Editor’s note: The Daily Illini sports desk sits down Sunday nights and decides which Illinois athlete or coach is our Illini of the Week. Student-athletes and coaches are evaluated by individual performance and contribution to team success.

Ten seconds was all it took for Fred Hartville to put his name in the Illinois men’s gymnastics team record book forever.

Hartville entered the NCAA Championships a Big Ten vault champion, and left a national champion. The Illini were struggling as a team during the competition, but that didn’t change Hartville’s level of performance. As the anchor for Illinois on the vault, Hartville recorded a 15.1 during the Session I Qualifier and a 15.3 during the team finals. His score placed him second in the competition and earned him a spot in event finals. Though this was the biggest competition of the season, Hartville wasn’t nervous.

“I think since I’ve done event finals before in a similar type of situation, I wasn’t as nervous as I was at Big Tens,” he said. “Big Tens gave me a little more confidence being able to just go out and execute my vault the way I know I can, and the way I have been all season.”

Out of the 13 vaults Hartville has performed this season, he has stuck six. Considering the level of difficulty for Hartville’s vault, that near-50 percent sticking rate is almost unheard of.

“I have to do a round-off entry onto the board and then the back handspring onto the table, which is hard enough in itself,” Hartville said. “Then, I have to try and count two and a half twists with a blind landing. I don’t see the ground at all. Without being able to see the ground, you have no awareness of where you are, but I’m really good at knowing where I’m at in the air.”

Hartville was one of four Illini who qualified for event finals Sunday. After two rigorous days of competition, he had one last performance of the season — his most important. Before heading to the end of the vault runway, Hartville turned to Illinois head coach Justin Spring for words of advice.

“I told him: ‘Business as usual,’” Spring said. “That is how he has performed on the event. He has been killing it all year and sticking it more than I have ever seen anyone stick a vault, let alone that caliber of vault. For him, it was just business as usual, and I was just keeping him calm.”

Hartville approached the vault runway knowing no other gymnast in the vault event finals had stuck their landing. If he could stick his, Hartville knew that he would be contending for the national title. Standing at the end of the runway, a look of determination crossed his face, just before a deep breath. Hartville bolted down the runway and a few seconds later found his feet glued to the blue mat behind the vault.

“I knew once I stuck it, and I could see my coaches in the background cheering,” Hartville said. “My coaches were coming right behind me before I even saluted the judges. That right there put the cherry on top of the cake for me at the end.”

Earning a 15.425 — his second-highest score this season — Hartville moved into the top spot with only three competitors left. Alec Robin from Oklahoma, who performs a similar vault, came close to Hartville’s score, posting a 15.325. Robin ended the competition second in the vault finals. Hartville was the only Illini to bring home a national title. He was also the first Illinois gymnast ever to win the national vault title as a freshman. Hartville is the second Illini freshman to capture an NCAA event title in the past two years — last year C.J. Maestas won the national rings title. Former Illini Paul Ruggeri had the same progression of events last season, first winning the Big Ten vault champion title, and then earning the title of national vault champion shortly after. Both of their vaults share the same modern entry.

“They are both round-off entry style,” Spring said. “You don’t just hit the board, you do a round-off onto the board and then vault onto the horse from that. Other than that they are both different vaults.”

Though Hartville has had a lot of success early in his career, he doesn’t plan to stop setting goals for himself. He still wants to remain competitive on the vault and hopes to become a big contributor for Illinois on the floor exercise next season.

“I have to top this,” Hartville said. “The vault I’m doing now is extremely hard, but the vault I’m planning to do next year is even harder. My competition want the same things as I do, and they are going to come at me even harder now, so I have to make sure I can maintain what I’m doing and push the envelope even further.”

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