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ABS 14 Open Nationals – Quali Results
Spot Coach Tiffany Hensley about to finish Women’s Quali 1
We are SO PROUD of setter and coach Ian Dory, who ended up in 8th after qualis, and coach Tiffany Hensley, who is in 11th. Both will be competing in Semifinals this morning, starting at 11am (watch on live feed here!)
Setter and Coach Ian Dory on his first go on Quali 4. He did it next try.
While you are waiting you can watch replays of the qualifiers (most women, last 1/2 of men) here - ABS14 Nationals 2013 Qualifier Replays
We would also like to give a shout out to SBS 8 competitors Megan Mascarenas (1st), Nina Wiliams (5th), Tyler Youngwerth (20th), Kati Peters (21st), and Jesse Youngwerth (22nd); and for the men Daniel Woods (tied for 2nd), Michael O’Rourke (4th), Rob D’Anastasio (5th), Matt Wilder (9th), Jon Cardwell (11th), Ben Hoberg (13th) Matty Hong (14th), and Garrett Gregor (15th) who have all made it into Semifinals.
Matty Hong on Men’s 1
ALSO props to our previous head setter Carlo Traversi, who qualified in 10th, and to Matt Lubar, who started out at The Spot and was on our youth team for quite a while. Lubar now climbs for Team ABC and he qualified in 21st, just out of finals. He is a regular fixture in SBS comps and did well in SBS Open Finals this year as well.
Nice job everyone!
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ABS 14 Nationals Men’s Semi’s Running Order
ABS 14 Nationals Women’s Semi’s Running Order
ABS 14 Nationals Men’s Quali Results
ABS 14 Nationals Women’s Quali Results
More Info: ABS Nationals Homepage
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Semi’s Live Feed (starting at 11am) - TV | Louder Than 11
SBS 8 Gladiator Finals! – Women’s Open Final Results!
Megan doing a Megan-move to gain the T-Rex | Katrin Bell
The Problem
Jay Jay and I set the Gladiator Finals Women’s Open Final. Our theme was powerful moves on big holds. I’m pretty sure it was Jay Jay’s first final ever and it was the first one I set this season. We set it, we warmed up for forerunning, and with some effort I flashed it. I set it (so automatically easier for me) and I had just gotten back from a long trip to Hueco, but still, if I’m flashing the final it’s probably too easy.
Our start sequence was one of the issues, so incorporating some of the group’s ideas we took the large start hold/foot ledge off, put on some slopey-topped underclings instead, added a small crimp undercling to help the climbers get out right from the start underclings, and removed a right-handed pinch that had been useful to help the climbers bump left hand up to the first green So Ill feature (as a pinch/undercling). Now the start was harder. Next I replaced one of the big ledge-like jibs on the T-rex with a smaller slopey ball jib. Dialed up the first mini-rex so it was steeper. Tried to replace the low pink pinch for crossing to the first mini-rex, but nothing else was good enough to make the move work, so we left it. We wanted to make sure all the competitors would get up a little ways, but also that they’d have to try and that even the strongest would begin to tire themselves out climbing through it. Bottom, set.
The top took some dialing in as well, as I watched Jon Cardwell and Ian both hold the difficult body-opening swing at the top and we struggled to decide whether or not the women would be able to do the move–especially with their right hand on a pinch. I moved some holds around, ran the boys again, and finally committed to using a crimp instead for the right hand. By committed I mean I kept the crimp on the wall, kept the pinch handy in the setting closet, and panicked about whether or not I should change it until the moment finals started. Honestly, as is usual in this sort of situation, I sort of kept panicking, but after watching the results I’m glad we left the crimp on. I think with the pinch the move would have been a bit too stopper. As it was, it allowed a few through and stopped a couple more. Appropriate.
I’d also like to thank Sarah Fullerton for helping us forerun finals all season. Her help has been invaluable.
Sarah on Bierstadt at Evans
Thanks Sarah!!!
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The Finalists
Nina Williams looking all kinds of strong on the very challenging O6 | Page Kuepper
The redpoint round left us with a separated field of women, most of whom had climbed A10-O4. All the competitors (youth and adult) who wished to have a chance to compete in finals were asked to climb in the adult session to negate the possibility that extra rest between sessions would give them an edge in finals. Their qualifier scores are still split into Youth and Adult however, so if you want to see the full qualifier round scores, you’ll have to visit YOUTH and ADULT. (Note – Megan’s quali scores are improperly in the Adult category, should be fixed next week.)
Top two qualifiers Megan Mascarenas (21,560) and Nina Williams (21,500) climbed O6, O4, O3, O2, and O1. They were separated by 6 falls (Megan had 4, Nina had 10).
