Last year, Sidney made "Open" finals and this year we were hoping to double that number with Sequoia climbing in "Open", too. The first session were all the youth categories and Little Kayla was climbing during this time. It was a team effort as we narrowed down a lot of routes that fit her climbing style and she crushed it by scoring 750 points more than last year! In the end, she came in 2nd in her category, narrowly finishing behind 1st place by a flash bonus of 25 points. More impressive was that she had the 2nd highest score of ALL the youth females at the comp. Nice!
Hanging out that 1st session gave Sid and Sequoia a chance to scout routes for the "Open" redpoint round. By the time the session started they were eager to get climbing. Sidney started fast and never looked back as she got 4 of her top 6 climbs in the first half of the session. With a half hour left, all 6 of her top scores were 1,050 or higher with a total score of 6,650 points. This was 250 points higher than last year so she packed it in and we waited to see who made Finals. Sequoia climbed great throughout the session and ended up with 5,950 points which was a whopping 1,000 points higher than her score last year! That exact score was also the cutoff for making Finals last year so I thought she had a great chance to make Finals this year.
We hung out and watched the "Barrel Riding" event while waiting for the scores. Sidney, Kayla and Di all gave it a whirl with Sidney having probably the longest run of everyone and Di having the best fall (she was okay) right on her head!
Halfway through, they announced the Finals competitors and guess who was in the 5th spot? Sequoia! Portland's very own Hanna Copper was in the 4th spot with Bozeman's best young climber, Inge Perkins in 3rd. Sidney qualified 2nd and Missoula's Molly Rennie qualified 1st. Only 75 points separated 1st through 3rd place so it was very tight going into finals.
The format they use for Finals is different than most other comps. Once the climber starts their route, a running clock of 90 seconds begins. If you fall, you can attempt as many climbs in that 90 seconds. You can take as long as you want to finish a climb as long as it starts in those 90 seconds. In a nutshell, your best attempt better be your 1st attempt because you're not going to get higher than your 1st attempt unless you bombed it early.
Sequoia was the first female to come out for Finals. I'm sure she was really nervous climbing in front of such a big crowd but she didn't show it. The first route was almost entirely on the 45 degree wall. Sequoia climbed great until just past the halfway point when she could not make this big, power throw to a slight sloper. She gave it another go but without the proper rest time she did not do any better.
Hanna came out next and fell at the same spot as Sequoia. Inge was 3rd out and got past that to the crux, which was a slight left hand crossover to a small crimp/pinch. She snagged it and held on for a good second. I thought she was going to be able to hold it but she fell and that ended up being her best attempt. Sidney came out and then cruised to the crux and held it pretty easily. She then cruised to the top for the only flash of problem #1 as Molly came off at the same spot as Inge. I have to admit that this problem was tailor made for Sidney's strengths and she made it look easy.
Problem #2 immediately went into a corner and there was a long reach to the hold on the other wall. Sequoia is the same height as Sidney but her wingspan is a good 3 inches shorter than Sidney's. That made a big difference as Sequioa tried a few different ways to get across but in the end, she could not. She still had a big smile for the crowd and she got a lot of applause. Hanna made it just past the halfway point before falling. Inge came out and just crushed the route, resting at the kneebar for a good 30 seconds before finishing up her flash. After seeing Sequoia struggle, I was just a bit worried that Sidney might have trouble with the start but she was fine and she also crushed the route with a flash. Molly looked strong and flashed the route, too. All the ladies climbed extremely well and gave the crowd a great show!
Since they combine the scores from the redpoint round and Finals, it was not a given that Sidney had won but I was pretty sure she had pulled it out. All we could do was hang out and wait. After a short while, they announced the scores and Sidney did indeed come in 1st and won $200. Sequoia kicked some booty all day and finished in 5th place. Great job girls!
We celebrated by going to Arby's! It was late and not a lot was open. Then we woke up early Sunday morning and drove the 11+ hours home but it was worth it as we all had the best time on this trip.
Thanks to the road trip "crew" and thanks for a great time FGD11!
No comments:
Post a Comment