Co-op gymnasts turn in best score in winning Arrowhead Invite

Lauren Zurowski won both the floor exercise and the vault as the defending state champion Franklin/Muskego/Oak Creek and Whitnall co-op girls gymnastics team turned in a season best in winning the nine-school Arrowhead Warhawk Invitational on Saturday.

"It was a really nice meet," said coach Katie Moore. "It was our season high by only 0.1 of a point or so (from the Westosha Invite), but I thought we were a lot better today than we were at that meet. The scoring was just a little tighter."

The FMOW co-op team will now take another shot at the Burlington co-op, which it has lost to already this season, at the Madison Memorial Invite on Jan. 28. Moore is expected to get the injured Paige Schreiber (ankle) back soon.

"We're going to have close to the best lineup that we could have out there," said Moore.

At Arrowhead, FMOW won with a 144.0 score while Arrowhead was second with 139.025.

Zurowski, from Whitnall, claimed the floor with a 9.375 effort while taking the vault with a 9.15 mark. The low winning vault total was indicative of the scores on the day, Moore said. Zurowski was also second in the all-around with a 36.275 score. She got help on the vault from Becca Teska, who took third with a 9.05 score.

"It was her (Teska) first time with the new vault and she really did well with it," said Moore.

Sammie Olson also had an excellent meet, taking second on both the balance beam (9.0) and the uneven bars (9.425).

On the uneven bars, both Shannon Hein (8.9) and Katlynn Benitez (9.025) turned in excellent scores while Shannon Hein was sixth in floor exercise with a 9.05.

Overall, Moore was very pleased with the effort.

"We had a little trouble on beam," she said, "but we've been wanting to get an effort in like this on all four events for awhile now, so this was very solid. We didn't have many falls all day."