Chesterton junior gymnast Sammie Boster sweeps final three events of Crown Point regional, winning the vault, tying for first in the bars and winning the beam to take the all-around title and advance to the Portage regional

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The order of events for Chesterton at the Crown Point gymnastics sectional was floor exercise, vault, uneven parallel bars and finally balance beam.
Sammie Boster came to the meet needing the all-around championship to leave satisfied.
Boster started her day in fourth place with an uneven floor exercise that drew a 9.325 from the judges.
Time to get to work.
By the time the final event arrived, an event that Boster won at state last season, all she needed to do to win the all-around was stay on the beam. Boster not only did that, she gave such a clean performance that she scored a 9.825, easily the best score of the day by any gymnast in any event.
The spectacular performance pumped her all-around score to 38.300, putting her well ahead of runner-up Ava Moe from Valparaiso (37.450).
Between her so-so floor and her exceptional beam, Boster won the vault with a 9.550 and tied for first with Moe in the bars with a 9.600, all in all, a great day for Boster and a more than solid one for the Trojans, who took fifth place with a season-best 104.550 points.
“I don’t have too many major wobbles throughout my skills, you know, there’s a bit here and there, but I think the main thing is just staying on there,” Boster said of the beam. “And I know if I just stay on, I’ll be solid. So, I was really happy at the end of it. I thought it was really good and I was really excited.”
It was her best beam score of the season.
A year ago, her bar routine was her weakness, not up to par with the other three events. Now she doesn’t have a weakness.
“I’ve really been focusing on bars and they’ve improved a lot since last year,” she said. “I was scared of it last year, so once I got past that fear I could focus not on being scared and focus on making corrections. Instead of just getting it over with, I can focus on the little details.”
Boster, a dedicated trainer in the weight room, has enhanced her power and speed, both of which make her even better at the vault than in past years.
“The main thing is just being powerful on it,” she said.
She blamed nerves on not being at her best on the floor.
“Overall, I was proud of it, but I think I was just nervous a little bit,” Boster said. “It was the first real postseason meet, so I just had to get the nerves out.”
Chesterton coach Christy Dzierba sees a significant difference in her best gymnast compared to a year ago.
“She’s more consistent,” Dzierba said. “She’s solid. She hits everything. She is better than she was last year.”
And Boster finished the day with her best event and was at her best in it.
“We just told her, ‘You made it through everything else. Just do what you do. Don’t even think about beam. Just go,’” Dzierba said.
That’s what Sammie did and landed on the top step in four of the five ribbon ceremonies.
Boster next competes this coming Saturday at the Portage regional, which starts at noon.