First off, I loved the set-up that USA Climbing used for this National! The new walls were great but the City Auditorium venue they rented was very cool. There were tons of seating for people on the floor and if you wanted more of a bird's eye view, great seating in the balcony. City Rock was literally right next door so everything was really close and accessible. Fantastic!
In previous posts, I've alluded to the fact that I thought Sidney, Melina Costanza, Cierra Graham and Lia Messinger were in the top 5 for their category in the nation. It just so happens that they are all in the same Division. Rounding out my top 5, of course, would be Grace Kane and she has since moved back to our Division so now all 5 are in Division 1! One or two kids usually bubble up and are in the mix for the podium, too, so I was curious to see how the placings would end up.
Qualifiers started on that Friday with 35 competitors and 4 problems. Qualifier # 1 was fairly easy with all but two girls making the route. Qualifier # 2 was even easier as all the girls made the route. Qualifier # 3 was the difference between moving on to Semifinals or watching for the rest of the weekend. A little over halfway up the route was a big move that 16 climbers made. The cutoff for Semifinals was the top 17, so basically if you didn't make the move you were not moving on. Qualifier # 4 was an overhang route that was pretty tough unless you were able to keep your feet on the wall to keep tension. A total of 6 girls flashed all 4 routes and they were Sidney, Melina, Cierra, Grace, Bimini Horstmann and Ivy Todd. Lia had problems on Qualifier # 4 and was only able to get halfway up. She ended up in 16th place but was still in it as the scores zero out after each round and I was sure she would bounce back. Sidney, Melina and Cierra looked strong throughout although Cierra looked a bit pumped at the finish of Qualifier # 4.
Semifinals were on Saturday with 17 competitors and 3 problems. Semifinal # 1 was a slab route that all but 3 climbers flashed. The big surprise was when it was Grace Kane's turn to come out of ISO, she was nowhere to be seen. Word spread quickly that she was extremely sick and would not be able to climb. Grace and her family are the nicest people you will ever meet so it was very disheartening to see that happen. Semifinal # 2 kicked it up a notch with 6 girls flashing the problem and 1 girl, Louise Tester, making it on her 3rd attempt. Melina, Cierra and Lia all looked good in flashing the problem but Sidney looked especially strong in her flash. Bimini and Cayley Ryan were the other two girls to flash the route. Semifinal # 3 was a long route that had a big move halfway up, then some overhang to get you pumped and finally some slopers at the end to buck you off. Lia was the first to get past the big move. She then worked her way up to hold 19 before falling to qualify for Finals in 5th. Cierra had two really good attempts and got by the big move both times. On her 1st attempt, her foot sequencing was her downfall as her foot popped while going for hold 23 to qualify in 4th place. Melina looked a bit lost with her sequencing but was stellar at the top and fell trying to match for hold 24. She was 1 hold higher than Cierra and went into Finals in 3rd place. Bimini looked very strong and matched on the 2nd to last hold but rushed going to the final hold and fell. She was 1 hold higher than Melina and was in 2nd place going into Finals. Sidney absolutely crushed the route! She was smooth, strong and precise in flashing the climb with no problems at all.
On Sunday, there were 11 competitors in Finals. In reverse order they were, Maya Johnson, Grace Scott, Ivy, Emerson Nairon, Louise, Cayley, Lia, Cierra, Melina, Bimini and Sidney. Right away, Final # 1 looked like major trouble to me for Sidney. She is very good at slab but not great. It's her Achilles Heel but I was hoping for the best. Louise was the first girl to make the route and that was on her 3rd try. To her credit, she didn't give up and in the end that was huge as I will explain later. Lia was the next climber to make it and that was on her 2nd try. She was able to use her incredible length to avoid having to go down into the side pull before the finish. Cierra and Melina climbed awesome in flashing the route although Cierra looked like she almost fell in trying to give the judge a thumbs up at the finish! Bimini looked good but fell trying to match the finish hold and could not get to the same point on her next try. Being 1 hold short and not getting the Top would prove very costly after all was said and done. Sidney looked fine on her first attempt until the side pull near the finish. She misread needing to use the arete and fell. Her 2nd attempt was better but she started to run out of time and fell going to the finish with 2 seconds remaining on the clock. Uh oh. This left her in a major hole. It also put Melina, Cierra and Lia in the driver's seat with a huge chance to win if they could Top Final # 2 or # 3.
