March 18, 2007

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - (Saturday, March 17, 2007) The Redhawks swept all four events against the Centenary Ladies en route to a 194.150-192.150 victory during a meet held in Shreveport, La. in the Gold Dome, in front of a crowd of 684.

Southeast has really picked up the pace as the regular season is winding down. With regional qualification on the line, the Redhawks are leaving nothing to chance as they continue to set career-highs and increase their RQS.

The Redhawks started the night out on bars with a solid 48.600. Sophomore Maureen Grimaldi (Kansas City, Mo./Edge Gymnastics) tallied a second place 9.750 to lead the way for Southeast. Centenary's Julia Cornelius took the title with a 9.775.

On the vault, the Redhawks had an excellent showing as freshman Amber Garlotte (Lee's Summit, Mo./Eagles Gymnastics) took the individual title with a 9.775 as she paced her team to a 48.350-47.850 victory. Rikara Turner (Hastings, Minn./Twin City Twisters) also recorded a superb third place vault of 9.700 and was followed closely by teammates Alison Ezell (Kansas City, Kan./Alpha Omega) and Sandra Blake (Tri-Cities, Wash./Mid-Columbia) who tied for fourth with a 9.650.

"Our performance on floor was solid," said head coach Tom Farden. "But not as good as what we can do."

The "solid" performance on the floor by the Redhawks totaled 48.475 as Grimaldi again led the way for Southeast scoring a second place 9.75. Freshman Amber Garlotte (Lee's Summit, Mo./Eagle Gymnastics) also helped the team by tying her season-high score of 9.650.

The Redhawks finished the evening on the balance beam in which they tied their season-high score of 48.725.

"Our beam sewed up the meet for us," said Farden. "It was just awesome."

The individual title was split by freshmen Jena Nguyen (Sioux Falls, S.D./All-American) and Turner as they both tallied a career-high 9.850. Junior Alison Ezell followed the freshmen closely as her season-high mark of 9.825 was good enough for second.

"These scores are really going to help our RQS," Farden said.

On the all-around, Turner again shined as she earned her fourth individual title with a team and career-high 38.925.

The Redhawks currently have a spot in the NCAA regional but they are on the bubble.

"We have two more opportunities to solidify our second consecutive NCAA berth," Farden said.

Those two chances will be tough ones as the next one will be in Fayetteville, Ark. against the No. 12 Arkansas Razorbacks followed by the conference championships in Chicago, Ill. at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

The meet against the Razorbacks will take place on Friday, Mar. 23 at 7:00p.m and the MIC championships will be on Saturday, Mar. 31.