Studio X-Treme wins big at state, AAU Junior Olympic Qualifier
After a year of virtual competitions and lessons because of COVID-19, Studio X-Treme is taking the twirling world by storm with success at every competition attended.
Studio X-Treme had four teams qualify for nationals at the state competition, and four teams plus 11 individuals qualified to go to the AAU Junior Olympics at the Junior Olympic Qualifier.
“We have been very busy, but it has been so great,” said studio owner Heather Davis. “The girls are loving any chance they get to perform because they weren’t able to for so long.”
Four teams competed for Studio X-Treme at the state competition, with three winning first place and being named state champion and the other winning second place.
“My senior girls had actually never won a state championship before, so to have three different teams win, we were speechless,” Davis said.
Davis said because of COVID-19, there was not a traditional awards ceremony, and winners were called out throughout the day.
“Most of us were actually in another area watching solos when one of my assistant coaches came in carrying all of these trophies,” Davis said. “I asked her what all of the trophies were from, and she said we needed to go where they were calling out winners because they kept calling out our name for different things.”
Davis said she was shocked but so proud of her teams and all of the hard work they had put in.
“We said it was just our luck, never having had that experience, that we weren’t in there to hear our names called out,” Davis said. “It wouldn’t be 2021 unless something like that happened.”
Davis said out of the 91 team performances and 136 solo performances, every Studio X-Treme twirler placed in the top 10, with several placing in the top 5.
Davis said her senior team, which has competed in five different competitions so far this year, is still undefeated.
“They are accepting all of the challenges and working so hard,” Davis said.
All four of the teams that competed at state qualified to go to nationals, and 11 individuals qualified for solos. Complicating matters, Davis said the 2021 nationals is not happening this year because of COVID-19, so the teams received an invitation to compete in the 2022 national competition at the University of Notre Dame.
“They have different restrictions up there, so they said they weren’t able to hold such a large competition as nationals, which brings people in from all over the world,” Davis said.
One trip the studio might be able to make, however, is this summer to the AAU Junior Olympics in Houston, Texas.
There were 11 individuals and four teams from Studio X-Treme that qualified to attend the AAU Junior Olympics.
Davis said she does not know yet how many twirlers from her studio will be competing because of the constant changing regulations because of COVID-19.
“At this point, it is just a waiting game because we do not know how things will change between now and this summer,” Davis said. “We hope to have a large group to take, but we will see.”
