Senior Says Good-Bye; Freshman Rises
March 10, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
ROCKFORD – As one champion capped a weekend Saturday that couldn’t have gotten much better, another potentially got started on what could turn into one of the most impressive runs in MHSAA history.
Yes, that’s a pretty strong statement. But Grosse Pointe United’s Cate Gagnier is only a freshman – and one who already owns a Division 1 gymnastics championship.
Gagnier posted an all-around 37.225 at Rockford High School to claim it, also finishing first on balance beam and vault with matching 9.525 scores.
A Level 8 club gymnast before joining the high school team this winter, Gagnier cleared the field by nearly three quarters of a point, making a nice jump after finishing runner-up at her Regional a week ago to Port Huron United senior Hallie Roman.
The two switched spots this time, Roman finishing runner-up, as they shared a rotation and drove each other to high marks all afternoon.
“I knew I was kind’ve good, but I didn’t know I was the best,” said Gagnier, a student at Grosse Pointe North. “I stuck all my skills. I didn’t fall on anything. I smiled on floor (exercise), with helps a lot, actually.
“(Roman’s) really nice. We were cheering each other on. It was really fun. She’s really good, so I felt like, ‘Oh my, I’ve got to do good.’”
Roman scored a 36.550, moving up from 12th in 2017 to second. Livonia Blue senior Aniessa Conway (36.450) and Northville senior Erin McCallum (36.150) finished third and fourth, respectively, and another freshman – Grand Ledge’s Elizabeth Maurer – came in fifth (35.975) in Division 1.
Gagnier, who also won vault and beam at her Regional, said the big difference between club and her first high school season was the amount of jumps she had to master. The smiling was something her coaches have been reminding her to do as well.
She helped the team to a league championship in mid-February, but GPU fell just short of making Friday’s Team Final by finishing fourth at its Regional. Coach Kristin Remillet could tell Gagnier was disappointed she couldn’t will her entire team to the final weekend of the season, but she made the most of her individual opportunity.
“She has won some of the really big invitationals so far this school year and this season, and so I was very hopeful for her,” Remillet said. “But it’s her first year. I was not going in thinking that it would be quite the performance that she got today. She was shining the entire day.”
So too was Farmington United senior Elisa Bills, who provided an encore to her Division 2 championship a year ago and after helping her team Friday to its first MHSAA title since 2006.
Bills had injured a ligament in her right knee midway through the regular season and missed a month before competing again all-around for the first time at her Regional.
But she posted the highest all-around score at the Team Final, and followed that up with a 37.175 on Saturday to edge runner-up Morgan Case of Rockford (36.825).
Bills placed among the top seven on all four apparatus, finishing first in Division 2 on beam (9.575) – not bad for admitting after that there was a time she wasn’t sure she’d make it back to full speed before the season was done.
“Winning as a team was the one thing I wanted this year. This adding on top of it really made the weekend so special and an amazing way to end the season and my career in gymnastics,” said Bills, a student at North Farmington.
“I went into today as my last time competing having fun. I was kinda like, ‘It would be nice again’ – but just trying to enjoy the day, and I did. I had a blast my last time, and it really showed off.”
Conway won the Division 1 title on uneven parallel bars with a score of 9.400, and Salem senior Jordyn Williams won the floor exercise with a 9.800 – which tied two others for the MHSAA Division 1 Finals record in that event.
Case, a junior, won the Division 2 floor with a 9.600, which tied for third highest in meet history. Bills’ beam score tied for fourth-best ever at a Division 2 Final. Howell sophomore Taylor Gillespie won vault at 9.450, and Rockford junior Ashley Faulkner won bars at 9.050.
Linden/Fenton/Lake Fenton senior Blake Hutchins and Farmington United junior Kacey Noseworthy tied for fourth in the Division 2 all-around at 36.575, and Rockford junior Reagan Ammon was fifth at 36.325.
Click for Division 1 and Division 2 results.
PHOTOS: (Top) Grosse Pointe United’s Cate Gagnier begins her floor exercise routine during Saturday’s Finals. (Middle) Port Huron United’s Hallie Roman goes aerial during her floor routine. (Below) Farmington United Elisa Bills performs on balance beam. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Rebuilt Rockford Completes 3-Peat Run
March 10, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
CANTON – That Rockford’s gymnastics team began this season in rebuilding mode was hard to fathom as the Rams raised a third straight MHSAA championship trophy Friday night at Plymouth High School.
