Redhawks gymnastics team hopes focusing on the "little things" will bring success

Gymnastics is a sport that isn't concerned with the overall record of the team, so the fact that Southeast Missouri State's record is 4-8 isn't of much relevance to the team.

It's all about the average score of all the meets, and the Redhawks' average score of 193.050 ranks them first in the Midwest Independent Conference.

"A win/loss record doesn't mean a whole lot to us," Southeast coach Kristi Ewasko said. "Our goal is to improve our scores every week and that is what will get us to regionals, which is what is our main goal."

When a team leads a conference in any sport, that usually means that a team has some standout players, Southeast is no different. Sophomores Ashley Thomas and Alyssa Tucker have both won the MIC Gymnast of the Week honors. Thomas won the recognition on Jan. 14, while Tucker won the award two straight weeks in the last two weeks of January.

"It was really exciting because I didn't get any awards last season," Thomas said. "It feels as if my hard work is paying off."

Thomas claimed her first all-around title with a score of 38.925 in the season-opener against Illinois State. A first team All-MIC selection last season, Thomas won her first weekly award thanks to a 9.800 score on the floor exercise that tied for the highest individual score in the meet.

Thomas also won the all-around against Northern Illinois on Saturday with a score of 39.025 and scored a team-high in the vault. Southeast fell to Nortern Illinois 195.400-193.300 on Friday in Houck Field House.

Tucker claimed the second of her two weekly recognitions on Jan. 23, when she won the all-around event in a meet that featured top-ranked Oklahoma, with a career high score of 39.125.

Southeast scored a season-high 194.550 against Texas Woman's University as the Redhawks scored at least a 48.00 in all events. Thomas scored a career-best 39.100 in the all-around to win the event. Tucker won both the vault and balance beam event with scores of 9.825.

"It was really exciting to get a score like that," Ewasko said. "From that we just continue to build confidence and we have some little areas to improve on and get rid of those deductions."

The team is not just all about Thomas and Tucker, while they have some conference awards, the Redhawks also have some other talented gymnasts.

In the Texas Women's meet, sophomore Chelsi Hamilton had a career-high on the beam with a 9.700. Freshman Jordan Clark posted two career-bests, first in the vault with a 9.600 and in the floor exercise with a 9.725.

To build off the season-high score in the last meet, Thomas said it's all about focusing on the small things in practice.

"We just have little things that we are focusing on," Thomas said. "It's not like we say 'Oh, I want to hit a better routine then last week' because that's too broad. We want to hit our dismounts and handstands. It's not about the big picture, it's about the small things."

Southeast is looking to stay consistent the rest of the year and get to regionals while performing their best.

"Hopefully, we can keep our scores up in the 194s," Thomas said. "Mainly we just want to hit all our routines and not count any falls. We just want to keep working hard and work through the end of our routines, and that will help us get to regionals."

Southeast's next meet will be on Friday in Houck Field House in a dual meet against Northern Iowa at 6 p.m.

This year's MIC Championship will be held on March 31 in Denton, Texas. The Redhawks are the defending MIC champions by winning it last year with a score of 195.275.