Missouri Tri Meet
at #16 Missouri with #27 Illinois
Meet Information 
Date: Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020
Time: 4 p.m., CT
Location: Columbia, Missouri
Venue: Hearnes Center 
Series: Missouri leads All-Time Series 34-8;
Illinois leads All-Time Series 16-7
Coaches: Ashley Lawson (Second Season at SEMO);
Shannon Welker (Seventh Season at Missouri);
Nadalie Walsh (Third Season)
 
Media Coverage
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Video: SEC Network+ 
 
Follow the Redhawks on Twitter @SEMOGymnastics for in-meet updates.
 
Meet Notes: Southeast Missouri
 
Season-Opening Missouri Tri Meet
Southeast Missouri women's gymnastics opens its 2020 season with a tri meet at #16-ranked Missouri with #27 Illinois Saturday at 4 p.m., CT at the Hearnes Center in Columbia, Missouri. Southeast will start the tri on beam. 
 
It marks the third-straight season that SEMO starts its campaign at a Southeastern Conference (SEC) institution. The Redhawks started the 2019 season with a quad meet at Alabama with Northern Illinois and Temple. 
 
Looking at the Opponents
Missouri
The Tigers enters the 2020 season ranked No. 16 in the Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association 2020 preseason poll. In 2019, Missouri finished eighth at the SEC Championships with a team score of 195.900. The Tigers posted a program-best regional score of 196.625 at the 2019 NCAA Athens Regional for third. Brooke Kelly represented Missouri on beam (9.7625) as an individual event qualifier at the 2019 NCAA Championships.
 
Illinois
The Illini are ranked No. 27 in the WCGA 2020 preseason poll. Illinois finished second at the 2019 Big Ten Championships with a season-high 196.650. Mary Jane Otto earned her second Big Ten bars title, matching a career-high 9.975. The Illini edged Central Michigan, 195.325-195.275, to advance to the second round of the NCAA Ann Arbor Regional. Illinois finished third out of four teams in the Regional Semifinal with a 196.175.
 
2019 Signees
Southeast signed four gymnasts during the early signing period on Nov. 14. Anna Speller (St. Louis, Missouri), Sophia Studdard (Blue Springs, Missouri), Lydia Test (Plano, Texas) and Lydia Webb (Wylie, Texas) will join the team this upcoming fall for the 2021 Redhawks season.
 
Lawson Headed to Hall of Fame
Head coach Ashley (Godwin) Lawson will be inducted into Southeast Missouri's 18th Hall of Fame class on Feb. 7, 2020 at the Show Me Center. Lawson holds school records in the All-Around (39.550), Uneven Bars (9.925), Balance Beam (9.975) and Floor Exercise (10.000) and is in her second season as head gymnastics coach. Godwin was a MIC Champion four times in her career, winning the uneven bars in 2002 and the balance beam, floor exercise and all-around in 2003. She was an NCAA Regional qualifier in the all-around each of her final three seasons at SEMO (2002, 2003, 2004). Godwin's highest NCAA Regional finish was an 11th-place showing in 2002. 
 
Roster Breakdown
Southeast returns 10 student-athletes from 2019. Seniors Kendra Benak and Mackenzie Slee along with juniors Gabrielle Adams, Alana Fischer and Michael Sanders were regular contributors to lineups last season. Anna Kaziska also returns for her sophomore season after competing as an all-arounder in every meet in 2019. Kaziska, Adams, Slee and junior Lindsey Bates have all won individual event titles at Southeast. 
 
The 2020 Redhawks team also features eight freshmen in Catherine Costantini (Centerton, Arkansas), Mallory Desch (Lenexa, Kansas), Taylor Fishkin (Manlius, New York), Jordan Jones (Buford, Georgia), Molly Maxwell (Milton, Wisconsin), Jolie Miller (Aurora, Colorado), Lindsey Moffitt (Ferris, Texas) and Dahlia Solorzano-Caruso (Courtice, Ontario, Canada) who will all vie for lineup spots. Junior transfer Ashley Albrecht (Everett, Washington) from Illinois-Chicago rounds out the newcomers.
 
New Coaches, Who Dis?
Head coach Ashley Lawson also added a pair of new coaches ahead of the 2020 season in Jason Collins and Andavea Alexander. Collins will coach the bars team while Alexander will serve as the beam coach and team choreographer. 
 
