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| Sidney, Makenna, Lia, Zak and the Kiwi at the Garden of the Gods before ABS 14 Nationals. (Photo courtesy of me) |
A long 7 weeks after Divisionals, we traveled to Colorado Springs for the ABS 14 National which was on March 1st through the 3rd. Everything had a familiar feeling to it as the event took place in the same venue and had the same wall as last year. A couple of things were vastly different than last year, though.
The first is that Sidney and her PNW besties Melina Costanza, Cierra Graham, Lia Messinger and Olivia Durant were moving up to the big time into the FYB category. Historically, as a first year B, it’s very hard to make Finals let alone make the podium. This group would try to break that trend but they were competing against some stiff competition in Margo Hayes, Claire Buhrfeind and a group of tough 2nd year B girls.
The second is that the routesetters made every route challenging, starting with Qualifier #1 all the way through to Final #3. In the past, Qualifier #1 and Qualifier #2 tended to be easy with most of the category flashing or topping the route. As this was a National, it was refreshing to see all the climbers pushed to climb their best on every route.
On that Friday, Qualifiers started with 36 competitors in
the FYB category and 4 tough problems.
Qualifier #1 started on a long, narrow volume and then moved onto a slab
wall into another volume that was wide and flat with pyramid type holds on it. The key beta was to grab the first hold on
the 2nd volume and then get your left foot up on top of the first
volume and lever up higher onto the slab section. The other tricky section was getting into the
corner to be able to go up to the 2nd to last hold and on to the
finish. Both Lia and Olivia had trouble
reading the lower beta and could not get past hold 7. Cierra also had a hiccup on her 1st
try but was able to top the route on her 2nd try. Margo, Sidney and Melina all flashed but surprisingly,
Claire had trouble getting into the corner and was 4 holds short of
finishing. To illustrate how tough the 1st
problem was, only 17 of the 36 competitors topped the route and less than half
of those (8) flashed it. That is a far
cry from last year when 33 of 35 climbers in Sidney’s category topped Qualifier
#1 in FYC. Watch, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPAcp49s4Vs&list=UUvFEo19_3FQnGo0AZ8w0Oqw&index=14
Qualifier #2 was a long, power route that had the most tops
but you either sent it on your first try or you didn’t send it at all. It started on a large volume, worked into an
extended roof section and then finished on a short vertical face with some wide
holds that were not jugs. There were 20
climbers who topped the route in all and they were all flashes. Olivia came close to the top by getting to
hold 18 while Sidney, Melina, Cierra and Lia all flashed. Watch Q2 here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y5rkmNt1y0&list=UUvFEo19_3FQnGo0AZ8w0Oqw&index=13
Qualifier #3 would prove to be the hardest of the 4
Qualifying routes. It was a short route with
most of it on a 45 degree wall that only scored to 14 holds but it needed very
specific beta to top it. The key
sequence was being able to move off a long, narrow hold that was vertical and out
to the left onto a bulbous hold. From
there you needed to keep tension with your feet on the narrow hold by various
means and move up with your hands to the next hold that was a big, round
sloper, then continue to move up to the finish hold that was another sloper. All of that needed to be done while staying
horizontal on the route and never losing your feet on the long, narrow hold. Sidney, Margo and Claire were the only
climbers to top the route and they all flashed.
Melina was able to get one hand on the big, round sloper but fell trying
to match, scoring to hold 11. Both Lia
and Cierra got to the bulbous hold to score 10 and 9 respectively. Watch this cool climb here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uUtuCiRGzQ&list=UUvFEo19_3FQnGo0AZ8w0Oqw&index=12
Qualifier #4 was another tricky slab route that started on
the right and traversed 2 foot holds to the left with no hand holds. You then moved straight up over a volume and
then moved to the right on various round slopers to the finish. There were 11 tops of this route with 8 of
them being flashes. Sidney, Melina,
Cierra and Lia were 4 of the 8 flashes while Olivia gave it a valiant effort
and scored to hold 10. The semifinal
cut-off ended up being 17th place and you needed 2 tops to get
in. Sidney and Margo tied for 1st going
into Semifinals with 4 flashes. Melina
was in 3rd and Cierra was in 8th as they both had 3 tops
and Lia was in 14th with 2 tops.
