Gymnastics preview: Defending balance beam state champion Sammie Boster aims for all-around title and talented freshman Leah Douglass gives the roster a talent upgrade

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Winning a state title in the balance beam for the first time as a sophomore, Chesterton gymnast Sammie Boster experienced the thrill of standing on the top podium step at Ball State University last year.
What happened in the other three events that day had more to do with how her offseason unfolded.
“I was really happy about beam, for sure,” said Boster, who opens the season with teammates Wednesday night in a DAC dual at LaPorte. “Everything else I was a little bit frustrated with, but I think it really opened my eyes for this season to clean everything up and focus on the small details because that’s what it comes down to in the postseason. So, it just gives me another reason to work harder.”
The small details. That point was driven home to Boster in Muncie in the floor exercise, typically a good event for her, though not quite up there with the beam. She had two noticeable miscues, but they seemed on the minor side. At state, where the judging tends to be stricter, flaws can be magnified.
Boster’s 9.050 score on the floor came as a surprise to many who expected a higher finish than tied for 18th.
She was ninth in the vault with a 9.425 and 15th in the bars, her weakest event in her first two seasons, with a 9.050.
“I worked harder this offseason than last offseason,” said Boster, who has added a couple of more difficult skills to her bars routine, according to Trojans head coach Christy Dzierba.
She discussed the fruits of her summer labor: “A year ago today I was doing my skills not fully to my best ability. I was scared a little bit doing them, struggling, not being as tight or as focused on the corrections, not making a change each time, but I think I’ve focused on the details and the corrections because that’s how you get better and fix the skills.”
Dzierba agreed: “Sammie is way ahead this year of where she was last year at this time. We added new skills to all her routines.”
Even beam, which Boster won in Muncie with a 9.675 score. Dzierba said assistant coaches Jordan Bush and Jordan Kearby worked with Boster on “her choreography, trying to change things up a little bit to try to get some little deductions out of the way so we have nothing to worry about. There are a lot of little things judges look for, like different levels on the beam and different dance moves. So they’ve been working hard to try to get that ready.”
Bush and Kearby were standouts in high school for Chesterton, as was this season’s new addition to the coaching staff, volunteer Caitlyn Clark, a senior at Indiana University who is student-teaching at CHS this semester.
“They were all excellent gymnasts. So it’s fun having those three all together,” Dzierba said. “They’ve done a lot of these skills that I didn’t do because they weren’t doing them when I was in school.”
Chesterton’s lone competitor at state in each of the past two seasons, Boster might have company this year, thanks to the Trojans’ summer surprise. Freshman Leah Douglass decided to give up club gymnastics in favor of competing for her high school.
Dzierba said she has been impressed with how Douglass “takes everything in. She listens to all the corrections the coaches make. She tries everything that we throw at her and she just keeps working at it.”
Douglass has the potential to help the team in more ways than the points she scores in competition.
“It pushes Sammie,” Dzierba said. “When you’re at the top and you have a big gap it’s hard because you’re doing skills that they’re not doing yet and they’re not close to doing, so it’s hard to try to keep yourself motivated to improve those skills and to work on harder skills on top of that. And you get someone who is strong and is a quick learner, they’re pushing each other and making each other better.”
Douglass and Boster will be joined at the hip at practices.
“I really like her a lot and I’m excited to see how her season goes,” Boster said. “We used to do club gymnastics at the same place and I remember my freshman year coming here was way different from club. I’m excited for her to see her make new memories. And I think she’s going to be really good.”
Senior Mia Szczepanski, sophomores Morgan Marlow, Lexi Milton and Adriana Perez and freshman Alejandra Krause round out the roster and German exchange student Klara Martens is helping out as team manager.
“Adriana really stepped up her game this year. She’s very powerful. Lexi’s working on a lot of new stuff too. She’s improving some stuff,” Dzierba said of the girls who showed promise last season.
They share the goal of steadily getting better and seeing where it takes them. For Boster, multiple top steps is the limit.
“Sammie keeps talking about state,” Dzierba said. “She keeps talking about how she’s determined to get on the podium for all four events.”
If Boster can do that and repeat as balance beam state champion, that very well could land her the all-around title.
“That’s definitely my biggest goal this year,” Boster said, “that and winning beam again.”