Blake receives gymnastics academic all-district honor

Southeast Missouri State senior gymnast Sandra Blake has received ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District first team honors for the third straight year.

Blake's name now will be placed on the ballot for Academic All-American consideration. She was a third-team Academic All-American last year.

Blake, an accounting major who graduates in December, has maintained a perfect 4.0 grade point average throughout her college career.

In the gym, Blake was a four-time NCAA regional qualifier and this year she helped lead the Redhawks to their first Midwest Independent Conference title in more than a decade.

Men's track honored

The Ohio Valley Conference recently announced that Southeast is the recipient of the 2008-09 team sportsmanship award for men's outdoor track and field.

Voted on by the athletes and coaches of the respective sports, the OVC team awards are given to the conference squads deemed to have best exhibited the standards of sportsmanship and ethical behavior as outlined by the OVC and NCAA.

"It is good to know that the other teams in our conference think our men are good sports," Southeast coach Eric Crumpecker said in a release. "Our men work hard to win, but have been gracious in winning and losing. We want our athletes to conduct themselves in a manner the university can be proud of. We want to be a class act."

-- From staff reports