Sammie Boster wins three events plus the all-around at the Portage gymnastics regional and heads to state meet Saturday at Ball State as one of the favorites

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Sammie Boster had just the sort of meet Saturday at the Portage gymnastics regional a gymnast needs to head into the state meet with her confidence flying as high as her powerful vaults.
Boster, a Chesterton junior participating at Ball State University in the ultimate Indiana high school meet of the season for the third year in a row, in her third state meet, is the defending state champion in the balance beam.
That alone gives her confidence that she can repeat. More on the beam later, but first take a look at what she did in the other three events.
Attacking the vault with more speed and power than ever, Boster won that event with a 9.700, tied for the second-best score in the state at the three regionals.
In the bars, as recently as last season a weakness for Boster and now a strength, she scored a 9.625 to win the regional with the fourth-best score in the state.
She won her third regional title in the floor exercise, scoring a 9.65, tied for fifth-best in the state.
Boster’s 38.375 all-around score was the highest of her life and the best regional total of anyone in the state.
So, the only event she didn’t win at the regional was the one she won at state last season. She fell once, an automatic deduction of a minimum of 0.5 points, and still placed a close second to LaPorte’s Evalyn Travis (9.450).
Boster’s 9.4 score in the beam means that had she not fallen, she would have scored a 9.9, rarefied air for even the best acrobats.
But Boster did fall, so the only fair way to look at her chances of winning the all-around competition in Muncie is to go with the score she compiled, not the score if she had not fallen.
Her main competition for the all-around title appears to come from gymnasts who competed in the Huntington North regional. The top scores from there were posted by Avery Ziembo from Fort Wayne Carroll (3,350), defending all-around state champion Jillian Creager of Homestead (38.250), Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger’s Avery Gleave (38.000) and Angola’s Bailey Lanoue (37.9750).
Boster performed similarly well at the Crown Point sectional, winning three events plus the all-around. That time, floor was the only event he didn’t win.
Based on her performance at Portage, the pressure that comes with big meets such as the regional must bring out the best in Portage.
“I think part of it probably does,” Boster said. “I just have to calm myself down and then I’m good.”
She explained how she does that: “If I can turn the fear into excitement, then everything goes well. I just tell myself that everything will be good because practices have been good, and just being confident instead of scared going into things.”
Chesterton gymnastics coach Christy Dzierba shares Boster’s confidence heading into the state meet.
“A 9.9 would have been awesome, but she’s waiting for state to get her 9.9,” Dzierba said.
Doors open at Worthen Arena at 9 a.m. Central. Opening ceremonies are scheduled for 11 and the competition begins at 11:30.