OTAHKS CELEBRATE OVC ALL-AROUND TITLE

Southeast Missouri State University's women's athletic program has done it again.

The Otahkians captured the school's third consecutive Ohio Valley Conference women's all-sports championship this year.

That's pretty heady stuff, considering that Southeast is only in its sixth season of OVC and NCAA Division I competition.

The performance by the women's athletic program was celebrated Tuesday night during the 1997 Southeast Booster Club Athletic Awards Banquet at the Show Me Center. Approximately 900 athletes, coaches, parents and Southeast Booster Club members attended.

Winning women's OVC titles during the 1996-97 school year were the volleyball, softball, indoor track and outdoor track teams.

Southeast's volleyball team captured its fourth straight OVC regular-season championship in addition to winning the league tournament title. The Otahkians also won an NCAA play-in series to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

The Southeast softball squad claimed its third consecutive OVC regular-season title and won its second straight league tourney crown. The Otahkians fell in the NCAA play-in series for the second year in a row.

Southeast women's coaches Cindy Gannon (volleyball), Lana Richmond (softball) and Joey Haines (track) were honored as OVC coaches of the year. Haines, in fact, garnered both the indoor and outdoor coaching honors.

Two Southeast women's athletes -- Tuba Meto in volleyball and Kim Palmer in softball -- were named OVC players of the year in their respective sports.

In addition to winning the four OVC championships, Southeast's women's gymnastics team again had a banner season -- even though gymnastics is not an official OVC sport.

Southeast's gymnasts set a host of school records on their way to qualifying for the NCAA Central Regional. The Otahkians finished second in the NIT of Gymnastics.

The Southeast men's teams also had their moments during the season, although none came away with an OVC championship.

Among the special awards presented Tuesday were the Jewel Award and Trombetta Award, given each year to the senior male and female athlete with the highest grade-point average for their career.

Both of those awards went to Haines' track program. OVC pole vault champion Tim Davis earned the Jewel Award with a 3.180 GPA while OVC high jump champion Heather Fisher earned the Trombetta Award with a 3.736 GPA.

Fisher was also honored with the prestigious title of OVC Scholar Athlete.

A complete list of all the individual awards for each sport appears on `Scoreboard.'