Troy's Shabet Finishes as Repeat Champ
March 8, 2014
By Keith Dunlap
Special to Second Half
PLYMOUTH – Troy senior gymnast Christina Shabet paused a bit to think of an answer, which was understandable since the question required a lengthy and detailed response.
As a talented gymnast who bypassed competing for a club team in order to be on the high school team her first three years at Troy, and decided to still compete on the high school level this year despite joining a club team as well, Shabet finally smiled and answered the question of what high school gymnastics had provided her.
"It did a lot," Shabet said. "Having to practice every night made me focus a lot on my homework. You really don't have much of a social life as a gymnast, to be honest. It helped me focus better on my schoolwork. And playing on a team for your school, you are friends with people on your team. It was really nice to see them at school and be able to talk to them and everything."
Competing in high school gymnastics did another thing for Shabet: It provided her with two MHSAA Division 1 individual all-around championships.
After winning the all-around last year, Shabet made it a repeat Saturday at Plymouth High School, accumulating a final total of 38.675 to barely edge Grand Ledge sophomore Rachel Hogan, who was a tenth of a point behind at 38.575.
Presley Allison of Grand Ledge was third with a final score of 37.875, Jocelyn Moraw of Canton finished fourth at 37.825 and Isabelle Nguyen of Grosse Pointe United finished fifth with a score of 37.125.
Shabet won the floor exercise with a score of 9.700, shared the bars title with Hogan after both received identical scores of 9.750, and finished second in her specialty event, the balance beam, with a score of 9.7.
Maddie Toal of Canton won the beam with a score of 9.725.
Shabet's worst event is the vault, but she still managed to finish fourth with a score of 9.525.
Hogan won the vault with a score of 9.725, but just didn't quite have enough in the end to score more than Shabet in the all-around.
"It feels really nice to come back and win again and defend my title," Shabet said. "Plus it is my senior year, and I get to finish off with a win. It was more pressure, but I practiced more and I felt pretty confident about everything, so I wasn't as nervous as I was last year."
Shabet was also better despite winning the all-around last year because she and coach Cynthia Tan made it a point to add new elements to her routine.
"We knew she was going to have a lot of girls coming after her this year," Tan said. "She already had a lot of high tricks in all of her routines. It was just a matter of adding more polish to her routine."
In her floor exercise routine, Shabet incorporated a punch front out of a one-and-a-half backflip, something she just started practicing this year.
"I was really happy I stuck that," Shabet said.
In the bars, Shabet said she has been trying to perfect a straddle back and performed it well on Saturday, which was a big reason she ended up winning that event.
With her high school career over, Shabet said she isn't sure if she will try and do gymnastics in college.
She is an honor roll student who has been accepted to the University of Michigan and is waiting to hear word on whether she will get accepted into Yale.
Shabet said if she gets accepted into Yale she will consider walking on to the gymnastics team there, but reiterated first and foremost will be schoolwork.
It goes without saying that Shabet will be nearly impossible to replace, so much so that Tan said after the meet that she will be stepping down as Troy coach.
The main reason is Tan wants to spend more time with her husband and two sons, who are 13 and 10 years old, but the end of Shabet's high school career provided an opportunity to finish with a flourish.
"We are walking out together," Tan said. "We are going out on top. ... I wanted to go out on a good note, and Christina is my good note."
In Division 2, Grand Rapids Forest Hills sophomore Cassidy Terhorst won the all-around competition with a final score of 36.400. Canton senior Erica Lucas took second with 36.250 points.
Terhorst, who tied for first in the vault and finished second in both the floor exercise and bars, didn't compete at all last year as a freshman because of a torn knee ligament.
But the nerves of competing in her first-ever MHSAA Finals weren't enough to prevent her from winning the all-around.
"It was scary having the big crowd here," Terhorst said. "I've never competed with this many people and this much pressure. But I liked the pressure."
