Freshman Fred Hartville wasn’t always on Illinois head coach Justin Spring’s recruitment radar.

“I was visiting and appearing at regional camps and international gymnastics camps,” Spring said. “He was at both of them when I was there a couple of years ago and I remembered him. To be honest, he wasn’t any kind of standout then.”

During his senior year in high school, Hartville reached out to Spring via email and expressed interest in Illinois’ gymnastics program. It wasn’t until then that Spring started to see Hartville as a potential addition to the Illini.

“His senior year, he started to do the huge vault that he is doing now,” Spring said. “His floor routine construction was interesting, but he had huge talent. I thought he would be a huge contributor and I kept telling him that. The next thing you know he said, ‘I’ve got family in Illinois and I think I want to come to the University of Illinois.’”

Hartville is an Atlanta native and was looking for a family to replace his own while away at school. His prospective teammates, his relationship with Spring and the academic reputation helped sway him to choose Illinois.

“Being able to hang with some of the guys here and them coaching me at camps really showed me how much of a family they are and how dedicated they are to working,” Hartville said. “I met Justin two to three times at different camps and competitions. He was a great coach and a great presence to be around.”

Hartville made his presence known during his debut performance with the Illini against UIC, scoring a 15.300 on the vault and earning his first of many titles this season. He tied the eighth-highest vault score in school history, which would be his career high until the Big Ten Championships.

After a rough start on pommel horse and a mediocre rings performance, Illinois needed a spark, and Hartville filled that role. Vault has been one of the weakest events for the Illini this year, but they have shown a stronger vault presence toward the end of the season. During the team competition at the Big Ten Championships, Illinois posted a season-high 73.600 on the vault. 

Hartville anchored the Illini with a stuck vault, setting his new career high of 15.550, which was the highest score in Illinois history and the second highest in the NCAA this season.

“We placed third in the Big Ten on vault, and that’s a lot because all the guys did their jobs and Fred put the stamp on the end of that,” Spring said. “He won the meet. That extra five-tenth swings coming in from the anchor helps brings our average up.”

Hartville earned his sixth vault title of the season. He qualified for the individual event finals the next day where he would be competing against Olympian Sam Mikulak. 

Keeping Hartville motivated and focused wasn’t hard. Toward the end of the lineup and with no previous stuck landings from his competitors, Hartville knew what he had to do. However, right before his vault, it was the furthest thing from his mind.

“‘Do not go for the stick’ were my final thoughts,” Hartville said. “As crazy as that may sound, the more you go for that stick, the more likely you are to under-rotate, and most of the time you fall or go out bounds. I just tried to do my vault. I did it without trying to stick it and the stick just came.”

With his second consecutive stuck landing at the Big Ten Championships, Hartville earned his first Big Ten Title. A score of 15.425 pushed him to the top of the leader board and past Mikulak.

“He’s like me or all good competitors where you just have to present the challenge and he gets fired up and excited about it,” Spring said. “I told him, ‘I dare you to stick it again.’ And he said, ‘I’m going to do it.’ And when he did it, I thought, ‘Are you kidding me? Unbelievable.’ To stick a vault is tough, even an easy vault, but to stick the vault that he does is unbelievable. To do it twice in a row is amazing.”

Hartville has been a huge leader for the Illini on the vault this season and has also made contributions to the floor lineup. Senior Yoshi Mori was happy to see him succeed and bring home the only Big Ten title for Illinois.

“I could not be more happy for Fred,” Mori said. “He did more than what was expected for both team and event finals. He was a big contributor to the team not only on vault but floor as well.”

Recording seven vault titles and breaking former Illini Paul Ruggeri’s record by five hundredths of a point are two of the biggest accomplishments for Hartville this season. The Illini will head to NCAAs next weekend, where Hartville hopes to continue his success.

“Next week he could be a national champion, and could be a repetitive national champion.” Spring said. “The trick with vault is that consistency is always tough. There are a lot of other guys that have a 15.6 start value, very few of them can stick and very few of them can stick it two times in a row.

“I think he has a very bright future on floor and vault and he will continue to be a very big player for us on those two events. He will rack up title wins back-to-back-to-back in his career.”

Gina can be reached at [email protected] and @muelle30.