Olivia climbed really well and ended up with a respectable 25th
place finish. View the final Qualifier here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEO5jMI9g0Q&list=UUvFEo19_3FQnGo0AZ8w0Oqw&index=11
Semifinals were on Saturday and tops were going to be the
key to moving on to Finals but they were also going to be hard to get. Semifinal #1 was on the same wall as
Qualifier #4 and even followed the same pattern of left, up and right only this
one was a lot harder. The start move
again had no hands but this time you were required to leap 5 feet onto a big foot hold and then grab a hand hold
to stay on. It then moved up and over
the same volume but the sequence this time made it really hard to get over it
and you really needed to balance. Once
past the volume, you then had to crossover and down to a jug to be able to then
go back up with the proper hand to the finish.
Out of 17 competitors, 8 topped the route and only 1 climber, Bimini
Horstmann, flashed it. Claire and Kara
Herson both topped it in 2 attempts while Sidney and Margo each took 3 attempts
with Margo just making it with seconds to spare. Everyone else could not get past the tricky
volume section which included Melina, Cierra and Lia who all fell at hold
10. In the end, not getting past the
volume would prove costly for all 3 of them. You can watch here (sorry the recording started late), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x7cda_4w7s&list=UUvFEo19_3FQnGo0AZ8w0Oqw&index=10
Semifinal #2 was a burly route that scored to 15 holds but
only 8 climbers made it more than halfway.
It needed a combination of heel hooks into some power throws to get
around the corner and was really tough.
Those climbers that were not good at both of those elements were hurting
on this route and the scores reflected that.
Claire was the only one to top the route and she flashed it. Isabelle Goodacre gave it a great go in
getting to hold 12. Lia made it to hold
9 while both Sidney and Margo got to hold 8.
Melina and Cierra struggled with the heel hook/throw combo and got to
hold 6 and 5, respectively. See how tough here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwKpCJJais4&list=UUvFEo19_3FQnGo0AZ8w0Oqw&index=9
Semifinal #3 scored to 23 and was on the roof but it started
with a tricky sequence that caused a fall for Sidney on her 1st
attempt. It then moved into a corner,
traversed left and then into the roof sequence.
Not losing the heel hook as you were coming out of the roof was the key
to making the route. Both Claire and
Margo flashed the route. Sidney, Bimini
and Hollis Rudd all got to hold 17 with Sidney popping her heel hook as she was
coming out of the roof. Cierra scored to
hold 16 while both Melina and Lia struggled and got to hold 12. View here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZmPiyzH4Gk&list=UUvFEo19_3FQnGo0AZ8w0Oqw&index=8
With Semifinals over, there ended up being 10 spots for Finals. Claire was 1st with 3 tops and
Margo was 2nd with 2 tops. In
order, Sidney, Lily Canavan, Bimini, Adriana Jacobsen, Hollis and Kara all had
1 top with various hold counts/attempts.
The last 2 spots went to Megan Lynch with a hold count of 33 and Isabelle
with a hold count of 32. In
heartbreaking fashion, in 11th place was Lia with a hold count of
31, Cierra was in 12th place
also with a hold count of 31 and Melina was 2 spots back in 14th
place with a hold count of 28. There
were some definite missed opportunities for Melina, Cierra and Lia to make
Finals. Both Cierra and Lia needed 2
more holds to make Finals and Melina needed 4 holds. Melina and Lia probably should have made hold
16 instead of 12 on Semifinal #3 and that would have gotten them in. Cierra struggled with the beta on Semifinal
#2 and probably should have gotten a couple of more holds on that route. All 3 of them were bummed to not make Finals,
especially being so close. They all
climbed great, though and hopefully they will learn from the experience and be
better climbers for it.
Finals were on Sunday and the running order for FYB was
Isabelle, Megan, Hollis, Kara, Adriana, Bimini, Lily, Sidney, Margo and
Claire. Final #1 scored to 14 and was
the obligatory slab route. The only
problem is that only 2 out of the 10 climbers made it to the slab section of
the route. Claire topped the route on
her 2nd attempt and Isabelle came as close as you can get without
making the route. She got to hold 12 but
could not rock over enough on to her high step foot to be stable enough to go
for the finish. The other 8 climbers all
scored to hold 8 so this route could have been named “Feast or Famine.” Not much to see but here it is anyway, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6XYflwRlzs&list=UUvFEo19_3FQnGo0AZ8w0Oqw&index=7
Final #2 was an interesting route and scored to 12 holds. After the start hold, there were 4 big round
volumes in succession in a half circle with a couple of strategically placed
holds. The 4th volume had a
big divot in the right side of it and from there you moved up to a couple of
successive pinches and then to the finish.
