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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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