Champs Prevail in Dominating Fashion
March 11, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
CANTON – Brighton senior Courtney Casper packed an eventful final month into her only season of high school gymnastics.
An accomplished club competitor, Casper joined the Bulldogs’ team this winter – and Saturday at Plymouth High School added an MHSAA Division 1 title to league and Regional championships she’d won over the last few weeks.
Casper scored an all-around 37.975 to edge Rockford senior Nicole Coughlin by 75 hundredths of a point in the most dominant Division 1 Finals performance since Grand Ledge’s Meghan McWhorter also won all-around and three individual apparatuses in 2008.
Casper tied senior teammate Hannah Bracken to win vault (9.700), and also took first on uneven parallel bars (9.650) and floor exercise (9.775).
“It’s really exciting because it was my first year on high school, and I couldn’t have finished any better than I did,” Casper said. “It was a lot less pressure for me (than club), so it was kinda just more for fun.”
Casper tied for second, with Coughlin, at the prestigious Canton Invitational at the start of February. That meet frequently is an indicator of which gymnasts will contend for MHSAA titles a month later, and Casper managed her high standing despite falling twice that day.
She said she was most proud of her floor routine Saturday, and for good reason – her score tied for third-highest in Division 1 Finals history. Her vault score tied for 15th highest on the MHSAA Finals record book list for that event.
Coughlin, who finished fifth and third, respectively, over the previous two seasons, won balance beam with a 9.500. A day after leading Rockford to its third straight team championship, Coughlin capped her high school career with a personal-best all-around score of 37.900. The beam championship also was her second straight on that apparatus.
She and Casper finished seven tenths of a point better than the rest of the field.
“I was just really proud of our team still from (Friday), so we just tried to carry that same energy into today,” Coughlin said. “I just wanted to come in and hit all four routines, and I did, so I’m super proud of that.”
Port Huron sophomore Brianne Smith placed third, up from 12th her first season, and Grand Rapids Forest Hills United senior Christine Byam was fourth in Division 1 after taking sixth a year ago. Nicole’s twin Carly Coughlin finished fifth, and Grosse Pointe United senior Isabelle Nguyen came in sixth to go with her previous Division 1 finishes of fifth, second and second during her first three seasons of high school.
In Division 2, Farmington United junior Elisa Bills took the next step after missing out on the 2016 championship by only three tenths of a point.
Competing in part against a Farmington lineup filled with strong Division 2 teammates, Bills hadn’t finished first in an all-around competition this winter. But she got her first place when it counted most, scoring a 37.550, which tied for fifth-highest in Division 2 Finals history.
She won vault (9.575), beam (9.400) and floor (9.525). Her bars score tied for sixth and her floor score tied for 12th in Division 2 Finals history. She was the first Division 2 gymnast to win all-around and three apparatuses since Troy Athens’ Brooke Madzia in 2009.
“All the hard work paid off, throughout the whole year, just going hard and staying in the game throughout the whole day,” Bills said. “Even if there was one fall, or one bobble, you just had to keep positive throughout the whole day and go hard and give it your all.”
Bills’ all-around score would’ve placed third in Division 1 and cleared the field by 0.825 points. Howell senior Alyssa Walker (36.725) and Livonia Blue senior Jessica Weak (36.675) finished second and third all-around, respectively. Both of their scores were high enough to also make the MHSAA Finals record book for Division 2. Weak also repeated as bars champion with a score of 9.325, three tenths of a point higher than her winning score in 2016.
PHOTOS: (Top) Brighton’s Courtney Casper performs her floor routine during Saturday’s Finals at Plymouth High School. (Middle) Rockford’s Nicole Coughlin, on beam Saturday, finished second in Division 1. (Below) Farmington’s Elisa Bills also performs on floor on the way to winning the Division 2 title. (Click to see more at HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Finals: Comets Reach Record Heights
March 9, 2012
GRAND RAPIDS – Grand Ledge faced a possibility Friday at Kenowa Hills High School that none of its gymnasts had known before.
No gymnast on the team had experienced a high school loss. But the Comets were coming off a frustrating performance on their best apparatus, vault, and needed a strong finish to push its MHSAA team championship streak to five.
Senior Christine Wilson knew she’d do her share. But that would be the easy part.
