By Caylyn Pfizenmaier 

Alexa Leitzel of Clay Center recently competed at the United States Twirling Association National Competition in Fairborn, Ohio. While there Leitzel had the opportunity to try out for team USA, which will travel to Torino, Italy next summer. 

Leitzel says her love for twirling began at a young age; she began dancing at the age of 3, then transitioning to baton twirling at 5. She said that having twirled most of her life has helped her grow into the competitor she is today. 

“I’ve been competing in competitions since I was about 6,” she said. “I would do just local competitions, then around 2nd and 3rd grade we started to get a little more serious and go to some of the bigger competitions.”

Leitzel has previously competed at USTA’s World event in Liverpool, England during the summer of 2023, alongside her pairs partner, Addy Gurney. 

However this is the first year Leitzel will compete with her team the Dixie Diamonds. 

“During Nationals you could try out for Worlds,” she said. “There was one day where we did all of our individual events and pairs, there were 30-50 pairs in the category,” she said. “Then on the last day of nationals we competed as a team.”

Preparing for competitions is a big part of baton twirling, Leitzel says that she as well as her other teammates have put in multiple hours, sometimes even staying at practice till late hours of the night. Leitzel says that in the end it is all worth it. 

“It’s been a lot of hours leading up to the tryouts at Nationals,” she said. “During the school year I practice three to four hours a night, sometimes five.”

Leitzel says since she has more free time during the summer months, there is more opportunity to practice, especially at Stark Studio in Clay Center. 

“During the summer it picks up a little bit, when I’m home by myself I practice sometimes five to six hours,” she said. “We also have a lot of camps where we’ll practice all day from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm,” she said. “I’m sure there will be some long days like that right before we go to Worlds.”

Leitzel also says that she and her teammates focus on strength and mobility training while preparing for competitions. 

“We do a lot of strength training and mobility training, as well as practicing all of our tricks and working on cleaning up our routines and doing full run throughs of the routines.”

Leitzel says that she will travel as a part of team USA to Torino, Italy next August.