Southeast Missouri State gymnastics team's eason-best score not enough vs. Auburn

It has not been a vintage season for the Southeast Missouri State gymnastics team, which has struggled to find consistency.

But the Redhawks are hoping to finish strong, and they took a major step in the right direction during Friday's meet against visiting Auburn at Houck Field House.

Southeast was beaten by the nation's 16th-ranked squad 195.925-194.425, but the Redhawks posted their best score of the season.

"It was really exciting," junior Taylor Westrick said. "This was one of our better meets with consistency. We started off strong and kept it up. We expected Auburn to be really good since they were ranked so high, but we held our own."

The Redhawks are not in serious contention for one of 36 NCAA team regional berths, which are decided strictly by scores, for the first time in years.

Southeast Missouri State's Taylor Westrick competes on the balance beam Friday. Check out more photos from the meet at semoball.com.

Southeast entered the weekend ranked 56th among the nation's 62 Division I women's gymnastics programs with an average regional qualifying score of 190.153.

"It's a rougher season than what we're used to. Overall we've never really hit it all together," said Southeast coach Kristi Ewasko, whose young squad features no seniors and just four juniors. "But we're hitting our stride toward the end of the season, and hopefully we can build toward next year.

"We put it all together tonight. We had high energy. The gymnasts believed in themselves, had fun and did what they were capable of. I'm really proud of them."

The Redhawks (1-11) had a host of strong performances against the Tigers (6-10), led by sophomore Megan Fosnow, who has emerged as Southeast's top all-arounder this season. She scored a career-high 39.125 to finish second. She reached season highs in all four events.

"I was really excited about it," Fosnow said after being edged for the all-around title by Auburn's 25th-ranked Kylie Shields, who posted a 39.200. "I feel I've improved a lot and I'm excited to improve some more."

Southeast Missouri State's Taryn Vanderpool competes on the uneven bars Friday.

Fosnow also tied for first on vault with a career-best 9.825. She tied for fourth on bars (9.800) and fifth on floor (9.750).

"I couldn't be more proud of Megan," Ewasko said. "She's building confidence in every practice and competition. She is really improving. My expectation when I recruited her was for her to be a top all-arounder. She is really coming into her own now."

Westrick, Southeast's lone returning regional qualifier from a year ago, tied for second on beam (9.850) and fifth on floor (9.750).

Sophomore Taryn Vanderpool tied for second on bars (9.825) and finished third in the all-around (38.750).

"It was a really good meet for us," Vanderpool said. "I think we really put it all together. We had fun. You could tell in our performance.

"Hopefully we'll have two more strong meets. We can still have a really good end to the season."

Junior Emma Garrett tied for second on floor (9.800) and fourth on vault (9.750).

Junior Angela Serafini rounded out Southeast's top-five finishers by tying for fifth on beam (9.825).

"Everyone stepped up for us," said Ewasko, whose team has a few athletes in the running for individual regional berths.

Ewasko, a former standout gymnast at Auburn, was pleased to have her former squad competing in Cape Girardeau.

"It was nice, them coming here," she said. "It gave our athletes a chance to see we can hang with one of the best teams in the country."

Southeast has its final home meet Friday when Texas Woman's University visits at 6:30 p.m.