Franklin co-op's perfect season continues

Nearly two-thirds of the high school gymnastics season is in the books, and the Franklin co-op has yet to meet its match.

The unit, which also includes athletes from Muskego, Whitnall and Oak Creek, remained unbeaten by winning the 15-team Spartan Invitational at Madison Memorial on Saturday, despite missing one of its top athletes.

The co-op tallied 142.55 points, well ahead of second-place Middleton's 138.4 and Burlington Combined's 138.125.

"This is a tough group of girls who are really focused on their goals," co-op coach Katie Moore said. "So far the team is undefeated this season, but some big challenges remain. Our conference and sectional meets will be very close this year. Kenosha is continuing to post very high scores and Burlington and Arrowhead will be good as well. We need to stay focused on correcting the little things in practice.

"I tell the girls we have to continue to get better every day, or someone else will."

Muskego's Shannon Hein won the floor with a score of 8.9 and Lauren Hein won the beam with a 9.4, the co-op's only wins at the event. Muskego's Sammie Olson took second on the bars, Whitnall's Lauren Zurowski was third on the vault and Franklin's Jenna Renner was third on the vault and fourth in the all-around.

Melanie Pearson was injured during warm-ups, so her teammates had to fill in with last-minute routines. Moore expects Pearson back quickly.

"I'm proud of the team for being able to scores as high as they did without Mel," Moore said. "Some of the girls competed with little or no warm-up, and to stay focused after one of your teammates gets hurt is hard."

The co-op will face Mukwonago and Arrowhead at Mukwonago at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

- David Cotey