2012 SCS DIVISIONALS.

For the 2nd time in 3 years, our Divisional was held at Clubsport in Tigard, Oregon on June 9th and 10th. Clubsport has held many Regionals and Divisionals the past 5 years so Sidney is quite comfortable climbing there. They have also held a few Nationals but that was before Sidney started climbing and before a little something called Stone Summit. Since Sidney did not go to Divisionals last year, this was basically back to back Divisionals at Clubsport for her.

After her 2nd place finish to Melina Costanza at Regionals, Sidney hit the gym pretty regularly for the month leading up to this event. She definitely got her fitness level closer to where she needed it to be for Nationals so she was just concentrating on not making any mistakes and getting an invite for both Sport and Speed. The usual suspects were there to compete, teammates Melina and Cierra Graham, Jenna Wang from Rocksport in Reno and Olivia Durant from the MAC in Portland. The new face this year to the Sport scene was Lia Messinger from the Circuit in Portland. Lia is primarily a boulderer but was trying out Sport climbing this year and was definitely improving as the season went on. Those girls would end up being the top 6 and it was not a coincidence that they were all 2nd year "C" competitors as it was a strong group to break into if you were a first year.

Saturday was Qualifiers and there were two routes for all the competitors. There were 22 climbers in Sidney's FYC Sport group and pretty much all of them flashed Q1.

Sidney, with a nice view of the crowd, near the top of her flash of Qualifier #1. (Photo courtesy of Bob Lockhart)


Since I was scoring, I only watched Cierra, Melina and Sidney climb Q2. Cierra got her left foot up on a hold and lost tension which caused her to fall 6 holds from the finish but she still qualified for Finals in 3rd. Melina looked shaky at times but still fought through to flash the route. She later told me she thought she was going to fall at least a half dozen times during the route. Sidney looked very strong and flashed the route. The last move was a bit iffy but otherwise she was really smooth.

Sidney looking strong in flashing Qualifier #2. (Photo courtesy of Bob Lockhart)


After Qualifiers, the Trinidad, Costanza, Graham, Surma and Messinger families all went to the Durant Family's winery to have dinner and take in the great atmosphere. The setting was beautiful and all the adults had a relaxing time while the kids played games. As the kids have all gotten to be better friends, the parents have followed suit. It was very satisfying to hang out and get to know all the parents that we don't see that often. Of course, we eventually had to stop the kids from playing too hard as a couple of them starting getting some bumps and bruises.

All the kids touring the winery while Olivia drives them. It reminded me of clowns piling into a car at the circus! (Photo courtesy of me)


Sunday was the Sport Final route and all the Speed rounds. The "C" Final route started on the left and meandered up and to the right until you got to the halfway point. From there, it had a very tricky section that traversed to the far left until you started to go up again. A majority of the climbers failed to get to this middle section or fell while trying to traverse it.

Sidney at the end of the traverse before heading up the route. (Photo courtesy of Bob Lockhart)


I don't remember watching Olivia climb but I'm pretty sure she fell trying to traverse the middle section and finished in 6th place. Jenna climbed strong and fell while starting to go up after the traverse to finish in 4th place. Lia climbed extremely well and used her length to her advantage after the traverse to get a hold higher than Jenna to finish in 3rd place. The last 3 in the order were Cierra, Melina and Sidney. Cierra climbed strong and smart. She got through the traverse and controlled 5 holds going up until she fell grabbing an awful pinch with her left hand. That was the high point up until then and she finished in 2nd place. Melina climbed next and looked great until she made a footwork error during the traverse and popped off, finishing in 5th place. Unfortunately, even for the best climbers, those mistakes happen sometimes. Even though she was extremely disappointed, she held it together and was very composed. Sidney cruised through the route very efficiently and was killing it. She controlled the pinch where Cierra fell and then did a sick crossover to get to the half-moon. She then drifted from the wall when going for the next small pocket, held it for a second and then came off to finish in 1st place, a few holds higher than Cierra.

Sidney on the crossover to the half moon a couple moves before reaching high point. (Photo courtesy of Bob Lockhart)


Since Melina was a CC, there were 8 invites to Nationals available instead of the normal 7 invites. In the end, there were 9 invites total because there was a tie for 8th place. Those who received invitations were Niamh Moore-8th, Emily King-8th, Laili Couper-7th, Olivia-6th, Melina-5th, Jenna-4th, Lia-3rd, Cierra-2nd and Sidney-1st. Here's a shout out to Laili and Niamh who were the only 1st years to get an invite out of the FYC category.

Lia, Sidney and Cierra on the mat "podium" for the FYC Sport awards. (Photo courtesy of Bob Lockhart)


The Speed session followed right after Sport Finals had concluded with two rounds for each category, Qualifiers and Finals. The two routes they set up for the "C" and "D" group were the typical jug routes except that they were quite short so getting a good start was critical to having a good time. Since Sidney was a two-time defending National Champion in Speed, to make a long story short, she won. There were some nice moments and surprises, however. A nice moment was watching Cierra and Sidney race during Qualifiers. Cierra held her own and had a very good time. Plus she had a great attitude about having to race Sidney which I'm assuming most kids probably don't find much fun.

