The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
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Team places second, wins artistic award
PUBLISHED: August 28, 2008
The Saline Twirlettes have been top contenders in the Senior Halftime Division for the past five years and this year challenged the top position again.
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The Jungle team won second place in the division and was awarded the Beth Wilson Artistic Award for halftime show twirl team that best exemplifies creative chorography with high entertainment value and age-appropriate theme.
The award was won with more than 50-plus teams in the junior and senior division from across the country. The Saline Majorette squad is comprised of graduating senior Mary Ciotta and Stacey Girbach, senior captain; junior Conner Potter; sophomores Sarah O'Brien and Haley Williams; and freshmen Chrissy Houle and Maddy Johnson won the High School Halftime National Championship.
This was a new event at the National Baton Twirling Association Nationals. The judges and contest organizers were impressed with the high level of skills the Saline Majorettes displayed, according to a news release from the Saline Twirlettes.
The Twirlettes Dance Twirl team is comprised of Haley Williams, Chrissy Houle, Sam Kennedy, Sidney Fletcher, Sarah O'Brien, Conner Potter, Dana Kalem, Amber Reed and Mariah Austin competed for the first time in the Junior Large Division and won a second place overall.
Many individual honors were won, as well, with a total of 40 top 10 finishes. In the advanced division, Girbach placed 21st in the Teenage Miss Majorette of America pageant among 58 of the nation's best. She also won 10th place in open strut and ninth in advanced solo.
WVU Feature Twirler Donovan Sarr won the men's senior two-baton title and placed second in solo. These placements qualified Donovan for the world team, which he will compete in Belgium in April 2009. Michigan twirler Nathan Magyar won fifth place overall in the men's senior two-baton, freestyle and solo event.
Pre-teen soloists Maddy Johnson won third place in her advanced open solo, qualifying for the finals, and sixth in open strut and second in dance duet with Houle, in the junior division Haley Williams won 13th in duet with partner Sidney Fletcher and 25th in freestyle.
Houle placed 10th in solo, eighth in two-baton and eighth in show routine, with partner Johnson won a 14th in duet. Conner Potter won third in two-baton, third in duet with sister Jessica Potter, in the teenage division, and Ciotta won third in two-baton. Bruckner won the intermediate two-baton national title.
In the National Pageants, Reed was the top winner in the Twirlettes. She competed in the beginner pre-teen division and was crowned first runner-up in the nation by winning fourth in solo, seven in strut and modeling.
Reed also placed top 10 in all of her open events as well; sixth in intermediate solo, ninth in strutting, second in two-baton, third in duet with Kalem. Saline seventh-grader Fletcher was in the intermediate pre-teen pageant and won a 17th-place award and also won sixth in strut and seventh in intermediate solo.
In the Junior Beginner Pageant, Austin won 10th in modeling and ninth in strutting.
Kennedy placed 17th overall in the junior pageant. Kennedy also placed 12th in intermediate strut and solo.
Sidney Fletcher represented the team in the pre-teen division, Team Member of the Year by interviewing, twirling and a team recommendation and won an eighth place. Ciotta in the teenage division represented the Twirlettes well by placing third. The trio of Ciotta, Sarr and Girbach won fourth in the senior division.
In other open events, Sarah O' Brien placed sixth in intermediate solo, eighth in strutting and sixth in flag, while Kate Swierz placed third in two-baton, eighth in flag and 15th with duet with partner Kelsey Lamkin.
Dana Kalem had an outstanding national event by placing top 10 in all her events, second in two-baton, third in duet with Reed, fourth beginner solo, sixth in strutting, and fifth in flag. Kaylynn Austin won a seventh in beginner strutting.
It was Natalie Haubenstricker and Lindsay Schryver's first time to nationals. The pair did very well and both placed in their solo event. Haubenstricker won fourth place and Schryver eighth in their national novice solo. Haubenstricker also won 10th place in novice two-baton.
After nationals, three Twirlettes competed in the AAU Junior Olympics in Novi. Advanced twirler Girbach won the two-baton and three-baton gold medal and won a silver medal in elite solo and strutting.
Kate Swierz won a gold medal in beginner solo silver medal in strutting and flag baton, and copper medals in basic and two-baton. Lindsay Schryver won a bronze medal in basic strutting.
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