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Homestead wins Gymnastics State Championship
MUNCIE – Homestead coach Jodi Hardwick took a different approach to preparing her team for the 54th-annual state gymnastics finals.
“We just wanted to have fun, so we did some different things in practice,” said Hardwick, whose team finished as runners-up three straight seasons from 2021-23. “We would play a game within our practice, we even had a dance party.”
Whatever Hardwick and her coaches did, it worked. The next Homestead dance party will center around a state-championship trophy.
The Spartans pulled out a state title by the thinnest margin in IHSAA history. Homestead finished with a 112.125 score, topping runner-up Carroll’s 112.025 effort. The previous closest finish came in 2010 when Valparaiso topped Roncalli by a 113.30-113.175 score.
“Oh, my goodness, are you serious?” Hardwick asked after finding out that news. “We’ve been right there with (Carroll) all year. Last week at the regional, they beat us by .05 points.”
The title is the seventh for Homestead, but the first since 2001 and comes on the heels of that three-year string of runner-up finishes. The score is also the highest Homestead has ever turned in at the state finals.
Actually, it was a banner day for the northeast corner of the state as Angola finished third with 111.325 points. Homestead, Carroll, and Angola all matched their best finishes and attained their best scores ever at the finals.
Ironically, the teams finished in reverse order at the Huntington North regional a week previous.
Northwest Indiana schools (the Region, if you will), has dominated the state finals. Valparaiso, Chesterton, Crown Point and Portage combined to win 13 titles in a 15-year stretch from 2008-24 before Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger broke through in 2025. In fact, 2026 marked the first time a Region school failed to finish first or second since 2007.
“It’s exciting for our corner of the state,” Hardwick said. "Hopefully, we can keep this going.”
Hardwick knew from the very first meet of the season her squad would be in the mix for a state title.
“I looked at the score after that first meet and I thought ‘what?’” she said. “We scored 112 and we hadn’t put in all our difficulties for our routines. We didn’t score 112 all last year, so I felt we really have a team here.”
Certainly, it helped to have the defending all-around champion, Jillian Creager, returning. She, once again, led the Homestead effort as the senior again took home the blue ribbon with a 38.275 score.
Creager repeated as champion on the uneven bars (9.675) and finished second on the beam at 9.425.
“Jillian is just so consistent and even-keeled,” Hardwick said. "She doesn’t get overly excited about things and is very humble.”
“I just wanted to do my best and whatever happened, happened,” Creager said. “If it wasn’t good enough, my life would go on.”
It was good enough as she became the first to repeat as all-round champion since Chesterton’s Sophia Hunzelman in 2017-18.
Molly Wilkens (36.9) and Caitlyn Reynolds (36.85) rounded out Homestead’s score as they finished 11th and 12th, respectively, in the all-around.
Senior Avery Ziembo led Carroll’s charge with a 38.075 all-around score, good for third. Megan Furniss (37.55) and Hadley Ziembo (35.9) finished sixth and 22nd, respectively, in the all-around.
Chesterton’s Samantha Boster took second in the all-around with a 38.1 score. She had the best balance beam performance at 9.675 – an event she won last year.
Angola’s Bailey Lanoue took fourth in the all-around (37.95) and also won the vault (9.625). Fort Wayne Northrop’s McKayla Case took first in the floor exercise (9.65).
Columbus North finished fifth in the team standings (107.525) but set a new state record by making its 20th-consecutive appearance in the state finals. Dwenger held the mark of 19 from 2000-2018.
54th Annual IHSAA Gymnastics State Finals
Worthen Arena, Ball State University, Muncie
March 14, 2026
Final Team Standings
1. Homestead 112.125
2. Carroll (Fort Wayne) 112.025
3. Angola 111.325
4. Valparaiso 110.425
5. Columbus North 107.525
6. New Palestine 107.300
7. Lake Central 106.975
8. Portage 105.025
9. Noblesville 103.325
Individual State Champions
Vault: Bailey Lanoue (12) Angola 9.625
Bars: Jillian Creager (12) Homestead 9.675 Repeat State Champion
Beam: Samantha Boster (11) Chesterton 9.675 Repeat State Champion
Floor Exercise: McKayla Case (10) Fort Wayne Northrop 9.650
All-Around: Jillian Creager (12) Homestead 38.275 Repeat State Champion
Avery Ziembo named Mildred Ball Mental Attitude Award Winner
Following the event, members of the IHSAA Executive Committee named Avery Ziembo of Carroll High School in Fort Wayne as the recipient of the Mildred M. Ball Mental Attitude Award.
Avery is a four-year gymnastics letterwinner at her school, a four-time participant at the state finals, and the 2025 state champion on the uneven bars. She has also participated on the Chargers track and field team.
An outstanding student and respected leader among her peers, Avery carries a 3.856 GPA.
She is the daughter of Steve and Kristen Ziembo of Fort Wayne, IN. She is undecided on her college choice but would like to pursue studies in Exercise Science with a goal of becoming a chiropractor.
The IHSAA Executive Committee, on behalf of Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, presented $1,000 to Carroll High School's general scholarship fund in the name of Avery Ziembo.
The mental attitude award is named in honor of the former IHSAA assistant commissioner who served the Association from 1977 to 1997. During her career, Mildred Ball administered the state gymnastics tournament among other sports and oversaw the licensing and training of all contest officials in the state of Indiana.
