April 1, 2007

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - (Saturday, March 31, 2007) The Southeast Missouri gymnastics program was narrowly edged out of a regional team berth, but gained MIC recognition for their excellent seasonal performance.

Rikara Turner (Hastings, Minn./Twin City Twisters) earned the MIC Newcomer of the Year award for her outstanding team-leading performances this season. Turner holds the team-high on the all-around (38.925) and shares the team-high on beam (9.85). On the floor and bars, she holds the second highest score on the team with a 9.8 and 9.775 respectively.

Turner has earned three MIC Gymnast of the Week Awards this season while winning individual titles on beam and vault, and capturing a team-best four titles on the all-around. This is the third consecutive year that a Southeast gymnast has earned the award. In 2005 the award went to Alison Ezell (Kansas City, Kan./Alpha Omega) and last season's went to Sandra Blake (Tri-Cities, Wash./Mid-Columbia)

MIC Assistant Coach of the Year Brogan Jacobsen-Evanson

Assistant Coach Brogan Jacobsen-Evanson shared the MIC Assistant Coach of the Year with Texas Woman's Lisa Klein. In only her second season at Southeast, Jacobsen-Evanson has undoubtedly raised the performance levels of the team through her coaching and choreography skills.

Jacobsen-Evanson coaches both the floor and beam which have been bright spots for the Redhawks this season. Southeast's floor and beam routines were off the chart as they hit the top 15 nationally this year and improved vastly over last season with the balance beam RQS jumping almost a full point. Southeast finished the regular season second in the MIC on beam and floor and has the conference's second best beam worker and third best floor worker, thanks to the tutelage of Jacobsen-Evanson.

For the second year in a row, head coach Tom Farden was named the MIC Head Coach of the Year. Farden has consistently improved the Redhawks over his four-year tenure leading the team to a second place finish in the MIC and a phenomenal RQS total of 193.555. Farden's ability to get the best out of his players has earned them a bars ranking of second in the MIC and the third spot on vault. Under Farden, the team's season-high bars score of 48.850 tied the fourth best mark in the history of Southeast gymnastics.

MIC Coach of the Year Tom Farden

This year, Farden's team reached the highest ranking for a Southeast squad in over a decade as they saw time ranked 22nd nationally and held fifth place in the south central region. The Redhawks finished 17-9 overall and 11-3 in the MIC while increasing their RQS on bars, beam, floor, and overall team score from last season. The 17 wins overall marks the most wins for Southeast in over a decade and the 193.555 is a vast improvement over last year's 192.005.

The Redhawks gymnasts also earned honors for first and second team All-MIC. First team All-MIC is awarded to those finishing in the top three on the four events and the all-around. Second team All-MIC recognizes those finishing fourth through sixth.

All-MIC First Team: Sandra Blake (Vault, All-Around) and Jena Nguyen (Floor). All-MIC Second Team: Amber Garlotte (Vault), Rikara Turner (Vault, All-Around), Jacqueline Heath (Bars), Sandra Blake (Bars, Floor), Maureen Grimaldi (Bars, All-Around), Alison Ezell (Floor) and Bryanna Wong (Floor, All-Around).

The postseason fate of the Redhawks will be posted on Monday as Southeast currently has five gymnasts with a good shot to earn regional berth.