“I’ve been doing the routines for so long now, I knew I had it. But the hard part was getting the girls to believe that they could do it. That was my job, just to get them going again,” the Comets’ lone senior said. “Because I know, after vault, and you’re behind, it’s really hard to pull yourself together when you’re under that much stress.
“Going for five, who does that?”
Grand Ledge went for it on the uneven parallel bars – and got it all. The Comets posted the meet’s top score on that apparatus – 37.325 – to finish with a score of 149.400 and edge Canton by 0.825 points to claim their fifth MHSAA championship. Kenowa Hills/Grandville finished third with 145.10.
“I can’t even describe how proud I am of them,” Wilson said of her teammates. “Every day it’s the same thing, same thing, same thing. It’s this moment. If you don’t put it together, you don’t got it.
“I basically told them we’re so much better than what we just did, and we’ve got to show everyone we can do it. You’ve got to start believing in yourself. Everyone else out here believes in you, but if you don’t believe in yourself, it’s not going to happen.”
The fifth-straight title ties a record held by Ludington (1975-79, although Ludington was co-champion in 1979). It’s fair to believe that the Comets’ 75-event winning streak – counting both duals and invitationals – also is the longest in MHSAA gymnastics history. The last time Grand Ledge took the mat and didn’t finish first was at the 2007 MHSAA Final, when the Comets finished runner-up.
Wilson is the reigning Division 2 individual champion and favored today to win Division 1. Her all-around score of 38.650 on Friday was the Team Final’s highest. Three others posted scores above 36 – juniors Sara Peltier (36.025) and Lauren Clark (36.575) and sophomore Presley Allison (36.90) – and freshman Hailey French turned in a strong 34.925. The score of 149.400 was good for fourth in MHSAA Finals history and the team’s third-best during this five-season run.
It’s not like Grand Ledge totally failed on the vault. Its score of 37.050 was the second-best on that apparatus at the meet. But Canton had scored two tenths of a point more – a healthy amount in what was shaping up to be a close race at the top.
Wilson pulled her teammates into the hallway. She told them to believe. Grand Ledge coach Duane Haring followed with a little bit more of a fiery speech – one among many Wilson said she’ll always remember.
“I was sitting with the parents, and I told them I was really angry because … I think we’re the best vault team in the state. And they didn’t do it,” Haring said. “I just had to go for a walk because I can’t talk to them right now. I started to walk away, and I thought, ‘Oh yes I can.’ … Trust me; they were wide awake for bars. They understood.
“I knew they could do it. All year I’ve waited for them to do bars like that.”
Wilson scored a 9.8 on bars. But the key was Peltier – which scored a 9.7 and landed her dismount for just the second time in competition this season (and Wilson called the first time she’d landed it “lucky”).
Had Peltier missed her landing, it would’ve cost her seven tenths of a point. Add in another error, and that might’ve been enough to lose the lead.
“I felt pressured at first. But when all the girls started pulling it together and landing their dismounts, I didn’t feel as pressured,” Peltier said. “I knew we needed to do as well as we could, but I didn’t realize that it would make that big of an impact on whether we won or not.”
Canton also finished runner-up last season. But coach John Cunningham – who has coached the sport at the high school level since 1968 and at Canton since 1979 – called this team one of his most surprising.
The Chiefs graduated six strong gymnasts after last season, including two school record holders. But this team broke the school's 2004 scoring record with a 149.10. Senior Ayana Lewis broke two event and the all-around records, including two that had stood since 1995.
“They were shockingly good. They didn’t get (just) a little bit better,” Cunningham said. “Everybody has just improved so much. When you have routines when the fifth score is a 9.0 and you can throw it out, and we’ve done that a bunch, it just shocks me.”
Freshman Joselyn Moraw had an all-around 37.650 to lead Canton on Friday. Sophomore Melissa Green had a 36.90 and Lewis had a 36.350. She’ll compete today in Division 1 – after finishing runner-up in Division 2 last season – but is one of just two seniors.
“It’s frustrating, yes. But you never know what could happen next year,” Lewis said. “It might be our year. Every year we step up one more. We get better one year after the next. I have really good hopes for next year.”
Senior Taylor Tepper scored an all-around 38.225 for Kenowa Hills/Grandville. Senior Alyssa Bresso had a 38.150 for fifth-place Farmington, and senior Chloe Presley had a 38.250 for sixth-place Highland-Milford.
Click for full results, and click for more photos from High School Sports Scene. Click for Individual Finals results.