Grosse Pointe United Vaults to New Heights

The gymnasts from Grosse Pointe stuck it this year with a trip to the state finals.

In fact, the Grosse Pointe United gymnastics team had many reasons to celebrate after finishing 11th at the state finals in Kenowa Hills on March 11-12.

Grosse Pointe United, made up of student-athletes from and , qualified for the state meet by finishing second at the regional tournament at Canton on March 5. Individual gymnasts from Grosse Pointe had qualified for the finals in recent years, but this was the first time since 1984 that the Unified squad had advanced as a team to the state meet.

At the state meet, Emma Abessinio finished ninth and earned all-state honors in the uneven parallel bars with a score of 8.850. Heather Koresky placed 14th with a score of 8.750 and was 17th in the uneven parallel bars.

Kaiser also excelled on the balance beam, finishing 15th with a score of 8.800. Sarah Fentin ended up 27th with an 8.300 and Abessinio was 28th with an 8.275.

Aubryn Samaroo recorded a score of 9.175 to place 17th in the floor exercise and Abessinio was 20th in the floor with a 9.05.

In addition to its performance in the state meet, Grosse Pointe United won the Great Lakes Meet on Feb. 24 with a team-record score of 141.65.

Samaroo also set the team record with a score of 9.6 in the floor exercise and Kaiser set the team record with a 9.7 on the beam.

Also, Courtney Law was named the state coach of the year and the team received the sportsmanship award, which is voted on by coaches throughout Michigan.

Members of the team are Abessinio, Koresky, Kaiser, Fentin, Samaroo, Fran Kay, Brittany Rizzo and Ashley Krynski. Law coaches the team and Christine Spada is an assistant coach.

CORRECTION: This story was updated on March 27 at 7:15 a.m. to delete a reference to Grosse Pointe United making the state finals for the first time since 1984. This story was also updated March 28 at 4:20 p.m. to reflect the team taking 11th place. This story was also updated March 28 at 4:53 p.m.