CHS gymnast Sammie Boster a top contender in beam and floor at state meet Saturday at Ball State’s Worthen Arena

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Chesterton sophomore Sammie Boster is a legitimate contender to win a first-place medal in more than one event at the state gymnastics state finals at Ball State’s Worthen Arena on Saturday.
If she brings home a title in one of the four events, it will be the first from a Chesterton gymnast since Mia Pak
threw a salute at the medal stand four times as a senior in 2021. Pak won bars with a 9.725, placed second in vault (9.800), was sixth in the floor exercise (9.475) and placed third all-around (38.275).
Based on Boster’s postseason performances, the balance beam and floor exercise represent her best chances at a first-place medal. Vault is also a strong event for her.
And if she can pop the best bars routine of her life at the best possible time, an all-around title is not out of the question.
An unofficial look at the sectional and regional scores posted by the gymnasts who made it to Muncie and adding the two scores together is one way to try to forecast Saturday’s meet.
Using that formula, Boster ranks on top in the beam with a 19.400 two-meet total, edging Crown Point’s Madelyn Martell and Northwestern’s Taylor Schmitt, tied for second at 19.300, followed by Dwenger’s Avery Gleave (19.275), Valparaiso’s Ione Skafish (19.150) and Fort Wayne Carroll’s Avery Ziembo (19.150).
The top six in floor: 1. Kobi Johnson (Dwenger) 19.225, 2. Boster 19.150, 3. Valpo’s Megan Garibay (19.125), 4. May Betancourt (Elkhart) 19.050, 5. Gleave (18.825), 6. Jillian Creager (Homestead) 18.800.
The top six in vault: 1. Johnson 19.550, 2. Garibay 19.300, 3. Columbus North’s Reese Euler 19.125, 4. Boster 19.100, 5. Creager 19.050, 6. Crown Point’s Leah Fenner (19.025) and Gleave (19.025).
The top six in all-around: 1. Garibay 76.850, 2. Creager 76.000, 3. Schmitt 75.675, 4. Gleave 75.600, 5. Euler 75.500, 6. Ava Moe (Valpo) 75.200. (9. Boster 74.850).
The state final meet is not seeded. Everyone starts with the same score: 0. But if it were seeded and the formula called for adding the sectional score to the regional score, Boster would be seeded first in the beam, second in floor, fourth in the vault and ninth in all-around. Falling once in bars in the sectional and twice at the regional kept Boster from doing better in the all-around, but here’s why she has a shot at the ultimate prize: Garibay ranks first in all-around, based on the fake seeding put forth here, and she did not win the all-around at the DAC meet at Crown Point. Boster did.