Months of dedication and hard work paid off for nine athletes and two coaches from the City of Westminster’s baton twirling program. They competed in the U.S. National Baton Twirling Championships and Festival of the Future, held July 10-13, at Wright State University in Fairborn, Ohio, and all of them came home with one or more awards.
Haley Lena, left, and Madelaine Schmidt, won the gold medal in the AA Sr. Pairs event at the prestigious U.S. PreTrials competition, held July 10 in Fairborn, Ohio.
Coach Haley Lena and former coach Madelaine Schmidt won the gold medal in AA Sr. Pairs in the prestigious U.S. PreTrials event. Schmidt, who is a feature twirler at Northern Arizona University, is also the 2019 Arizona State Solo and 2-Baton Grand Champion.
Athletes Kailyn Davis, 14, and Hannah VanDeventer, 12, each earned two 1st place awards as well as membership in the “All Catch Club,” which signifies a performance where the athlete never drops the baton. Davis also won a 2nd place, 3rd place and three 5th place awards while VanDeventer also earned a 3rd, 4th and 6th place award. Liz Anne Soeth, 15, earned 3rd and 6th place awards.
Davis, VanDeventer and Soeth are also members of the Colorado Twirls Jr. Dance Twirl Team, which earned 2nd and 4th place awards, competing in two divisions with teams from Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Texas.
Theresa Fortner, age 13, who was competing in her first National Championships, won three 1st place awards, as well as a 2nd, 4th and 6th place award. Fellow National newcomer Skylar Feller, 12, fresh off of a family trip to Japan, won a 3rd place award.
Fortner and Feller are also members of the Colorado Twirls Trio, which earned 2nd place in Beginner Juvenile Trio, competing against trios from Ohio and Louisiana.
Ten-year-old Caidence Hodges, competing in her second Nationals, won two 1st, two 2nd and two 3rd place awards, as well as a 4th and 6th place award. National newcomer Sarah Otterstetter, 10, won three 2nd place awards and two 6th place awards, while Bryanna Bartholomew, 11, also competing at her first Nationals, earned a 2nd and two 5th place awards. Elizabeth Allison, 12, another athlete making her first trip to Nationals, earned a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th place award.
Hodges, Otterstetter, Bartholomew and Allison are members of the Colorado Twirls Juvenile Dance Twirl Team, which competed with 17 other teams from Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Ohio.
“We are so proud of the dedication, discipline, teamwork and sportsmanship these athletes exhibited all year,” said Anna Dolan, baton twirling coach for the City of Westminster. “They demonstrated that they could work hard and have fun with their twirling friends. They are wonderful role models for all of the twirlers involved in Westminster’s baton twirling program.”
You can see these athletes, and other Westminster baton twirlers, perform in the city’s Summer Recital at 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 17, at Westminster High School, 6933 Raleigh St., Westminster, CO 80030. For more information about the City of Westminster’s baton twirling program, visit https://www.cityofwestminster.us/ParksRecreation/ActivityGuides.
Contributed by Anna Osborn Dolan, baton twirling coach for the City of Westminster.