BYU gymnastics: Boon found her place at BYU

In getting out of that comfort zone, she wants to try anything and everything, including kickboxing and basketball, which, she notes, will help her to maintain her fitness level. Another activity she's really looking forward to learning is hip-hop dancing, which should go right along with her gymnastics training and obvious dancing ability on the floor exercise, which is another of her favorite apparatuses.

It'll be nice not to have to worry about rehabilitating injuries for a gymnastics career any longer either, and she's suffered some very different injuries, especially in her time at BYU.

Her first major problem since a toe injury, a knee problem and a stress fracture in her back came when she suffered a fall in a canyon and injured a wrist that has since undergone myriad surgeries and was finally feeling much better a few weeks ago. But just as her wrist injury was in healing mode, the girl who can flip and fly on a four-inch wide beam fell down a flight of stairs and injured her Achilles tendon. She can compete on it now because of painkillers but is still in shock over falling down the stairs.

Though her time at BYU hasn't been particularly easy on her body, it has taught her plenty. Four years ago, before coming to Provo, Boon enjoyed her solitary life and the fact that in club gymnastics you only have to count on yourself, and you get all the glory.

But she quickly learned that college gymnastics is not only a different animal, it's so much more fun to be a part of a team.

"In club if you have a hard day, then you have a hard day, but here, your teammates can help get you through it," she said.

And she's enjoyed it so much that she plans to stick around the area for at least one more year.

She arrived at BYU after her aunt had a chance meeting at a baseball game with BYU coaches Brad and Dawn Cattermole. That aunt informed them she had a niece who did gymnastics, and Boon enrolled at BYU without even having had a recruiting visit. Then, not only did she fly thousands of miles from her island home south of the equator, she came in during winter semester, which made her nervous about exactly how she would be accepted into the team.

"I didn't talk much my freshman year, but since then I've grown into myself, and now they can't shut me up," said Boon, who was one of three Polynesians on the team when she arrived and is now the last to leave.

And now, her regular season gymnastics career is coming to an end as the Cougars travel up to the University of Utah for their final meet before regionals.

"I never thought this day would come, but you want to go out with a big crowd, and what better place is there to do it?" she concluded.

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E-mail: jolsen@desnews.com