SOUTHEAST HONORS ATHLETES AT ANNUAL SPORTS BANQUET

Yet another big-time athletic season at Southeast Missouri State University was celebrated Thursday night.

More than 900 athletes, coaches, parents and Southeast Booster Club members were at the Show Me Center for the 1999 Southeast Booster Club Athletic Awards Banquet.

Once again, Southeast's women's athletic program took the spotlight as the Otahkians claimed their fifth straight Ohio Valley Conference women's all-sports championship this school year.

That's pretty remarkable, considering Southeast is in only its eighth season of OVC and NCAA Division I competition. And it extends Southeast's OVC record for most consecutive women's all-sports titles by one school.

And the Southeast men's athletic program also had some major accomplishments during the 1998-99 school year, led by the basketball team recording its best-ever Division I and OVC records.

Southeast's women's program captured three OVC titles. The volleyball team won the tournament crown and advanced to the NCAA tourney while the softball team won its fifth straight regular-season championship and its fourth consecutive tournament title to make the Division I NCAA tourney for the first time ever. The softball Otahkians will compete in the NCAA regional next week.

Several Southeast women's programs finished second in the OVC. The track team's recent runnerup performance clinched the all-sports title for the Otahkians.

The Southeast women's basketball team also had a breakthrough season, finishing with its best-ever OVC and Division I record as Ed Arnzen was named OVC Coach of the Year.

While no Southeast men's team has won an OVC title yet this season -- the baseball squad is still playing and has a shot at claiming its second straight tournament crown -- it was certainly a banner season for the men's athletic program.

Topping the list, of course, is the memorable basketball season. The Indians won 20 games, finished second in the OVC -- and were denied their first-ever Division I Tournament berth only by Murray State's buzzer-beating miracle shot in the OVC tourney finals.

Gary Garner was named Co-Coach of the Year for men's basketball.

Also on the men's side, the baseball team is closing in on a second straight second-place finish in the regular-season and has a strong chance of hosting the OVC Tournament for the second straight year while the golf squad finished second in the OVC Tournament and missed out on the title by a stroke.

Softball players Christine Engelhardt and Jenny Oermann were honored as GTE Academic All-Americans for their exploits during the 1997-98 school year.

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

Baseball player Kyle Yount won the Jewell Award with a 3.25 GPA while Engelhardt earned the Trombetta Award with a 3.963 GPA. Interestingly, Yount's father, Steve, also earned the Jewell Award during his standout career playing for the Southeast baseball team.

A special award was also given to women's basketball player Paula Corder for leading the nation in free-throw shooting with an amazing 94.1 percent.

A complete list of all the individual awards for each sport appears in `Scoreboard' on Page 2B.