Final # 2 was pretty straightforward with a fairly tough finish. It started with a traverse to the left that gave a couple of girls fits. It then moved up into some slab and an undercling. From there you needed to get as high as possible and fall into a big, two handed jug. The rest of the route needed to be sequenced properly and then a power move to the finish. On her first try, Lia had to work a bit to get to the big jug. Then on the next sequence, she had to cross over to the right with her left hand while hanging. This caused her to turn the wrong way and she had to muscle back the other way to continue up to the power move. I think by that time she was pumped as she had been on the wall for almost 90 seconds. She went for the power move and held it for almost a second before falling. Cierra had two very good tries at it but with the same result as she fell attempting the same move. Melina fell at the same spot as the other two. That left Bimini and Sidney. As I recall, on her first attempt, Bimini snagged the power move just like Lia and held it for almost a second before falling. Then here is where it got very interesting. On her second attempt, she snagged the power move right as the clock struck 0.00. It was very chaotic and loud but I was watching very closely. It looked to me as though she touched the next hold at the precise moment that time ran out. What was a bit disconcerting is that Sidney turned around to start climbing and Bimini was still finishing the route. Like I said, it was loud and people were cheering so it was hard to hear the voice timer. I was fairly confident that they were not going to give her credit for making the move as I saw the judges shaking their heads but you never know. Sidney didn't let that affect her and went about her business. She bounced back from the disappointment of Final # 1 and cruised the route for the category's only Top and Flash of Final # 2. I was proud of her for re-grouping and showing her mettle. At this point, I thought she was at least even with the other girls if not ahead on hold count.
Final # 3 was a bit anti-climactic as all 5 girls had the same high point of hold 13. Both Lia and Bimini got it on their 1st attempts, Melina and Sidney got it on their 2nd attempts and Cierra got there on her 3rd attempt. Sidney did snag hold 14 on her 2nd attempt and held it for a tantalizing second before swinging off but it was not meant to be. Her climbing was now done and she had climbed great. Now it was time to sweat the scores.
I thought that Sidney had come in 1st by 1 hold but it's hard to predict how the route setters score each route. It wasn't long until they posted scores and I saw that Sidney did indeed place 1st.....by 1 hold! Here is how the scoring broke down.
1st - Sidney - 1 Top - 48 Holds - 1 Flash - U.S. Team
2nd - Melina - 1 Top - 47 Holds - 1 Flash - 4 Attempts To High Point - U.S. Team
3rd - Cierra - 1 Top - 47 Holds - 1 Flash - 5 Attempts To High Point - U.S. Team
4th - Lia - 1 Top - 47 Holds - No Flashes - U.S. Team
5th - Louise - 1 Top - 25 Holds - No Flashes - U.S. Team
6th - Bimini - No Tops - 46 Holds - No flashes - 3 Attempts To High Point
It was amazing how close the scoring ended up being. Take note how important it was that Louise made Final # 1 on her 3rd try as it bumped her up into the final U.S. Team spot. Bimini climbed extremely well but her inability to get a Top dropped her into 6th place. I felt bad for her but was equally as happy for Louise as she never gave up and pulled it out. The "what if" scenarios were plentiful. If Bimini had been able to pull out the final hold and flash Final # 1, she would have placed 2nd. If she had climbed 5 seconds faster on Final # 2 then she would have won. If Lia, Cierra or Melina had been able to hang on and make the power move on Final # 2, then any of them would have won.
The awards ceremony was a really, really special moment for the Trinidad, Costanza and Graham families. We spend a huge amount of time together and devote a lot of effort to making sure the girls have every opportunity to try and reach their goals. It was also a tremendous moment for the team. To see all red and white on the podium was a very cool sight. To put the Vertical World sweep of the podium into perspective, of the other 9 categories, no team had 2 climbers on the same podium, let alone 3 of them. To celebrate this event, I will post 2 pictures of the podium!
As I expected, Sidney climbed spectacularly in flashing 8 of the 10 comp routes. She only made 2 mistakes the whole comp, but unfortunately they were during Finals and it almost cost her. The first was not sequencing Final # 1 correctly. Not making that route really opened the door for any of the other girls to step through and win. The second was not sequencing her feet the correct way in moving off of the big pinch on Final # 3. She put her feet to the left instead of putting them to the right and it got her pumped well before her high point of Hold 13. In talking with her after the results were posted, she told me right away about both of those mistakes before I could even bring it up, so I know she has learned from them already. Even though she climbed great and won, she told me the next day that it was really bugging her that she didn't flash Final # 1 and # 3. She is her own biggest critic. I guess that's one of the reasons she is such a great climber.
Finally, winning this event puts Sidney in some very rare company. Dating back to the 2008 season, she joins Dana Riddle as the only female youth competitors to win a National Championship in all 3 climbing disciplines. Sidney and Dana are also the only females to have 10 or more U.S. Team selections during that time. Even with all of those accolades, she is still as humble as ever and she continues to work hard at her craft. I could not be more proud of her.