PHOTO: (Top) The medalists from the MHSAA Division 1 Final wave to the crowd at the end of Saturday's individual competition at Plymouth High School. (Middle) The Division 2 medalists wave after receiving their awards. (Click to see more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
It's Hartland's Turn to Celebrate 'Ring Season' After Clinching 1st Finals Title
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
March 7, 2025
GRAND RAPIDS – It may not yet possess the tradition of a holiday season, but the Hartland gymnastics team is ecstatic to have a whole new season to celebrate.
It's now Ring Season for the Eagles.
Hartland turned eight top-five finishes into its first MHSAA Finals team gymnastics championship Friday at Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills by outlasting three-time reigning champ Rockford. The Eagles finished with 148.57 points to 146.525 for the runner-up Rams.
Eagles coach Gavin Kress said the result lived up to the team's ultimate goal going way back to last year's narrow but promising fourth-place finish. And Kress said his team had the perfect expression for the success going back to the first days of practice this winter.
"Our motto all year has been ring season," he said. "That's what the girls call it – ring season."
While programs such as Rockford, Farmington United and Grand Ledge have dominated the sport with 14 Finals titles between them since 2008, Kress didn't think his team’s championship came out of the blue. Hartland finished fourth the last two years, missing out on last season’s title by 2.5 points and by 4.1 in 2023.
This time around, the Eagles were led by seven seniors, but with plenty of underclassmen talent. The team didn't score below 142 points in any significant meet this winter, topped off by arguably their best showing Friday.
"We've definitely built up to this, and we killed (routines) today," he said. "We've beat team and individual records all year. I didn't want to predict this, but the girls did."
Hartland was headed by junior Alexis Fundich, who finished first on bars (9.6750), beam (9.75), floor (9.7) and all-around (38.425). She said many of her teammates have been on varsity for two or three years while showing significant improvement. That improvement, Fundich said, is what pushed the Eagles from the cusp of a state title to taking home the hardware.
"We've worked hard, so it's not too surprising to us," she said. "We were a little frustrated after finishing fourth last year, but that motivated us. We worked hard and expected to do better than fourth."
Farmington United was third with 144.975 points, Northville fourth at 142.575 and Linden/Fenton/Lake Fenton was fifth at 139.925.
Rockford coach Michelle Ankney, part of a program which has collected six Finals titles since 2015, said she wasn't surprised by Hartland's solid showing, which also featured four top-five finishes by Abby Griffen, including a first on vault (9.725), as she placed fourth all-around (37.8).
"They have some amazing skills, hard skills. We're impressed with them, for sure," Ankney said. "But we're proud of ourselves. We're young (six seniors among 27 athletes). We had the highest team score we've had this year, so we're very proud."
Hartland senior Jayden Garcia said while some teams would be more than content with a top-five Finals finish, last year's meet left her teammates believing they could take the next step this season.
"We got fourth, but we tried to push ourselves more and more," she said. "This year we thought we could do better. We worked from the moment we got fourth last year. We were fired up at every event. Winning state was our main goal."
Kress said much of the team's strength can be traced to talent. But when you toss in the leadership of seven seniors, the motivation from being in the hunt a year ago and obvious improvement over the last three months, winning the championship actually shouldn't have been considered a longshot.
"One hundred percent," he said of the seniors' influence. "They support every single person on the team and help build up their confidence. That definitely contributed to our scoring."
Leah Hodge of Farmington United, last season’s Division 1 individual all-around champ, was second on vault (9.7), second on bars (9.675), third on floor (9.475) sixth on beam (9.325) and second all-around (38.175).
Rockford's Ava Ezell was runner-up on beam (9.65) and third all-around (37.875). Keira Sadler of Linden finished fifth (36.8) all-around.
The Individual Finals will be held at Kenowa Hills beginning at noon Saturday.
PHOTOS (Top) Hartland's Emma Beres competes on floor exercise during Friday's Team Gymnastics Final at Kenowa Hills. (Middle) Livonia Stevenson's Mya Chamberlain competes on balance beam. (Below) The Eagles take a team photo with their championship trophy. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)