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.

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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.)