Collegiate Twirler Spotlight - University of Texas

Hello Texas Twirl Fans!

College Football is back in our lives full swing, and we could not be more excited for the amazing college twirling that is already happening this season! We are excited to continue featuring these talented athletes, and we hope you will enjoy learning more about them too!

Each season this blog likes to get to know many of our awesome Texas twirlers a little better by learning about their experiences. We will be meeting many High School twirlers throughout the season with the Friday Night Lights Features and discovering more about our Texas Collegians with the Collegiate Twirler Spotlights. We will also be having many of our High School and Collegiate twirlers take over our social media Story for their Game Days! Make sure to follow us on Instagram @twirlingiscatchingtx or at facebook.com/twirlingiscatchingtx so you don't miss a thing!

This week’s Collegiate Twirler Spotlight is the University of Texas Feature Twirler!

The University of Texas, located in Austin, Texas, is the home of the Longhorns, and currently the #1 Rated College Football team in the country! It is also the home of a long line of amazing Longhorn Feature Twirlers, including current UT Feature Twirler, Aidyn Mentry!

Attending such a well-known University comes with some fun facts and cool opportunities. As Aidyn tells us, “The University of Texas is the only NCAA division 1 school with burnt orange as one of our colors! The Longhorn Feature Twirler also gets a special solo performance at the end of the 3rd quarter to the song Wabash Cannonball, and now I am able to do it with fire batons!”

In order to earn this prestigious position, we asked Aidyn what the audition process was like. “My audition process was a little different because of COVID but it was still a standard 2 round audition process. Round 1 was an audition video, resume, essay, recommendation letters, and a few other pieces of information. Round 2 was a live audition to 3 music pieces, with one being a full halftime show. After the live audition there was a panel interview.”

Earning the position of Longhorn Feature Twirler is always a dream come true for those that get the honor, and attending UT was an easy one for Aidyn. “It had been my dream school forever because it was the number 1 school in the world for advertising! I knew that I needed to prioritize academics over anything else in my college search, but when I found out that the twirler spot would open at the perfect time for me to audition, it felt like the stars aligned and I knew that it was meant to be!”

Aidyn, who is originally from Virginia, came to Texas from out of state. While that can be a tough decision for many, it was always the right choice for her. “I knew I wanted to branch out and move away from the town I grew up in, so I set a list of things that I wanted in a college out of state. My requirements were: top advertising school, warm, BIG student body, great football, creative atmosphere, lots to do, and felt like home…. Texas was the perfect fit! No place felt like home to me until the first time I visited Austin!”

With getting the opportunity to attend her dream school, there has to be so many things that Aidyn loves about the University, but she says the thing she loves the most is the people! “As silly as it sounds, it’s pretty cool to know that you have a ton in common with someone when you see them throw up our iconic hand sign No matter what walk of life or experiences that someone has had, there is a unity and common love shared between all past and present longhorns that feels so special! I could brag about a million things about my school, but the people are what make it so unique!”

The University of Texas has so many amazing traditions including Lighting the tower, Smokey the Cannon, Big Bertha, and “of course saying Hook ‘Em to every single person that wears burnt orange once you leave campus!” The members of the band program also make some wonderful memories together. Aidyn told us about one of her favorites. “My favorite is top secret until you are an official member of the Longhorn Band, but a close second is the Pizza Tree after our first performance of the year! As you can imagine, 430 people eat a LOT of pizzas. We take over 100 pizza boxes and stack them up 2 stories tall while eating pizza. Then, we sing Christmas carols to the pizza tree until it gets too tall and topples over!”

With this being Aidyn’s Senior Season, we know everything is special to her, but we wanted to know what she is looking forward to the most this Fall, and she said she is counting the days until the Texas A&M game. “I can’t wait for our Texas A&M rivalry to come back after more than 10 years! We will travel to College Station to play the Aggies, and I can’t wait to twirl on Kyle Field and show them what Longhorns are made of!”

Now that we have learned more about the University of Texas, let's learn more about Aidyn!

Aidyn Mentry, Senior
Competition Level: Collegiate
Aidyn has been twirling for 14 years. She is a member of Twirl ATX and is coached by Whitney Coons. The competition placements she is the proudest of earning was being named a 2025 Team USA representative for Artistic Twirl at Nations Cup and winning the 2024 College Miss Majorette of America Modeling and Interview. Her favorite competition tricks are a one-spin triple illusion or reverse right toss flat double slap catch right, and her favorite field tricks are a one-spin illusion walkover catch front aerial or anything three baton. In baton twirling, she has been most inspired by Laney Puhalla, Jameson Kenerly, and Savannah Miller. After college, Aidyn plans to continue her work in Marketing. “I will hopefully end up in ATX or NYC working in marketing for a major entertainment company, using my knowledge of strategy, psychoanalytic research, and biometric tracking to create branded experiences! I will also continue to coach, design costumes for Sew Stoppers, and work towards my judge's license!”

Fun Facts!

• Favorite Color – Burnt Orange ;)
• Favorite TV Show or Movie – “Hunger Games or anything true crime.”
• Favorite Book – “Everything, Everything”

Must have Game Day Snack/Drink…
“Celsius and apple sauce pouches, 3 of each every single gameday... at a minimum.”

Favorite Quote…
“Pressure makes diamonds!”

When she is not twirling, she loves to…
“Work out, design & rhinestone twirling costumes, bake, listen to new music, and attempt to find the best latte in Austin with my friends!”

Something people might not know about her is… 
“I am partially responsible for the invention of Extra Toasty Cheez-its.”

The best non twirling life skill she has gained from baton twirling is… 
“Time management! I work 4 jobs and take 16 hours of classes. Without twirling teaching me balance, I would be so stressed, but I love being busy all the time and staying involved in the campus community!”

The most memorable advice from her coach… 
“Nerves just mean that you care and that your body is anxious to show off what you have taught it in practice!”

Advice to future Collegiate twirlers… 
“Say yes to every opportunity! Every chance that you get to twirl in your community, take a picture with a fellow twirler, enter in a small contest, or talk about twirling to a stranger will help you to become a better twirler and representative of the sport!”

Funniest memory as a baton twirler… 
“Lana Del Ray offered to clasp my costume at last year's Red River Rivalry game, I was in shock! Then she asked me for a selfie!”

Favorite thing about marching season… 
“The excitement of "shaking the fringe" and singing and dancing with my friends before every performance.”

What will you miss most when marching season is over… 
“Seeing my best friends every single day! I take for granted all of the little conversations on water breaks and all of the high fives on the way to set, I will miss those so much!”

We want to thank Aidyn for sharing her Game Day with us, and we greatly enjoyed learning more about her in this interview. We wish her and the Longhorns an amazing rest of the season. Hook Em! 

We hope you have enjoyed this blog post. We are always looking for great new stories about Texas twirlers. Do you have an idea or some information we could use to help highlight our sport? Contact us at texastwirlcontact@gmail.com and we would love to hear more about it.