Last year, Leah Mayer made her debut as Rocklin High’s feature baton twirler. Social media erupted with talk of the new “baton girl”, quickly making her known around school. So far this year, she has performed at two football games.

Outside of school, Leah competes around the country and she also went to Croatia for the International Cup competition over the summer.

In order to qualify for International Cup, Leah had to place 6th in the junior division (ages 14-17) at the national competition last year in Mobile, Alabama. It was her first time trying to qualify for International Cup, so she did not expect to place. However, she placed 4th qualifying her to compete in Croatia.

“I was very excited because I love to travel, and having the opportunity to compete in a different country was very exciting to me,” Leah said.

In preparation for Croatia, Leah practiced six days a week during the school year for at least 3 hours. Over the summer, she practiced everyday for at least four hours up until she left for the competition.

She left on July 29th and began by visiting London, Paris and Venice with her parents. After a week of sightseeing, she travelled to Croatia for the competition.

Twirlers from all around the world came to compete in the International Cup competition. Twenty countries were represented, including Japan, Australia and Scotland. Leah made friends with people from Italy, England and Canada.

“What surprised me was that almost everyone could speak English, so it wasn’t too difficult to make friends. I still communicate with the people I met everyday on social media.”

Leah loved having the opportunity to meet new people and travel around Europe, but once she was in Croatia she knew it was time to focus on the competition. She did not think that she would be able to place, but she was ready to give her all on the floor.

However, in preliminaries she was surprised to hear that she had earned a spot in the top 15, which qualified her for semi-finals. Once again, she surprised herself when she placed top 10 in semi-finals. From there, she moved onto finals, which was the last round of the competition.

Many twirlers who have competed at the international level before sometimes do not make finals, so it was shocking to Leah and her team that she had done so well.

“I just wanted to do my final routine and be happy coming off of the floor knowing that I had given it my all,” said Leah about advancing to finals.

Out of the three routines that Leah performed, her performance in finals was the highest scoring and she did not drop her baton once, which is considered a “no-drop routine”.  After performing so well, Leah was awarded with 8th place in the world in the category Junior Artistic Twirl.

Leah’s team and parents were surprised, but very proud because they knew how much work she had put into her routines.

“I was so grateful for the opportunity to compete at International Cup, and placing 8th was the cherry on top of it all,” Leah explained.

In July, Leah will go to Nationals in Florida and try to qualify for the 2019 International Cup in France. She would love to experience another international competition, and is working hard to qualify.

Leah hopes to attend future competitions like International Cup, and hopes to qualify for Worlds, which will be held in August of 2018 in Florida. In the meantime, she will continue practicing and twirling for RHS. She will make her final debut at the last home football game on November 3rd.