Sidney slapping the finish with Cierra close behind! (Photo courtesy of Bob Lockhart)


One surprise was watching Melina take some of her angst from Sport Finals out on the Speed wall and unleash some fast runs to take 2nd place, announcing afterwards that she now officially liked Speed. It's amazing how having success in something can cause you to like it. Another surprise was watching Miriam Timson duke it out with Melina in Finals and finish in 3rd place. To Miriam's credit, she had been working a lot on Speed since failing to make Divisionals in Sport so her finish was well deserved! I also wanted to point out that Laili finished 6th in Speed and was the only 1st year to get an invite to Nationals in both disciplines (Hint-she would also figure prominently at the upcoming Speed National event).

Miriam, Sidney and Melina were all smiles for the FYC Speed awards. I always love an all VW podium! (Photo courtesy of Bob Lockhart)


Sidney was happy to win both disciplines at Divisionals but as usual she was just relieved that she climbed well. I on the other hand was already looking forward to Nationals and wondering if Sidney would be able to do what only Dana Riddle has done in the last six years on the female side. Win all three disciplines in the same year.

2012 SCS REGIONALS.

SCS Regionals for 2012 was this past May 12th and it was held at the Stone Gardens gym in Bellevue, Washington. In the 5 years that Sidney has been climbing, Stone Gardens has never hosted any event that was a Regionals or higher, so this was a first. On the plus side, the gym is very new, clean and has good viewing areas. On the minus side, I would be scoring so the stress level goes up a bit and I don't get to see all the kids climb.

A little different this year was the climbing format. Instead of the usual 2 Qualifier routes for the 1st session and 1 Final route for the finalists in a 2nd session, we did 3 climbs per group with just 1 session for each category. As a parent, I like this format because all the kids get to do 3 climbs. Plus, you don't have to wait around for another session to climb a Finals route. It's basically you climb and then you're done with Sport. On the negative side, the energy in the building was definitely lower than when you have a Finals session. When you watch a Finals session, the tension naturally gets ramped up because it's do or die and you know where everyone stands in the category that you're following. Like most things, there are pros and cons for each format. So looking at it from the perspective of a climbing fan, I definitely prefer the 2 session format because I like the excitement of watching Finals.

Counting Sidney, there were 11 girls in the FYC category. Since Melina Costanza was a Continental Champion, there would be 8 invites to Divisionals instead of the usual 7 invites. So, barring a climbing catastrophe, Sidney would be moving on to Divisionals.........but in what place?

I didn't take any video or pictures of this event or still have the score sheet anymore, so all of this is from memory. What I know for sure is that Sidney and her 3 best friends on the team took the top 4 spots for FYC. Makenna Graham flashed the first two routes with her usual precision. The 3rd route she fell about 1/3 of the way up on a power move/lock off that is definitely not one of her strengths but it was good enough for 4th place. Congrats to her as it was her best placing at any comp that was Regionals or higher! Cierra Graham flashed the first two climbs with ease and fell halfway up on the 3rd climb at the 1st crux. She may have moved through that section a bit quickly but she was solidly in 3rd place. Melina crushed the first 2 climbs and steadily made quick work of the 3rd climb. She flashed it and made it look pretty easy. Sidney flashed 1 and 2 just like the other 3 girls. I fear I may have jinxed her before her 3rd climb because the head route setter asked me if she would want to do a Superfinal and I told him she probably would. We both just assumed that Sidney would flash the route. Well, during Sidney's final climb, he started tweaking a FJR route to get it ready and sure enough, Sidney fell off of a sloper 2 holds from the finish. The top 6 placings all ended up being VW teammates. They were Laili Couper-6th, Piper Boss-5th, Makenna-4th, Cierra-3rd, Sidney-2nd and Melina-1st.

Speed was run after the Sport climbing session. Sorry to give it short shrift but it was literally a hold ladder for the C and D categories. Basically, Sidney went really fast and finished in 1st place. Miriam Timson did bounce back from an early fall in her Sport session to come in 2nd place and Laili showed some flashes of what was to come at Speed Nationals by finishing 3rd if memory serves me correctly. Melina, Cierra and Makenna all received invites to the Divisional for Speed, too.

Congratulations to Melina again, as this was the 2nd year in a row where she took 1st place in Sport at our SCS Regional. Sidney took it in stride since it WAS her best friend that beat her. Sidney and I are quite superstitious, so we took this as a very good omen. After Melina beat her last year at this event, Sidney (she skipped Divisionals) went on to place 3rd in Sport and 1st in Speed at the 2011 SCS Youth Nationals as a first year in her category. Hopefully a similar scenario would be repeated at this year's National but first she had to get through the upcoming Divisional in Oregon.