A key sequence was figuring out to knee bar between the 2nd
and 3rd volume so that you could crossover to a small hold on top of
the 4th volume. This
controlled your swing and let you control the volume. Most of the climbers that didn’t knee bar
swung off the 4th volume as 7 finalists scored 8 or below. Claire controlled the 4th volume
but could not get past the 1st pinch and scored to hold 9. Sidney and Margo both flashed the route but
did the top section differently as Sidney side pulled the pinch before the
finish while Margo powered straight up to the finish. At this point, the top 3 separated from the
pack a bit as Claire, Margo and Sidney each had 1 top while everyone else did
not. Check it out and enjoy, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAMS0hL5VeU&list=UUvFEo19_3FQnGo0AZ8w0Oqw&index=6
Scoring to hold 20, Final #3 started on a volume that looked
like a dagger and moved up 3 more identical volumes into the roof section. You then worked your way up 4 successive
pinches and had to dynamically go out to a pinch that was on the end of a
volume face that was vertical. From
there you were 3 pinches and a toe hook from the finish. Only Claire, who flashed it, and Margo, on
her 2nd attempt, topped the route.
On her first try, Sidney fell before the finish and scored to hold
18. She probably should have done the
finishing sequence differently but she gave it her all. What was really cool looking was how she did
the dynamic move out to the pinch on the volume face. She went out and momentarily spanned the gap,
then used her momentum to pirouette and swing around to match the hold. You can watch that cool move here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa7FIGK1B-s&list=UUvFEo19_3FQnGo0AZ8w0Oqw&index=5
Since only 3 climbers had a Top in Finals, the podium was
set. For the other 7 Finalists, hold count
and attempts would filter everyone out.
The bottom 4 climbers all could not make the dynamic move on Final #3 so
that hurt their chances of moving up as they lost hold count to the rest of the
group. They were Lily in 10th
place (27 holds), Hollis in 9th place(29 holds), Bimini in 8th
place (29 holds) and Megan in 7th place (29 holds). Kara scored 30 holds and came in an
impressive 6th place. Kara is
from Sidney’s division and really improved as the ABS season went along. Great job Kara! Adriana improved her place each round of
climbing and scored 32 total holds for Finals.
This put her in 5th place which I believe is her best placing
at a National event. Congrats! Both Sidney and Isabelle scored 38 holds but
the separator was Sidney’s flash of Final #2.
Isabelle would place 4th and snag the coveted last U.S. Team
spot for the FYB category. Nice! With both Margo and Claire topping 2 routes,
it came down to hold count and Claire’s top of Final #1 would be the
difference. Claire ended up with 43
holds and Margo had 40 holds so the podium was Claire in 1st place,
Margo in 2nd place and Sidney in 3rd place. It was a close competition but Claire
deserved to win as she consistently climbed the best during Semifinals and
Finals.
Another pressure packed National event was in the books and
we actually did something fun this time around as we went to “The Garden of the
Gods” before the first day of competition! This and the first picture on this blog entry proves it,
I often write about Sidney’s consistency as a comp climber but I would be remiss if I didn’t highlight how consistent Margo is as well. Since she is a year older than Sidney, they only compete against one another every other year but Margo has garnered a U.S. Team selection in every Bouldering and Sport National since the beginning of the 2009 season. That’s a total of 9 times! Even Sidney can’t say she has done that as she was just barely edged out in the 2011 ABS National with a 5th place finish. Very impressive Margo!
Of course with this most recent podium finish, Sidney did get her 13th U.S. Team selection and now has a Baker’s Dozen. Amazing! You deserve it Sissy!
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| Lia, Sidney, Makenna and Zak at the Garden of the Gods. (Photo courtesy of Brad Messinger) |
I often write about Sidney’s consistency as a comp climber but I would be remiss if I didn’t highlight how consistent Margo is as well. Since she is a year older than Sidney, they only compete against one another every other year but Margo has garnered a U.S. Team selection in every Bouldering and Sport National since the beginning of the 2009 season. That’s a total of 9 times! Even Sidney can’t say she has done that as she was just barely edged out in the 2011 ABS National with a 5th place finish. Very impressive Margo!
Of course with this most recent podium finish, Sidney did get her 13th U.S. Team selection and now has a Baker’s Dozen. Amazing! You deserve it Sissy!
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| Adriana and Sidney were all smiles after Nationals! (Photo courtesy of the Jacobsen family) |
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