This was Year 4 in Atlanta for the 2013 SCS Youth National event at Stone Summit. I’m not a fan of going to the same place for Nationals over and over and over and over but the bottom line is that it’s the best place to hold the National, so thank you Stone Summit for hosting it. Having just pulled off the Divisional Double (1st place in both Sport & Speed), Sidney worked really hard in preparation for the National event and capped off her training with a great week at the VW teams’ training camp. She was ready and firing on all cylinders by the time Nationals started.
Day 1 – As usual, the first day of competition was Qualifier
#1 for Sport and all the Qualifier runs for Speed. For Sidney and 2 of her best friends, Melina
Costanza and Cierra Graham, Qualifier #1 went smoothly as they all flashed the
route. Some of the other favorites in
the FYB category like Claire Buhrfeind, Margarita Marsanova, Isabelle Goodacre
and Grace McKeehan also flashed the route.
The only drama on the day was Margo Hayes mistakenly stepping on a bolt
hanger and being called off near the top of the route. It put her in danger of not advancing to
Semifinals but Qualifier #2 would end up being a very hard route which would
help her immensely. You can watch Sidney's 1st climb here, Sport Q1.
Going into this National for Speed, Sidney was a 3 time
defending champion. The difference this
time around was that she would not be climbing on jugs but on the Speed
holds. As per her strategy, Sidney just
tried to be smooth on her first run and posted a time of 8.36 seconds, which
ended up being the 2nd fastest 1st run and can be seen here, Speed Q1. On her second pass, she put it all together
and blazed to a time of 7.12 seconds. Watch here, Speed Q2.
This would put her firmly in 1st place after Qualifiers with
the next 5 fastest times being Claire (7.74 seconds), Margarita (8.07 seconds),
Jenna Wang (8.33 seconds), Bethany Eversole (8.47 seconds) and Grace (8.51
seconds). For those paying attention,
can you see a connection there? Yep, 4
of the top 6 fastest times were put up by Team Texas climbers. To say they are really well coached in Speed
would be an understatement. The other
two climbers in the top 6 (Sidney and Jenna) also have easy access to very good
Speed walls to train on. Melina pulled a
best time of 11.36 seconds just barely ahead of Cierra’s time of 11.57 seconds. Unfortunately for Cierra, she would finish in
17th place, 1 spot out of continuing onto Semifinals but on the flip
side, it was good for Melina as she moved on in the 16th spot.
Day 2 – Qualifier #2 for Sport was a reaaaaaallllly long
route with over half of it on a roof section which made Sidney very happy. After the roof section, the route went
vertical and zigzagged up to the highest point of the wall. Really tough.
Quite a few really good climbers had problems with the
route. Isabelle, Hanna Grossman and
Bimini Horstman all fell at the same spot and all tied for 17th
place, which was the last spot to get in for Semifinals. In front of them were 8 girls that all fell
in the same spot a few moves before the route went vertical. They all tied for 9th place going
into Semifinals and among them were Melina, Cierra, Lily Canavan and Audrey
Miller. By my recollection, only 5
climbers fully made it onto the vertical face.
Those 5 climbers were Sidney, Margo, Claire, Grace and Margarita. Margarita fell a couple of moves after the
roof section and qualified in 5th.
Claire and Grace fell at the same spot about halfway up the vertical
face and qualified tied for 2nd. Margo
actually finished the route but timed out a couple of moves from the finish and
she did not get credit for the flash.
Still she qualified for Semifinals in 4th which was great as
she had that mistake on Qualifier #1.
Sidney cruised through the roof section and then, on the vert section, she
somehow held onto a sloper when her foot slipped. She fell after getting Usable Surface on the
finish hold at the top. It was a tremendous effort and she would go into Semifinals in 1st place. See her awesome climb here, Sport Q2.
Sidney gave us a scare during Speed Semifinals when she fell
after the first couple of moves on her 1st run. She went into “Be careful and get a time”
mode on her 2nd run and clocked in with a time of 8.22 seconds which
was good for 5th place going into Finals. The top 8 girls for Finals in descending
order of time were Erica Meister (8.76 seconds), Audrey (8.72 seconds), Bethany
(8.43 seconds), Sidney, Jenna (7.91
seconds), Claire (7.32 seconds), Margarita (7.17 seconds) and Grace (6.90
seconds). This would pair up Sidney and
Bethany for Finals in the 2nd pairing (out of 4) in the order. I thought it was a good thing because if you
put a good time out there early, it puts pressure on the climbers after her and
they might not perform as well. Melina
pulled her best time of the comp at 10.90 seconds to improve by 2 spots and
finish in 14th place.
Day 3 – The Sport Semifinal was a straight forward route
near the middle of the main wall that got your pump on and ended with a tricky
hand sequence at the top. Sidney looked
great on her climb and fell going to the finish. You can watch this climb here, Sport Semifinal. It was good enough for her to be in 2nd
place going into Finals right behind Claire who finished the route. The top 11 going into Finals after Claire and
Sidney, in order, were Grace, Margo, Margarita, Isabelle, Bimini, Robyn Ragins,
Cierra, Melina, and Leilani Peralta.
The 8 Finalists in Speed, in reverse order and their
pairing, were Erica & Audrey,
Bethany & Sidney, Jenna & Claire and Margarita & Grace. On her first run, Sidney was smooth and
powerful in putting up a very fast time of 7.24 seconds. On her 2nd run, she pretty much
mirrored her 1st run with a time of 7.32 seconds. In the end, her 1st run time would
put her in 2nd place and on the podium. Claire had a best time of 7.06 seconds to
take 1st place and Grace had a best time of 7.36 seconds to come in
3rd to round out the podium.
Margarita came in 4th with a time of 7.60 seconds to nab the
last coveted U.S. Team spot for Youth Worlds.
Just missing out in 5th place was Jenna with a time of 8.08
seconds but kudos to her as she was consistently fast throughout the Speed
portion of the comp. Watch Sidney's 2nd place winning run here, Speed Final #1.
 |
| A cool shot of Sidney after tripping the timer on her Final Speed run #2. (Photo courtesy of Unknown) |
Day 4 – The Sport Final was a very cool route but it was all
heartbreak for Sidney. After climbing so
well throughout the comp, Sidney made a mistake about halfway up the route and
fell. It was a hold where you needed to
get both hands into a hole in the hold and then oppose the force in order to
move to the next hold. Unfortunately,
Sidney misread it and fell to finish in 10th place. The gym fell silent as a lot of people were
sort of in shock for a moment. I know I
was. Having made the podium 14 times in
her previous 17 National events, with the other 3 being 4th & 5th
place finishes, this was new to her. This
was the first time she had made a mistake like that at such a crucial moment that
it was hard to process BUT this was where I was the most proud of her. I met her outside where she was crying with
Diana. We talked and hugged. Then she said she wanted to go back inside to
cheer Claire on and be with her friends.
Though Sidney was tremendously disappointed, she went back inside and
did just that which showed a lot of character.
Later, a few parents complimented me on how well she handled her
disappointment which made me very proud. On the bright side, her best friend Melina crushed it to finish in 4th
place and join Sidney on the U.S. Team bound for Youth Worlds in Victoria, B.C.
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| Adriana Jacobsen, Bimini, Melina, Makenna Graham, Sidney, Cierra and Lily a short time after the Sport climbing for the FYB category had completed. (Photo courtesy of Kari Horstmann, I think) |
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