National honors for Twirl-M's: Hard work pays off for local twirling team

Members of the Twirl-M’s Baton Twirling Group in Walled Lake will be starting fall classes this month with the team’s sixth national championship and more than a dozen individual titles earned this year.

The group — which includes girls from Walled Lake, Commerce, Wixom, South Lyon, West Bloomfield and Novi — took first-place at this year’s Junior World Show Corps Championship. The group features baton twirling instruction for ages 2 and up. Participants include members of Walled Lake Western High School’s Majorette Line, as well as students from Walled Lake Northern, South Lyon, South Lyon East high schools and members of Walled Lake Central High School’s Twirling Club.

“It was a wonderful experience for our team,” said Corps Director Rhonda Muscaro. “We have been training since January and to go out there and nail the routine with five drops was tremendous.”

The group’s 26-member team took first-place at the Junior World Show held in July at the University of Notre Dame. Individual award winners include:

• Mari Olsen, sixth-grader at Sarah Banks Middle School, who was the first runner-up to the 2012 Intermediate Juvenile Miss Majorette of America.

• Moriah Muscaro, of Grand Valley State University, who took second runner-up honors to the 2012 College Miss Majorette of America; the 2012 National Baton Twirling Association (NBTA) World Open Solo Championship; 2012 NBTA World Open 3 Championship; and fifth-place in the 2012 National Collegiate Halftime Championship.

Thirteen team members took top honors in their respective twirling contests, including Ella Dennis, Nicole Dowdell, Madisen Fletcher, Carolyn Gegory, Delaney Hammond, Nicole Harris, Brianna Mulrooney, Moriah Muscaro, Mari Olsen, Sara Olsen, Taylor Scheffer, Alissa Yenglin and Lydia Zavinsky.

The team also earned 113 top-ten finishes this year.

For more information about the Twirl-M’s visit www.TwirlM.com.