A first year graduate student from Florida State University, Karrissa Wimberley has collectively won 15 World Championships in twirling. This summer, she won the Grand National Collegiate Championship, a competition for feature twirlers, representing Georgia. The Red & Black caught up with her to see how this talent came to fruition.

How did you become involved with twirling?

My mom was a twirler growing up and in college. My older brother Sean and I started twirling around the time competitively. I’ve been competing now for around 17 years.

Describe your experience at the Grand National Collegiate Championships.

It’s a multiple baton competition for feature twirlers from major universities, including schools like Iowa, Penn State and Florida. Everyone performs a two and a half minute piece to their band’s music. So I did a routine to a combination of Redcoat Band music. It was an honor to represent UGA at the competition.

At the last home game, we saw you twirl fire batons. How did you discover such a unique talent?

I learned to twirl fire from my mom. You have to be truly comfortable with the baton. If you cannot twirl with your eyes shut with a regular baton, you shouldn’t try a fire baton. At the last game, I only twirled three fire batons because I really wanted a solid performance. The fire batons have a lot of extra weight compared to regular batons. At the next home game, though, I will twirl four. Fire batons are really more for crowd appeals.

Since you’ve been twirling in college for several years now, what is one of your favorite memories being out on the field?

During my sophomore year at FSU, Sean and I were both feature twirlers at the time. At homecoming, my mom came back to perform during halftime. It was really cool to be down on the field together. But my favorite thing about twirling during college football games is the halftime show. It is so much fun to get the crowd to react and keep them excited.