Jan. 31, 2007

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - The Redhawks will travel north this week to La Crosse, Wis. as the six-time defending Division III National Champion, UW-La Crosse Eagles, host the Gershon/McLellan Invite. Participating along with UW-La Crosse and Southeast, will be UW-Eau Claire, UW-Stout, UW-Oshkosh and Winona State.

All five Redhawks opponents are ranked in the Top 12 of Division III Women's Gymnastics. Host UW-La Crosse is third and UW-Stout, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Eau Claire and Winona State are 9-12 respectively.

Even though the Redhawks aren't competing against division foes, they must continually work on scoring high as a team to obtain a spot in the NCAA Regional. Qualification for regional competition is based on a team's and an all-around competitor's six best regular-season-meet scores, of which three must be away. To obtain the RQS, the high score is eliminated and the remaining five scores are averaged.

Currently Southeast is ranked 29th overall and in top 25 on bars, beam and floor. The outstanding output by the Redhawks also has them first in every team event category and the three top spots in the all-around.

The Gershon/McLellan Invite will take place Friday, February 2nd in La Crosse, Wis. with a start time of 6:00 p.m.