This post was written by Hatchet staff writer Josh Solomon.

Just like last year, the women’s gymnastics team won its opening home meet of the season – the Lindsey Ferris Invitational – and just like last year, Betsy Zander won the meet’s “Attitude is Everything” award, becoming the award’s first two-time recipient in its seven year history.

GW finished with a score of 193.025, good for first place out of four teams. Close behind in second place was Cornell, at 188.750 points. Temple and Penn rounded out the bottom two with scores of 186.775 and 183.125, respectively.

Now a senior, Zander took home second All-Around with a score of 38.425, four-tenths of a point lower than her second overall finish last year. Graduate student Kayla Carto finished first in All-Around with a score of 38.475. Zander finished first overall in balance beam (9.725) and third overall in uneven-parallel bars (9.700), while Carto finished fourth overall in vault (9.750) and floor (9.775).

Competing last in the floor event, the Colonials needed a strong performance to secure a team win. Coming after a shaky beam routine that could have brought the team down, GW responded to the pressure well, placing five athletes.

Zander competed first and set the tone with a strong 9.750, which would ironically end up being the lowest score out of her teammates. Freshman Chelsea Raineri finished first with a score of 9.850, followed by senior Taylor Henderson, freshman Alex DeMoura and Carto and junior Elena Corcoran tying for fourth (9.825).

The Colonials additionally swept the top five in the vault, led by Raineri at 9.850, and the top four spots in uneven parallel bars with senior Kiera Kenney finishing first at 9.825.

The event was started in memoriam of former GW gymnast Lindsey Ferris ’01, who died in 2006, became a Special Agent for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) and a week prior to her death, unknown to her, was selected as the Junior Civilian Special Agent of the year for 2005.

Their next meet is in five days, Jan. 17 in Kent, OH and will later return home Feb. 9 for their meet against Rutgers and William & Marry.