Reigning Champ Hartland Ready to Follow Senior Standouts as Repeat March Begins
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
February 27, 2026
Forget about a rebuilding year. For Hartland's gymnastics team, it's been more a matter of reloading.
A year after a veteran Eagles lineup swept to an MHSAA Finals team title, Hartland may again be in familiar waters entering Saturday's Regional meet at East Lansing.
Gone are seven seniors from the 2025 champs who totaled much of the Eagles' 148.75 points, which outdistanced runner-up Rockford's 145.525. But with enough returning talent combined with nine promising freshmen and sophomores, Hartland – which has already claimed the Kensington Lakes Activities Association title – is likely again primed to be the team to chase again at the Regional.
"It's kind of flipped this year with the freshmen and sophomores," coach Gavin Kress said. "We've got some good leaders who've provided leadership; last year we had veterans. Now we're on the newbie side, and it's a lot to adjust to."
Two of those returnees – Alexis Fundich and Kate Gostlin – have been mainstays for the Eagles. Fundich won all-around at conference after finishing first on everything except vault, while Gostlin won vault and was second in all-around. She finished first in vault at the team's biggest meets at Canton and Milford, including with season-best 9.7 on bars.
Gostlin also is unbeaten in vault, having posted scores of 9.7 and 9.5 in two key meets. "When it comes to being a competitor, she's it," Kress said of Gostlin.
A year ago, Fundich had a remarkable Individual Finals, winning floor and finishing second on beam on the way to finishing second in the Division 1 all-around with a score of 38.100. Gostlin was 12th in the Division 1 all-around, with a championship on vault (9.725). During the team competition the night before, Fundich led the Eagles’ championship surge with a meet best 38.425 al-around.
Fundich said having a younger team after relying on seniors a year ago could have been a tricky proposition. But everything has worked out well, she noted.
"Losing the seniors was hard, but we have some new freshmen and sophomores and also some juniors who have more skills now," she said. "All that has definitely helped."
Like any sports team, it's all a matter of growth. And that's where the team's seniors have greatly contributed.
"We've had to mature. There are a lot of new things. But now they've gotten used to it and they've been better," Fundich said of the underclassmen.
A level 10 club gymnast, Fundich has had to divide her season between club and high school levels. It's a schedule which she's gotten used to, and indeed she has thrived.
"There are more hours and I've had to work," she said, "but it's worth it."
Gostlin, who was 10th in vault at the 2025 Finals, said the team's younger members have grasped what it'll take to repeat as team champ. Those gymnasts saw that firsthand a year ago but find themselves needing to take a step forward this season.
"We all have to work harder to get back to winning a title," Gostlin said. "This is my senior year, and it's one of my goals. There is definitely more pressure this year. But I think we've been better and more consistent. It's been a little harder with a ton of new people, but we know we still have to work."
Even though the younger gymnasts were on the team a year ago, Kress said that didn’t guarantee success this season. The younger athletes have experienced success with a senior-dominated group – but unless they recognize how to utilize that success, improvement doesn't necessarily follow.
"There's a lot to that. A lot don't understand, so we have to teach them how to keep going," he said. "That's why having (Gostlin and Fundich) has been so beneficial."
PHOTOS (Top) Hartland’s Alexis Fundich readies for a vault attempt during last season’s MHSAA Team Final. (Middle) Teammate Kate Gostlin vaults on the way to winning the Division 1 title in the event at the Individual Finals. (Below) The Eagles stand together for a photo after winning the KLAA championship this season. (Action photos by High School Sports Scene. Team photo courtesy of the Hartland athletic department.)
Grand Ledge Gymnastics: Drive for 5
February 2, 2012
GRAND LEDGE – Christine Wilson remembers losing. It’s something of a distant memory, but sticks with the Grand Ledge gymnastics team’s senior captain to this day.
“When I was a club gymnast, back when I was younger, I was never really good. So it’s not like I didn’t know how to lose,” Wilson said. “I’ve struggled unbelievably. But in high school, I just grew a lot. We’ve won every meet, and I’d like to keep it up.”
Nope, that’s not a typo or misquote. The Comets have won 68 straight meets, be they duals or multi-team events, including the last four MHSAA Finals. And with a line-up young but full of experience, they’re hoping to extend that streak through March 9, the date of this season’s MHSAA Team Final at Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills.
Only Ludington (1975-79) has won five straight MHSAA titles, and the final one of that run was shared. Grand Ledge and Holland (1994-97) both have won four straight over the history of the tournament.
The Comets will find out Saturday how they might stack up as contenders this March. After facing many of the Grand Rapids area’s top teams in winning last weekend’s Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills Invitational, Grand Ledge will head to the Canton Invitational for what lately has been the most competitive regular-season gymnastics meet in the state.
The Comets remain tough to beat, despite Wilson being the only senior in the starting line-up the team used Wednesday in a Capital Area Activities Conference win over Haslett/Williamston/Bath, another returning MHSAA Finalist from a year ago.
Granted, Wilson might be as valuable a leader as any team in Michigan can claim. She’s the reigning MHSAA Division 2 individual champion, and this season is competing in Division 1 with the aspiration of becoming – Comets coach Duane Haring believes – the first gymnast to win both Division 2 and then Division 1 individual titles.
But she’s also just one of four on her team who have posted all-around scores of at least 37.35 this winter. Sophomore Presley Allison and juniors Lauren Clark and Sara Peltier all have done the same after finishing third, eighth and 12th all-around at last season’s Division 2 Final.
A number of others also are contributing, led by sophomore Taylor Stevens and freshman Hailey French, who both have posted all-around scores pushing 34.
It’s something of the same old story for the team under the guidance of Haring, who after much cajoling from his gymnast daughter Allison and her teammates took over the program in 2002. They told him at the time that no one at Grand Ledge knew the gymnastics team existed, down to not having a trophy case of its own.
He led the Comets to their first MHSAA Team Final that season, and the team has been filling a new trophy case for a decade. He stepped away to work as an assistant coach at Michigan State from 2005-06, but returned for 2006-07 and that season brought Grand Ledge to within 1.625 points of its first MHSAA championship before the Comets started the incredible winning streak the next winter.
Haring meets with his team before the season in a room at the school, or sometimes they just sit in a hallway. He starts with, “We’ll, we’ve been pretty successful the last couple of years. Wherever you want to go this year is up to you.” If they want to do just a little gymnastics and have merely a decent season, he’s fine with that and will coach them to that level. But if they want to pursue another championship, it’s going to be tough and so will his coaching style.
They’ve always responded that they want to be the best they can.
“A couple of times the last couple of years, when we were dragging, I’d say, ‘Ladies, at the beginning of the year I asked you where you wanted to go, what your goals are. There’s no turning back now,’” Haring said. “I let them set the expectations. They’re not set by me.”
Expectations are high, but so is support. Former Comets’ standout Kelli Maxwell continues as an assistant, and a number of Grand Ledge gymnasts past are regulars helping out with other tasks or just cheering the team on.
The pressure is high too. No one wants to be on the team that breaks the streak. But so far that’s been more of a motivator than distraction.
“It’s really hard especially when you’re the only senior captain, going for the state title, and undefeated,” Wilson said. “If you’re that person who has a loss or who falls at the state competition, it’s a big burden.
“(But) I love all of it.”
PHOTOS courtesy of the Grand Ledge gymnastics program.
TOP: Comets junior Lauren Clark finished eighth at last season's Division 2 Individual Final and is among Grand Ledge's most experienced contributors this winter.
BELOW: Senior Christine Wilson is the reigning Division 2 individual champion and hopes to claim the Division 1 title next month.