Karen Whitman, junior in event management, recently won national titles at the Eighth U.S. Intercollegiate and National High School Baton Twirling Championships.

She said the competition, on March 3 and 4 in Liberty, Miss., was a great way to feature the talent of Iowa State’s featured twirler.

Whitman puts in two to three hours of practice every day and she said it has paid off.

The Intercollegiate Baton Twirling Championships are a prestigious competition.

Anna Osborn Dolan, a volunteer at the National Coalition for the Advancement of Baton Twirling, explained that this competition features the “best collegiate twirlers from across the country.” The group is a nonprofit organization that promotes baton twirling as a collegiate sport.

“These are very high-level athletes who spend years in dance and gymnastics,” Dolan said.

She likened the sport to figure skating, mentioning that it is an art that also requires athleticism and hand-eye coordination.

According to its website, the goals of the National Coalition for the Advancement of Baton Twirling are “recognition as a sport in intercollegiate athletics; to provide an avenue for college-age athletes to compete at a university level and to continue their baton-twirling careers in a structure that is commensurate with collegiate sports.” 

Another goal is to “open the door for baton-twirling coaches to expand their coaching opportunities as well as creating sport baton-twirling clubs on college campuses to develop a system to produce a NCAA Championship.”

Whitman, who has been twirling for 14 years, won the national title in the three-baton event and second place in both the Collegiate Fight Song and two-baton events.

“I went into it really prepared,” she said, adding that the competition was “relaxed and fun.”

She said she enjoyed her events and the high school aspect of the competition.

High school baton twirlers competed in this competition, which she said showed the increasing popularity of baton twirling in high schools across the nation.

“It’s cool to see the future of baton twirling,” Whitman said.

Whitman said she plans to continue twirling at Iowa State while also training and competing in more competitions. She said she would love to win titles again at the National Championships.

Along with that, Whitman said she plans to train to join the United States Twirling Association to compete in an international competition in the Netherlands next August.