Peppy, skilled Chesterton gymnast Sammie Boster beams her way to another riveting performance in win over visiting Michigan City and will next compete at Chesterton Gymnastics Invitational on Saturday

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Graceful, cheerful powerhouse of a Chesterton gymnast Sammie Boster entertained another audience at Bailly Elementary on Tuesday night.
In leading the Trojans to a 100.950-91.225 victory over Michigan City a year after the Trojans lost a close one on the road to the Wolverines, Boster won every event by a longshot. She also produced the best balance beam score in the state this season. Not only that, she supplied additional evidence that she no longer has a weak event.
In summary, it was a great night for Boster, whose performance outsparkled even her shiny competition leotard.
The defending state champion in the balance beam, Boster tweaked her routine in the offseason and executed it brilliantly Tuesday to earn a 9.725 from the judges. Even as impressive as that is, an argument could be made that it wasn’t the most significant development of the night for her.
In order to win the state all-around competition, this should not be an easy question to answer: What is her weakest event?
For Boster, the answer came too easily in her first two seasons of high school gymnastics: bars.
Now it’s a difficult question bound to draw a few different choices, although balance beam never would be a credible response
Boster scored a 9.600 on the bars.
“I thought it went really well. It was actually my best bar score I’ve ever gotten at a high school meet,” Boster said. “So, I was really proud of that, and I definitely think something has clicked for me this year on bars. In past years it was my weakest event, and now I feel like it’s right up there with everything else.”
Boster won the vault with a 9.250 and the floor exercise with a 9.075 for an all-around score of 37.650.
Chesterton gymnasts Leah Douglass, who finished second all-around with a 31.750, Lexi Milton (31.025, fourth) and Adriana Perez (28.750, sixth) also performed well. Morgan Marlow also worked her way onto the scoreboard for the improved-across-the-board Trojans. Marlow scored a 7.500 on her floor routine, earning sixth place in the only event of the meet in which Chesterton athletes took five of the top six spots, including Perez (8.175, second), Douglass (8.100, third) and Milton (7.650, fifth).
Boster aims to successfully defend her balance beam state title and win the all-around for the first time. To that end, she kept complacency at bay by adding variety to her beam routine.
She explained that after executing her switch leap, she used to do a split three-quarter and replaced it with a wolf three-quarter, doing so “just to have more of a variety of jumps in it.”
The split has both legs straight in a 180-degree split, whereas the wolf has one straight leg, one bent, a jump delivered in more of a crouch position.
“It’s a different shape of jump,” Boster said, “because judges like to see different shapes in your routines like whether it’s a tuck jump or split jumps, just so it’s not the same thing throughout the routine.”
Boster and three teammates’ skills will be on display at Bailly again Saturday for the Chesterton Gymnastics Invitational, which starts at noon.
Mike Bachuchin will serve as meet director, the 33rd appearance at the 33rd annual event for the former Slippery Rock University football player.