March 12, 2007

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - (Monday, March 12th, 2007) Southeast (12-5, 6-1 MIC) will face the Illinois State Redbirds at home in Houck Fieldhouse on Tuesday, March 13th at 7:00p.m. The theme for the event is Senior Night and Greek Night.

The lone senior being recognized is team manager Lexie Hein. Hein moved into the manager role due to a frustrating injury and has really helped out the program by assisting with the coordination of events and assisting with team functions.

The Greek Night theme involves the various fraternities and sororities coming out and rooting on the gymnastics squad. There will be prizes for the organizations with the most members in attendance.

With only three meets left in the regular season, the gymnasts are aiming at continuing their strong performances to gain momentum for the post season. The Redhawks are currently soaring as they are coming off of their highest score of the season (194.275) against Texas Woman's University. All-together, the gymnasts set 13 individual career-highs and set season-highs as a team on vault and bars.

The team's uneven bars score (48.850) is tied with the fourth highest team score in the history of Southeast gymnastics. Sophomore Maureen Grimaldi (Kansas City, Mo./ Eagle Gymnastics) also put her name in the record book by tying the third highest score of all-time on bars at Southeast with a career-high 9.875.

While not breaking into the all-time record book, freshmen Rikara Turner (Hastings, Minn./ Twin City Twisters) and Bryanna Wong (Parkville, Mo./ Edge Gymnastics) finished outstanding all-arounds and posted 7 career-highs together.

The young Southeast squad also has the experienced sophomore standout Sandra Blake (Tri-Cities, Wash./ Mid-Columbia) back in the lineup after sitting out a couple of weeks with an injury. Blake and her teammates are "on fire" right now and look to put on an exciting show for all the fans.

Illinois State is also fighting for a strong finish after coming off a close loss at Eastern Michigan over the weekend. The Redbirds were led by sophomore Meaghan Koshman who posted a career-best all-around score of 38.450. Koshman also tied her season-high score of 9.600 on the bars. Also to watch is freshman Jessica Prousa who tallied a career-best beam score of 9.825 earning her first place.

The Redbirds are less than three points behind the Midwest Independent Conference leading Redhawks. With much on the line, this competition will surely electrify the crowd.