Collins was previously an assistant coach at Yale in 2019 and prior to that he served as the vice president, chief athletic officer and director of men's gymnastics, and was the women's elite team coach at EVO Athletics in Sarasota, Florida. Alexander was a standout gymnast at Lindenwood who was a seven-time USA Gymnastics All-American and a seven-time All-MIC performer. She also helped Lindenwood win their fifth consecutive MIC Championship and third USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Championship in the last five years in 2019.
 
Fischer Competes for Team Canada
Junior Alana Fischer competed for Team Canada at the 2019 FISU Summer Universiade in Naples, Italy, this past July. Fischer, a Georgetown, Ontario, Canada native, and Team Canada earned fourth in the women's artistic gymnastics team event. Fischer along with her teammates Denelle Pedrick and Jessica Dowling totaled a team score of 97.700 for fourth in the seven-team competition. 
 
What a Freshman Season for Kaziska?!?
Anna Kaziska led the Redhawks in 2019 with 33 scores of 9.700 or higher and totaled 11 individual event titles while earning MIC Newcomer of the Year after being awarded MIC Newcomer of the Week six times during her freshman campaign. The Louisville, Kentucky native, competed as an all-arounder at every meet and finished as the runner-up on floor at the MIC Championships. She also was awarded Second-Team MIC All-Conference laurels for vault and represented SEMO at the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional on floor (9.825).
 
Kaziska capped her inaugural collegiate season with second place finishes on both beam (9.875) and floor (9.875) at the 2019 USA Gymnastics Women's Collegiate National Championships to earn First Team All-American honors for all-around (39.025, fifth), beam and floor and garnered Second Team All-American laurels on bars.
 
2019 MIC Vault Champion
Senior Mackenzie Slee was crowned the 2019 MIC Vault Champion at the conference Championships in Shreveport, Louisiana, with a career-best 9.825 to earn First-Team MIC All-Conference honors. The event title marked the first for Slee who hails from Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand.
 
USAG All-Americans
Three Redhawks were named USA Gymnastics All-Americans in 2019. Gabrielle Adams (vault), Mackenzie Slee (vault) and Anna Kaziska were all awarded All-America honors at the 2019 USA Gymnastics National Championships. They are the second Redhawks trio to earn the accolades after Alexis Brawner, McKinzie Jones and McKenna Stanley recorded the achievement at the 2018 USA Gymnastics Women's Collegiate National Championships. Alana Fischer also represented Southeast at the 2019 USA Gymnastics National Championships.
 
2019 in Review
Southeast posted a season-best 190.275 for sixth at the 2019 MIC Championships at the Gold Dome in Shreveport, Louisiana. Mackenzie Slee tied for the vault crown with a personal-best 9.825 for her first career individual event title and Anna Kaziska, the 2019 MIC Newcomer of the Year, was second on floor with a mark of 9.875 as both earned First-Team MIC All-Conference honors. Slee and Kaziska also captured Second-Team MIC All-Conference accolades for floor and vault, respectively. Slee tied for 10th overall on floor with a 9.800 and Kaziska had a vault score of 9.700 (17th).  
 
Redhawks Crushing it in the Classroom 
Southeast ranked 13th overall in the Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) for team grade-point averages (GPAs) for the 2018-19 academic year. The Redhawks registered a 3.67 GPA during the spring and had a cumulative GPA of 3.65 for the 2018-19 academic year. The Redhawks ranked 35th in the WCGA during 2017-18.
 
Eleven members of the 2019 Redhawks team earned WCGA Scholastic All-America Awards. Lindsey Bates, Allyson Bell, Kendra Benak, Megan Dennis, Alana Fischer, Samantha Gallet, Anna Kaziska, Makenzie Marciniak, Michael Sanders, Kenna Skepnek and Mackenzie Slee each posted GPAs of 3.5 or higher during 2018-19 to garner the award.
 
Looking Ahead
After Saturday's season opener, Southeast travels to Anchorage, Alaska, for a pair of meets. The Redhawks face Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Alaska-Anchorage in a tri meet on Friday, Jan. 10 at 10 p.m., CT (7 p.m. Alaska Standard/Daylight Time). SEMO wraps up its trip to The Last Frontier with a dual against Alaska-Anchorage on Sunday, Jan. 12 at 5 p.m., CT (2 p.m. Alaska Standard/Daylight Time). The Redhawks are on the road for the first four weeks of the season before consecutive home duals on Jan. 31 against Illinois State and Feb. 7 against Lindenwood.