A year in review: Southeast Missouri State athletics

Another year of Southeast Missouri State athletics came to an end with Chris Martin competing in the triple jump at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships on Friday in Eugene, Oregon.

It was a year of new beginnings. Football coach Tom Matukewicz and softball coach Mark Redburn took over for their first season at Southeast while Rick Ray and Rekha Patterson were hired as the men's and women's basketball coaches after a crazy day in March that left both basketball positions vacant when Dickey Nutt was fired and Ty Margenthaler resigned amidst an NCAA investigation into the women's basketball program.

It was a year of continued success for a few Redhawks programs and there were a few broken records along the way. The Redhawks baseball team repeated as Ohio Valley Conference regular season champions as did the men's track and field team during the indoor season, and the soccer squad won its fifth conference title in the program's 16 years.

Here are some of the top stories from the 2014-15 athletic season at Southeast.

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Southeast Missourian file Rehka Patterson was hired as the new women's basketball coach, whle Rick Ray filled the men's vacancy.

1. In a span of less than two hours both the Southeast men's and women's basketball coaching positions were suddenly vacant on March 23.

Weeks after each team's season concluded, Ty Margenthaler's resignation as the women's basketball coach was announced followed closely by the firing of men's coach Dickey Nutt.

The women's team had finished its fourth season under Margenthaler with a 10-19 overall record and 3-13 mark in the conference. The Redhawks failed to make the OVC tournament for the sixth straight year.

The men's team had reached the OVC tournament for the fifth time in six seasons under Nutt but was bounced in the first round and concluded the year with a 13-17 record overall and a 7-9 mark in conference play.

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Southeast Missourian file The Southeast Missouri State baseball team won its second consecutive Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title under the direction of coach Steve Bieser. However, the Redhawks again fell short in the OVC tournament.

2. One day before the Southeast women's basketball team was set to play its lone exhibition game of the season, it was announced coach Ty Margenthaler was suspended for two games because of NCAA recruiting violations that were self-reported by the university.

Margenthaler missed the exhibition game against Missouri Valley College on Nov. 6 as well as the Redhawks' regular-season opener against Alabama A&M on Nov. 14. Heather Ezell, who was then an assistant, served as head coach in his place.

A report from the university in December, which was provided after a public records request was filed by the Southeast Missourian, stated that the head coach was docked five days of pay after failing to follow the university's instructions not to discuss details of the investigation with his staff and recruiting days were reduced to 100 from 112.

The report also detailed several recruiting violations made by a former male assistant to Margenthaler that included providing recruits with free gifts during a team camp at Southeast as well as impermissible contact with recruits.

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Southeast Missourian file The Southeast women's soccer team claimed the OVC regular-season championship.

3. The Southeast baseball team accomplished a feat that hadn't been done in more than 10 years in the OVC when the Redhawks won back-to-back regular-season conference championships.

Southeast, which had lost three of its top players to graduation after the 2014 season, finished its season 36-23 overall and 22-8 in conference for its second straight OVC championship. Austin Peay had last won consecutive OVC regular-season titles in 2003 and 2004.

The top-seeded Redhawks lost their first game of the conference tournament to Belmont after a first-round bye. They won three straight elimination games before losing 16-3 to Morehead State in the championship round.

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4. The Southeast football team's victory over then-No. 3/4 Southeastern Louisiana on Sept. 20 marked the highest-ranked opponent the Redhawks ever defeated.

Southeast receiver Paul McRoberts caught a 2-yard pass to tie the game at 23 with 4.6 seconds remaining in the game before kicker Ryan McCrum made the game-winning PAT -- twice, thanks to a penalty -- to claim the 24-23 victory.

McRoberts had suffered a broken foot earlier in the game and missed the next five games of his junior season.

The Redhawks, who finished the season 5-7 in Matukewicz's first season at the helm, defeated nationally-ranked Tennessee State two weeks later and moved into the Sports Network FCS poll at No. 23 on Oct. 6.

