NORMAL, Ill. – Anna Kaziska was named the 2020 Midwest Independent Conference Gymnast of the Year and Ashley Lawson garnered 2020 MIC Head Coach of the Year honors, the league announced Friday afternoon. 
 
Kaziska, the 2019 MIC Newcomer of the Year, is the fifth Southeast Missouri gymnast in program history to earn the award and first since Alexis Brawner in 2016. Kaziska is also the only Redhawk in program history to win Newcomer of the Year and Gymnast of the Year in consecutive seasons. 
 
"I'm extremely proud of Anna on this well-deserved award," Lawson said of Kaziska. "Anna persevered the entire season with her head down, and continually excelled week in and week out. Her motivation and determination is key in her success and value to our team. Anna's expectations for herself were extremely high this season, and her contributions to the SEMO Gymnastics program far exceeded any expectations we had for her, and she is reaping the reward for her hard work."
 
Lawson grabbed Southeast's fifth MIC Head Coach of the Year award Friday and joins her former head coach Tom Farden (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) in the SEMO record books for the top coaching distinction.
 
"I'm extremely humbled to be the recipient of this award," Lawson said of the 2020 MIC Head Coach of the Year honor. "Our conference is loaded with some amazing coaches who are all very deserving of this award. I think this award goes to the entire team and staff. They took the vision that I had for this program and turned it into fruition. This is a culmination of belief and dedication and I'm so extremely grateful for this honor!"
 
In her sophomore season, Kaziska registered 26 scores of 9.700 or higher in 2020 and captured a team-best and career-high 15 event titles. The Louisville, Kentucky native, competed in all 11 meets as an all-arounder and was recognized as the MIC Gymnast of the Week three times in 2020. She captured the all-around crown three times while topping the leaderboard on beam seven times and the floor exercise four times. 
 
Kaziska posted career-bests on all four events and in the all-around in 2020. She registered a personal-best vault (9.825) and all-around total (39.175) on Jan. 26 at Ball State's Quad Meet. Kaziska also notched a career-high bars mark of 9.800 against Illinois State on Jan. 31. She also matched her career-bests on beam and floor at the GymQuarters Mardi Gras Invitational on Feb. 14. Kaziska hit her sixth career beam-mark of 9.875 (fourth in 2020) and third personal-best 9.900 on floor (first in 2020) at the meet. 
 
Kaziska paced the conference in NQS (National Qualifying Score) on beam (9.855) and in the all-around (38.985). She also ranked second in the MIC on floor with an NQS of 9.855.
 
In her second season at the helm of her alma-mater, Lawson engineered an epic turnaround. After going winless in competition in 2019, Southeast registered 10 wins and went on a five-competition win streak from Jan. 31 to March 1. The 2020 Redhawks compiled a Team NQS score of 193.780 for third in the MIC. Southeast also registered a team score of 193.000 or higher in each of their past five meets to conclude the season.
 
Lawson coached the Redhawks to a 195.800, their second-highest team score in school history on Feb. 28 against Northern Illinois at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic. The mark was the highest for a USA Gymnastics school (Division I, II and III programs with less than seven-and-a-half full scholarships) in 2020. SEMO also posted season highs on vault (49.075), bars (49.050) and beam (48.775) in addition to the team score during the historic meet. The vault mark ranks first in SEMO program history and surpassed the record set against Seattle Pacific in 1995 (2/18, 49.000). The bars score is the third highest in the Redhawks record books and the beam score ties for 11th overall in the record books. Southeast also posted a season-high floor mark of 49.025 at home against Illinois State which ranks 11th in SEMO program history. 
 
Lawson also coached three-time MIC Gymnast of the Week Anna Kaziska and two-time MIC Newcomer of the Week Dahlia Solorzano-Caruso in 2020. Solorzano-Caruso etched her name in the Redhawks record books twice with a career-best 9.900 on beam (t-5th) and a personal-best all-around mark of 39.350 (t-5th). Five Redhawks also captured individual event titles this season including Kaziska, Solorzano-Caruso, Lindsey Bates and freshmen Jordan Jones and Jolie Miller.
 
For the first time in league history, three student-athletes tied for the Senior of the Year honor. Cami Bea Austin of Centenary, Ryan Henry of Lindenwood and Gabrielle Cooke of Illinois State each tied for the award which recognized the most outstanding gymnast in their final season of competition.
 
Illinois State freshman Angelica Labat was named the MIC Newcomer of the Year. Texas Woman's Stephen Hood and Kristen Harold captured the MIC Assistant Coach(es) of the Year.
 
In addition to these honorees, Centenary's Sierra Ponder and Dorothy Mims each took home special league honors. Ponder was honored with the Sylvia Keiter Memorial Award, which was established in 2019 in memory of the former Centenary gymnast, who was tragically killed while stopped to help a motorist in need. It recognizes the athlete who best exemplifies the characteristics of work ethic, dedication, encouragement, loyalty, selflessness, leading vocally and by example, and making a positive impact on everyone she meets.
 
Her teammate Mims was selected as the MIC Woman of the Year in a blind vote by an independent committee. Nominees for Woman of the Year must have a minimum of a 3.25 GPA and have been a member of the gymnastics team for three years (junior status). The candidate also submitted a personal statement about how her experiences as a scholar, a student-athlete and a leader on her campus and in the community have influenced her life and empowered her to have a positive impact on the world.
 
The league will continue to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of its student-athletes next week, as the MIC All-Conference Team will be announced on Monday at 2 p.m., followed by the MIC Scholar-Athlete Team on Tuesday at 2 p.m., and a recognition of the league's senior standouts on Wednesday at 2 p.m.