female swimmer of 1978-1979. She had a two-year break from swimming from 1980 to 1982 and finally retired in 1984.
She received her master"s degree in health promotion and exercise science from Vanderbilt University, and a doctorate degree in preventive health care at the School of Public Health, Loma Linda University in California.