It was the first time Southeast was ranked since the 2010 OVC championship season and the first time the Redhawks defeated two ranked opponents in a single season.

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5. Rick Ray was hired as the 20th coach in Southeast men's basketball history April 13.

Ray had been fired from Mississippi State after three seasons and a 37-60 record on March 21. Ben Howland was hired as his replacement two days later.

Ray had taken over a program plagued by issues off the court after Rick Stansbury announced his retirement after 14 seasons. He had just six scholarship players available throughout his first season due to injuries and suspensions for disciplinary reasons.

"I think that sometimes people have the perception that just because I was a coach at an SEC school and a Power 5 school that I might not be interested in a place like Southeast Missouri State, and that's far from the truth at all," Ray said in his introductory news conference. "To me, I want to be a ball coach, and that's what I am. Southeast Missouri State gives me a chance to still be a head ball coach but also be a head ball coach where you've got a chance to be successful."

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6. The Southeast soccer team was crowned the OVC regular-season champion for the fifth time since the program began in 1999.

The Redhawks needed a late goal from senior midfielder Torey Byrd in their season finale against SIU Edwardsville to defeat the Cougars 2-1 and claim a share of the OVC title.

Southeast, which shared the title with SIUE, was the No. 1 seed and hosted the conference tournament, but the Redhawks were knocked out in a 1-0 loss in the semifinals to finish the season 11-6 overall and 8-2 in the OVC.

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7. On April 15, Rekha Patterson became the eighth coach in Southeast women's basketball history and the program's first female coach since moving to Division I.

Patterson, a first-time head coach, came to Southeast from Ball State, where she was an assistant for two seasons.

She'd also worked at Eastern Illinois, Creighton and Baylor. She was an associate coach under Kim Mulkey at Baylor when the Bears completed a 40-0 season en route to the 2012 NCAA National Championship.

"From this moment forward, our program will work to be our best every day -- in the classroom, in the community and on the court," Patterson said during her introductory news conference. "We will learn how to win the moment, win the possession, win the game and win the day. We will teach our players how to fight back from adversity with hard work, discipline, resiliency and commitment. It is my goal, and my mission, frankly, to prepare these young women and to instill in them the confidence that they can do whatever their heart truly desires."

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8. The Southeast men's basketball team held a three-point lead in the final seconds of regulation against Murray State on Feb. 14 at the Show Me Center when a foul sent Racers guard TJ Sapp to the line for three free throws with 2.6 seconds remaining.

Sapp sank all three to send the game to overtime, and Murray State defeated the Redhawks 94-92 to claim the 24th OVC championship in program history.

It was the 21st win in a stretch of 25 in a row for the Racers and was win No. 13 of their perfect 16-0 OVC regular season.

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9. Track and field coach Eric Crumpecker was named the OVC's Coach of the Year during the indoor season for the second year in a row after the Southeast men's track and field team claimed back-to-back OVC indoor titles.

The Redhawks edged perennial power Eastern Illinois, which finished second behind Southeast both seasons.

Senior Blake Smith, a Jackson native, broke the OVC indoor championship record in the 60-meter dash. Smith finished 10th in the 60 meters at the NCAA indoor championships and 15th in the long jump at the NCAA outdoor championships to conclude his career as a second-team all-American.

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10. In his first season at the helm of the Southeast softball program, Mark Redburn took a team that had won just three conference games the year before to the OVC tournament.

The Redhawks, who were 11-34 overall and 3-20 in conference in Lana Richmond's final season in 2014, finished 19-27 and 12-12 in the OVC. They secured a berth in their first conference tournament since 2011 as the seventh seed but were eliminated after two games.

No. 2 Jacksonville State broke the tournament record for runs in a 21-0 first-round win over Southeast, and No. 6 Eastern Illinois ended the Redhawks' season with a 10-9 walk-off win in 12 innings.

Senior Kayla Fortner broke Southeast's all-time single-season home run record of 14, which had stood since 2007. She finished the season with 16.