Southeast Missouri State gymnasts place second at Penn St. quad

The Southeast Missouri State gymnastics team appears to have gotten its nerves out after its first meet a week ago.

The Redhawks finished second in the Penn State quad meet Saturday with a score of 193.80, which is a 1.505 point improvement upon their first meet.

Penn State won the meet with a score of 196.025. Cornell was third with 191.0 and the University of Illinois-Chicago finished fourth with 189.125.

"We didn't count any falls, and that was our goal this weekend -- to come in and literally just fight and stay in our routines," Southeast coach Kristi Ewasko said. "The team did that, and I couldn't be more proud."

Southeast's weakest rotation in its season opener was the balance beam, where the Redhawks had several falls. Southeast improved greatly in the event in its second meet, even though Ewasko said there were some scoring discrepancies.

The Redhawks posted a 48.175 on the beam rotation. Taryn Vanderpool finished tied for third with a 9.775 on the beam.

"Beam was a fight for us with our scores," Ewasko said. "We had a lot of discrepancies between two judges, so that created a little tension there at the meet, but I was proud of this team for fighting and hanging in there. They didn't let the distraction of the low-scoring really bother them when we started off beam, so I'm really proud. They actually competed like we train, and that was what we were planning on doing this week."

Vanderpool also finished in a three-way tie for fourth on bars with a score of 9.825. The Redhawks scored 48.675 overall on the bars.

Vanderpool and freshman Alyssa Tucker finished fourth and fifth in the all-around competition, respectively. Vanderpool posted a score of 38.975, while Tucker finished with 38.850.

"Going against a program like Penn State, I think it just speaks volumes of what our team is capable of, you know, with her and also Alyssa Tucker as a freshman," Ewasko said. "We're really planning just to keep fighting and going up from here."

Southeast posted team scores of 48.675 on vault and 48.275 on floor competition.

Freshman Chelsi Hamilton led Southeast in vault, finishing tied for fifth with a score of 9.80.

"I think what this has really proven for us is that we are nowhere close to what our potential is," Ewasko said. "Tonight, we didn't count a fall, but there were mistakes and wobbles and steps and landings and things like that that can get better from here. That'll now be what our focus is -- the smaller details and the tenths and deductions that add up over the long run. We'll start getting rid of those little things now and really look to build on our score heading into our third meet next weekend."

The Redhawks visit Sacramento State in a dual meet starting at 9 p.m. Friday.