Southeast gymnastics earns first win of season

The Southeast Missouri State University's gymnastics team got its first win of the season with a 194.375-193.650 win over Illinois State Friday night.

"Overall, I am very pleased," coach Kristi Ewasko said. "We still have little things to work on but to get a win, that's great."

The Redhawks went into the matchup against Illinois State 0-7 for the season. The highest score the Redhawks had posted all season was a 191.900 against Illinois Chicago, but Friday night the Redhawks posted a season-best score.

"We just worked on building our confidence," Ewasko said. "We pumped them with energy for them to start believing in themselves and I think it really took over."

The Redhawks lost the first competition on the vault 49.150-48.750 but would go on to win the uneven bars, balance-beam, and floor exercise competitions. The Redhawks had a member of their team place in the top 3 in each of the competitions.

"The athletes really performed much better and it looks like they're getting their confidence, their groove," Ewasko said.

Freshman Taylor Huey took first place in the vault competition with a score of 9.875 while sophomores Megan Fosnow and Taryn Vanderpool tied for first place in the bars competition with a score of 9.800.

"I think we did well today as a team," Fosnow said. "Everybody seemed to be a lot more confident and have a lot more fun."

Junior Taylor Westrick took first in the beam competition with a score of 9.825 and junior Emma Garrett took first place after she scored a career-best for her of 9.900 in the floor competition. Fosnow took second place in all-around with a season-best for her of 38.975.

"I still have a little to improve on but this was a good step for me and I'm going to keep going up from here," Fosnow said.

The Redhawks improved their record to 1-7 overall and 1-2 in the Midwest Independent Conference. The Redhawks are back into action at 7p.m. March 3 at Texas Women's University.