Reagan Johnson / Winonan

The Winona State University gymnastics team posted a season-high score en route to second place Friday night at the Gershon/McLellan Invitational in La Crosse.

At the three-team invitational, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse took first with a 187.700 followed by the Warriors with a 185.625 and lastly the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a 183.750.

The Warriors were consistent throughout each event, scoring a 46.350 on vault, a 46.375 on the bars, a 46.750 on the beam and a 46.150 on the floor exercise.

Winona State took the vault title again this week after beating La Crosse on the event last week as well. Senior Jade Donaldson won the event with a score of 9.350. Sophomore Taylor Lewis and senior Emily Goldeman tied for third place with 9.300s. Senior Brooke Hiestand scored a 9.250 while first-year Natalie Koehler added a 9.150.

Sophomore Eboni Jackson led the Warriors on beam, which was the Warriors’ best event of the meet, scoring a 9.625 and placing second. Sophomore Katie Carling added a 9.425 on the event, Koehler a 9.375 and first-year Miranda Saathoff a 9.275.

Rolbiecki said they had a season high score on beam and she felt the girls did an exceptional job.

On the bars sophomore Katie Pipp took the lead for the team scoring a 9.575, while Jackson added a score of 9.475 and senior Olivia Cattelino a 9.325.

“Pipp has had rock solid consistency and been working really hard,” Rolbiecki said.

In the floor exercise, Hiestand scored a 9.525 and finshed second in the event. Sophomore Jessica Gabriel added a score of 9.275, Donaldson added a 9.225 and Carling a 9.100.

Carling said both her personal performance and their performance a team has been getting consistently better through out the season.

After last week’s meet Donaldson mentioned the team is slowing building and they are hoping that helps them getting to nationals.

Carling said the team’s biggest goal this season is to make it to the national meet.

“I guess I could peg that as my individual goal too. I want to be able to be consistent enough for the team so that we can make it to nationals and have a good meet at regionals and carry on our season,” Carling said.

In order for the Warriors to qualify for the national meet they must place in the top three teams at the regional meet.

Carling said the level of team chemistry is good this year.

“We click really well and we’re able to be there for each other,” Carling said. “That’s one of the best things about this team, we’re there for each other and when something goes wrong we band together and we figure what we need to fix.”

Winona State competes Tuesday, Feb. 9 at home against the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and Friday Feb. 12 at Illinois State University.