It's been 6 months since our last post but we're back! Sidney just recently ended the 2011 climbing season on a very good note so let's review what happened this past year.
This season, after 3 years, Sidney finally aged out of the "D" category and was a 1st year "C". This year had the potential to knock her around a bit since she would be competing against older girls again. She more than held her own and was really happy with her season.
Bouldering - Sidney climbed in two locals (Vertical World and Edgeworks) and finished in 1st place in both. We also went on a road trip with some Bellingham YMCA friends to the FGDX comp in Bozeman, Montana. We had a blast! Sidney competed in the Open category and after the Redpoint round was in 1st place going into Finals. Climbing against Idaho and Montana's finest, she made a mental mistake but still rebounded to finish in 2nd place and win $100! She was stoked but more importantly, she gained a lot of experience climbing in front of a big crowd. It definitely helped her when she climbed, two weeks later, in the biggest bouldering comp in our area, the Seattle Bouldering Challenge. Climbing in the Open category again, after the Redpoint round, she snagged the last Finals spot in 11th place. In front of a huge crowd, she climbed great and moved up 3 spots to finish in 8th place. An awesome showing for an 11 year old girl! Regionals was at Tacoma VW and Sidney crushed at the comp. She was the only "C" climber, boy or girl, to make all 6 routes (3 Qualifiers, 3 Finals) on the day! Nationals was in Boulder, Colorado. She had a hiccup on a slab route during qualifiers that made her mad but she was still tied for 6th going into Semifinals. She then made a sequencing mistake on the 2nd Semifinal route that cost her after all was said and done. Still, she qualified for Finals in 5th place and had the highest score on the 3rd (and final) route. She climbed great in Finals and tied for the 3rd highest total of the day but it was not enough to bump her ahead of Grace Kane for 4th place and the final U.S. Team spot. The difference was by less than a point which shows how close these comps get at the National level. Sidney was really bummed but I think it made her work harder in getting ready for the Sport and Speed climbing seasons. Of the top 6 placings, 4 were 2nd year "C" girls so Grace and Sidney had terrific showings!
Sport & Speed - Sidney climbed in two locals (Stoneworks and Edgeworks) and finished in 1st place in both. We loved our Bouldering road trip so much, the same group went to the Scendfest comp in Boise, Idaho. We again had a great time! Sidney competed in the Open category and was first by a wide margin after the Redpoint round. What was cool was that she was able to climb on all of the lead routes. She proceeded to flash the 2nd and 4th through 11th highest rated climbs. It was amazing how well she climbed. My favorite story from that comp is when she came down from flashing the 2nd highest rated climb. While she was untying, one of the older team members from the gym came up to her, shook her hand and said with much enthusiasm, "Thank you for climbing at my gym!" That was a nice moment. We thought the comp was over but they had the same format as the Bozeman comp and Sidney was first going into Finals. She crushed both Finals routes and won $150 for first place! Bonus! Regionals was at Clubsport and Sidney climbed well. On Qualifier 2, she fell on the 2nd to last hold and that ended up being the difference between 1st and 2nd place. Cierra Graham, Melina Costanza and Sidney all flashed the Final route so Sidney placed 2nd to Melina after countbacks to Qualifiers. Not counting National events, that broke Sidney's impressive string of 21 first place finishes in a row at USAC events (Locals, Regionals & Divisionals) in all 3 disciplines. Great job Melina! If someone was going to break that string, she would have wanted it to be her best friend. We didn't have to go to Divisionals so we stayed home and saved some money. Melina and Cierra finished 1st and 2nd, respectively. Way to represent the PNW! Nationals was again in Atlanta, Georgia. In Speed, Sidney's Qualifier time of 7.28 seconds was the 2nd fastest time behind Grace Mckeehan. In Semifinals, her time of 6.77 seconds was again the 2nd fastest but this time she was behind Margarita Marsanova. In Finals, Sidney was in the last pairing so she had the advantage of seeing all the times in front of her and would know what she would have to beat. In the pairing before her, Bethany Eversole put up the fastest time of the comp up to that point with a time of 6.40 seconds. On Sidney's first run, she beat Margarita up the wall with a time of 6.41 seconds. She still had another run but would she miss out on 1st place by .01 seconds?! On her 2nd run, she put it all together and beat Margarita up the wall with a very fast looking run. It took 3 or 4 agonizing seconds before her time flashed on the timer.......6.35 seconds!! Her 2nd Speed National Championship in a row and she was ecstatic! It was high drama and VERY exciting to watch. In Sport, Sidney flashed Q1 and Q2 along with 6 other girls. In Semifinals, she was cruising but fell 2 holds from the top when her foot popped, putting her in 3rd place going into Finals. Afterward, she said she was pumped but felt she should have made the route still. In Finals, Sidney was happy to see they were going to be on the roof! She loves roof routes and climbs them exceptionally well. She crushed the route and tied for high point with Margo Hayes. Not flashing the Semifinal route cost her a chance to do a Super-Final with Margo for the National Championship. In the end, she finished in 3rd place by the slimmest of margins and made U.S. Team. It was a great finish to her first year as a "C" climber. A 5th, 3rd and 1st in all three disciplines at Nationals is a great year. Congrats Sidney!
