There were 14 women climbing in the Open category this year including Sidney’s best friends Melina Costanza, Cierra Graham and Lia Messinger. During Qualifiers, all the girls had a fun time while climbing a ton of routes and just crushing in general. This year, the SBP changed the number of climbers going to Finals from 8 to 6 so there was some pressure to do well in Qualifiers. I thought that Sidney was safely in around the 4-6 range but knew that her 3 friends would be right on the bubble. After the session, all the families went to a local watering hole to have lunch and visit. Towards the end of our meal, a friend called us with the results and surprisingly, Sidney qualified in 2nd place. As I suspected, the other 3 girls were really close to making Finals but just missed. Cierra qualified in 10th place, Melina qualified in 8th place and Lia was 1 spot out of making Finals in 7th place.
The SBP lowered the lights for Finals this year and put a couple spotlights on each route. I liked it as it reminded me of when we go to the Full Gravity Day comps in Bozeman, Montana. The routes were hard but they were set in a way that had the possibility of a few ties and that is exactly what happened. All 6 finalists topped problems #1 and #2. The top 5 finalists topped problem #3. On problem #4, only 1 climber got past the crux but did not top the route while the other 5 climbers all tied by controlling hold #5. So it went to falls to break the ties and they were using the World Cup format. Sidney and I were not aware that this format scores any non-top attempt as a fall as opposed to the normal youth format that only counts falls up to your high point. It might not sound like a big deal but if Sidney had known that, she would have severely limited her attempts and the outcome may have been different. Here were the final placings; 1st-Shannon Russell-3 tops-52 holds, 2nd-Lisa Chulich-3 tops-47 holds-3 falls, 3rd-Flannery Shay-Nemirow-3 tops-47 holds-7 falls, 4th-Clara Dixon-3 tops-47 holds-8 falls, 5th-Sidney-3 tops-47 holds-10 falls and 6th-Maria Celkova-2 tops. Very close.
Sidney was very happy with her climbing but was disappointed that she ended up in 5th place as they only paid up to 3rd place. She’ll learn from this experience and not make the same mistake the next time she climbs in a comp that uses the World Cup format. It was still a great time hanging with friends and climbing in front of a big crowd. On to the next comp!
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