OTAHKS FLOOR FOES WITH DYNAMIC TRIO

Three Southeast Missouri gymnastic team members have made it look easy in the team's current run of five consecutive meet victories.

Led by Erin Chenier, Kate Farrington and Malia Roberts, the Otahkians will be looking for a sixth consecutive win Saturday when Southeast travels to Alabama to face the defending national champions.

Also present at the meet will be the nationally ranked teams of West Virginia and Michigan State.

The Otahkian trio has posted three consecutive sweeps of the top three places in the floor exercise. They have also combined for a second through fourth place finish earlier this year. They helped the team set a new school record of 195.225 in a meet against Eastern Michigan last week.

Chenier is an accomplished gymnast. She claimed the 1996 USA Gymnastics balance beam title and has won the Canadian national beam title.

Farrington is the lone senior on the squad, and with the only perfect 10 in Southeast history, has established herself as one of the finest gymnasts in school history. Along with her 10 in the vault, Farrington owns the third best all-around score in Southeast history.

Roberts is the rookie among the trio, arriving this season from Maui, Hawaii, to post some of the team's top individual scores of the season.

Although they have different styles and origins, the trio shares the distinction of setting a school record with identical marks of 9.9 to lead Southeast to a come-from-behind victory at the Cap n' Crunch Invitational last month. The three 9.9s established a new Southeast record for the three highest scores in a meet.

That meet established a trend for occupying the top three spots in the floor exercise.

As a team, Southeast ranks 19th nationally in the floor exercise, its fifth straight week in the top 20.

Farrington and Chenier have also been a potent one-two combination in other events. They have combined for four one-two finishes on the vault and, in a dual meet victory over Missouri, finished one-two in the all-around. Against Eastern Michigan, they split the top spot in the all-around.

At the Cap n' Crunch meet, Chenier headed a one-two with Roberts in the bar competition.

The trio's dominance in the floor exercise will be tested Saturday.