Southeast Missouri State University Athletics

The 2023 season marks the first for Taylor Colwell as a member of the Southeast Missouri Gymnastics coaching staff. Colwell will serve as the Redhawks Volunteer Assistant Coach.
 
Colwell most recently spent the past two seasons in the same role at her alma mater, Lindenwood.
 
In 2022, Colwell helped lead Lindenwood to a third-place finish at USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Championships. She also coached Gayla Griswold, who became the first Lion in program history to qualify for the NCAA National Championship. Griswold capped her season on the vault in Fort Worth, Texas.
 
Hadley Roberts joined Griswold on the WCGA All-America list. Griswold also broke the program record on the vault with a 9.975.
 
Lindenwood finished second at the 2022 MIC Championships, with a final score of 194.875. 
 
During the 2021 season, Colwell helped the Lions finish first in the MIC, and second at the USAG Collegiate National Championships. Colwell was a recipient of the WCGA Division II Regional Assistant Coach of the Year honor, following the successful season put together by the team. Under the tutelage of Colwell, four student-athletes earned WCGA All-American accolades, three were selected to compete at regionals, and three collected conference weekly performance honors. Colwell also assisted in the coaching of eight first-team and nine second-team All-MIC performers.

Prior to coaching, Colwell was a four-year member (2017-2020) of the Lindenwood gymnastics program. During her time in St. Charles, Missouri, Colwell guided the Lions to four consecutive MIC titles and a USA Gymnastics Women's Collegiate National Championship in 2019. Colwell and the Lions made history during the 2019 season, becoming just the third-ever NCAA Division II program to compete in an NCAA Regional. The Lions set a new program record in 2019 with a Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) of 195.400, the highest mark in program history. 
 
Colwell competed for three seasons (2017-2019) with current Redhawks assistant coach Andavea Alexander at Lindenwood. As a Lion, Colwell was also coached by current SEMO head coach Ashley Lawson who was an assistant at Lindenwood in 2018.  

A native of Plainedge, New York, Colwell earned USA Gymnastics second-team All-American honors on bars in 2019. Also in 2019, Colwell was a second-team all-MIC performer on bars and beam. Colwell was a four-time Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) Scholastic All-American and a four-time MIC scholar athlete.
 
Colwell was a member of the New Image Gymnastics club where she was a state, regional, and national qualifier, and the Level 10 state bars champion.
 
Colwell graduated from Lindenwood with a Bachelor’s in Mathematics in 2020.