Twirling Trio Takes Trophy

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Three talented Palisades High seniors did their school and their community proud last weekend, taking first place at the NBTA California State Baton Twirling Championships, held at Citrus Hill High in Perris.

Martha Valkov teamed up with identical twins Grace and Noelle Hardy to form a formidable threesome which not only accumulated the most points in Saturday’s competition but also walked out with a five-foot tall trophy for the Most Inspirational Team Award. The cherry on top came the next day when Noelle was crowned champion of the Miss Majorette of California Pageant—an honor Grace won last year­—and Grace won the State Strut title. Miss Majorette involves scoring in several disciplines (solo twirl, strut, modeling and interview).

While Valkov just joined the twirling team and is having a blast, the  sisters are feature twirlers for Pali High’s marching band and national team members of the United States Twirling Association. They live in Brentwood and though they had to evacuate during the Palisades Fire their home survived and they are back, though still doing soot and ash clean-up. Valkov resides in Santa Monica and her home was unaffected, though bad air quality and not being able to attend classes in person have made her latest triumph more gratifying.       

The Hardys began twirling three years ago when they found their mom’s old batons in the garage and wanted her to teach them a few tricks. They have had one of the fastest risings in the sport of baton twirling under the watchful eye of their mother Jacqueline Meaney Hardy, who won numerous state and national honors, including USTA’s Miss California. She was a feature solo twirler for the San Francisco 49ers and is currently a professional coach with USTA and NBTA. One of the girls’ other coaches, Dale White, also coached their mom back in the day. The twins are also stellar students, maintaining 4.0 unweighted and 4.5 weighted GPAs. Prior to twirling they were pre-professional dancers, having trained since they were 3 with some of the best teachers in the world, including instructors from the Bolshoi Ballet from Russia, the National Ballet of Canada, Pittsburgh Ballet and San Franciso Ballet.

Grace and Noelle are following in their mom’s footsteps. Over the summer they placed first in the qualifier at the National Championships in Dayton, Ohio, thus earning a spot on Team USA, and will represent their country in Torino, Italy in August in the category of Artistic Pairs. Together they are the 2025 California State Duet Champions, having held the crown for the past two years. They are also members of The ShowTwirlers, a competitive baton twirling team based in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Their training involves frequent travel to the east coast where they work with elite coaches PJ and Jon Burkin, Terri Dobos Young, the aforementioned White and locally with Jacqueline.

The sisters appeared on Spectrum News 1 two weeks after the Palisades Fire to share their thoughts  of dealing with the aftermath of the blaze, their efforts to reach out to friends and classmates, and having to adjust to online learning again after having coped with it a few years before during the COVID-19 pandemic. They hope to graduate on the football field in the spring in keeping with the school’s commencement tradition.     

Valkov’s primary sport is rhythmic gymnastics and she made a name for herself the summer before her sophomore year at the 2022 National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, where she took first place in the Level 10 Junior Division—the highest level in the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympics Program. Valkov started in rhythmic gymnastics at the age of 6 and rose steadily up the ranks by training four to five hours a day, six days a week, first at LA School of Gymnastics in Culver City, then California Rhythms  in Los Angeles. The Canyon Elementary and Paul Revere Middle School graduate has taken to twirling like a fish to water as one of the four discplines in rhythmic gymnastics is clubs (the others are ribbon, ball and hoop) and the summer before her junior year she placed fifth in the all-around competition and third in clubs in the Level 10 Senior (2007) Division at the USA Gymnastics Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Pali High trio will be back in action March 22 at San Diego State where it will compete in the All-West Regional High School Show Twirl Team Championships against teams representing the Western United States, including Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona Utah and Hawaii. By virtue of winning the state title the girls are eligible to contend for the national championship at the University of Notre Dame in July.