But this latest celebration was as much a testament to how far they’d come as to what they accomplished again this season.
Rockford entered this winter minus a trio of Division 1 standouts who helped turn the team into a powerhouse the last few seasons but graduated last spring.
On Friday, the Rams had only senior sisters Nicole and Carly Coughlin compete on all four apparatuses, but received scores from six gymnasts as eight competed in at least one event. That team effort was enough to land Rockford 0.525 of a point clear of runner-up Canton with a winning score of 145.300.
“We lost a lot of our good seniors last year, and we had a ton of good freshmen coming in, so we didn’t really know what to expect,” Nicole Coughlin said. “But I’m so happy with what we did today. We had to work a ton for it this year; the other two years we had strong seniors, we knew we were contenders for it. But really we had to build up from really nothing this year.”
Just two seasons ago, the Coughlins and teammate Kaitie Killinger were sophomores contributing to a Rockford/Sparta co-op team looking to win the program’s first championship since 1989.
Rockford on Friday became the fourth Lower Peninsula team since the beginning of MHSAA Finals in the sport in 1972 to win at least three straight championships, joining Ludington from 1975-79, Holland from 1994-97, Tri-Farmington from 2004-06 and Grand Ledge from 2008-13.
Nicole Coughlin’s 37.250 all-around score Friday ranked third at the meet, and Carly ranked fifth with a 36.725. Killinger and freshmen Morgan Case and Ashley Faulkner all posted scores of 9.0 or higher on at least one apparatus, and sophomore Chantel Lokers also contributed a score tying for the team’s fourth-best on bars.
Only a month ago, the Rams were searching for consistency, disappointed after a close win over a local rival that served as a wake-up call. Practices became more focused, technique more crisp and daily performances more consistent.
Rockford posted the state’s top Regional score of 147.800 last weekend.
“We had a strong team from the beginning, but we have slowly built all season long and we just happened to peak at the right time,” Rockford coach Alyssa Burke said. “They had a lot of pressure on them this year. From the first meet, it was constant ‘Oh, are they going to three-peat?’ We just told them we’re a different team this year, we’re a rebuilding team, and we’re going to go and do our best every meet and hopefully slowly build and get better all season – and hopefully three-peat, and if we don’t still have a great season.
“We really did all we could. Whether we won or lost, we were just proud that we’d done our best.”
Annual contender Canton pushed the Rams as far as possible, however. After both had finished beam, floor and vault, the Chiefs trailed by 2.325 points. Rockford went first on bars and scored 34.850. But although Canton posted the day’s highest bars score of 35.725, it wasn’t enough to make up the entire deficit.
Rockford’s floor (37.525) and vault (36.900) were the highest scoring of the meet.
But Canton couldn’t be disappointed. After finishing first or second every season from 2011-15, the Chiefs slid to fifth at last season’s Final.
“Our mantra this week was, ‘Girls, can you win?’ And last year it was, ‘Well, I don’t know’ and they ended up fifth just because they didn’t have the attitude,” Canton coach John Cunningham said. “This year, they went, ‘Well, maybe we could win.’ Well, (our coaches) have said all along, you guys could be state champs. Give or take six tenths … we could definitely be state champs.”
Senior Jana Hilditch posted the seventh highest all-around score of 36.425 for Canton, and teammates Kelsea Kernosek (35.725) and Victoria Faber (35.550) also competed all-around for the Chiefs.
Grand Rapids Forest Hills senior Christine Byam totaled the day’s highest all-around score of 37.500 as her team finished sixth. Senior Courtney Casper had the second-highest all-around (37.450) in leading Brighton to a third-place finish, up from 11th last season and its best since also finishing third in 2005.
PHOTOS: (Top) Rockford coach Alyssa Burke (right) embraces one of her gymnasts after the team's final rotation Friday. (Middle) A Rams gymnast performs on bars. (Below) A Canton gymnast performs her beam routine. (Click to see more at HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)