The next 6 qualifiers climbed O4-A10 and were also separated by falls. We usually only take 6 to finals, but because of the men’s field we needed 7, and we had a tie for 7th so we took 8 in both fields. More fun for you to watch, and more stress for the setters to separate! Here are the other qualifiers and their qualifying scores:
3. Tiffany Hensley 21,000 – 0 falls – Spot Coach
4. Margo Hayes 20,990 – 1 fall – ABC
5. Isabelle Goodacre 20,980 – 2 falls – ABC
6. Mirthe Van Liere 20,960 – 4 falls – Darkhorse
7. Tika Anderson – 20,940 – 6 falls (tie) – Spot Team Captain
7. Laurel Todd – 20,940 – 6 falls (tie) – ABC Team Captain
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Finals
Laurel Todd | Ryan Nadlonek
ABC Team Captain Laurel Todd came out first. She has been consistently squeaking into finals this season and always puts in a great effort on the final problem. She gracefully accepts the role of guinea pig as she has to figure out the problem with everyone watching her and no hint (from hearing other competitor’s attempts) of how far people are even getting on it. Laurel fought her way through the bottom, giving a faith-throw and hitting the jib on the t-rex, then matching and reaching out to the right undercling before falling. Next go she hit the t-rex wrong and fell, next go she fell moving to the t-rex. Score: 9th hold/1st go
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Tika pinching the bejesus out of the bottom moves. Dave Graham sticking the swing in the background. | Jackie Hueftle
Spot Climbing Team Captain Tika Anderson came next. She has won ABS Regionals and Divisionals so far this season and made some SBS finals as well. She and Laurel are usually neck-and-neck, and they were this comp when they tied in qualifiers. First go Tika had a bit of a rough start with the T-Rex, not hitting it quite right and falling when she tried to match. She rested, and to the roars of the crowd she rallied and hiked through the bottom of the problem, looking unstoppable as she crushed through the moves she’d previously fallen on, matched the undercling, and grabbed the high right crimp. At that point she looked good but was a little stuck and as soon as her body came out her foot slipped and she was off. Score: 11/2
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Mirthe in the low-middle of the problem | Ryan Nadlonek
Mirthe Van Liere. Mirthe is a total darkhorse to Spot Series comps, as we’ve never had her in finals before (at least as far as I can recall). She climbed well in qualifiers and considering this was her first Spot final I thought she did very well, though first go she mistakenly grabbed an off-route hold. Ian called her off and it ruined her momentum as she had to start over, but she gathered herself and gave some good goes, managing to match the T-Rex before falling, then get through the T-Rex the go after that and fall matching the undercling. Her last go she was tired and fell early. Good efforts Mirthe! Score: 9/3
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Isabelle | Katrin Bell
Isabelle Goodacre. There isn’t much to say besides Isabelle hiked the problem in good style. It didn’t even really look hard for her. The crowd was yelling and I was sweating–I know Isabelle is a strong climber, but she made the problem look SO EASY that I was sure everyone else would flash it, especially because they heard the crowd and knew Isabelle had flashed. This can give competitors pressure but it can also give confidence–if someone lower in the rankings than you flashed something, you might think you can flash it too, right? I managed to contain myself and remember that anything can happen in competition, especially when it comes to finals. The crowd roared for Isabelle and Margo was up next. Score: Flash
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Margo trying so hard to hang on. | Ryan Nadlonek
Margo Hayes started showing up in Spot finals a couple of years ago. She is a strong competitor who can be fueled by frustration, as we saw at Psychedelia when she made a mistake and fell early on the final, then got back on and crushed it. This time she came out strong and confident and did the early moves with ease. Unfortunately for Margo, when she did the big move to the T-Rex she missed both of the jibs and hit a bad slopey spot between them. She tried to stay on, but to no avail. Her body swung out and she was off. The start of the problem, as I said, is sapping, and so the first time it doesn’t feel so bad but with each subsequent try it makes you more and more tired. Despite this, Margo fought her way back through the volume, through the undercling, to the crimp Tika fell from, then jumped for the next pinch. She caught it, her body swung open, and she tried and tried to kick her feet back on but she couldn’t quite stick them to anything and she was off. Next go she went back to the crimp and fell trying to stick the pinch. Score: 12/2
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Tiffany Hensley styling the bottom | Katrin Bell
Tiffany Hensley is a regular finals competitor and sometimes winner at SBS comps. She came into this final looking very strong and handily flashed her way to the pinch move Margo had fallen on. Like Margo, Tiff hit the pinch, stuck it, but as her body swung out she was unable to get a foot back on and eventually she fell.
Not a great picture but I’m sharing it so you can see how hard Tiff was trying to get her feet back on. Margo was much the same. The crimp and pinch just opened your body from the wall in a way that made it hard to recover if your feet came off.
Her next go was the same as Margo’s 3rd–she hit the crimp and jumped to the pinch but didn’t stick. Score: 12/1
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Nina Williams | Ryan Nadlonek
Nina Williams has been on a roll this year. She’s really stepped up her competitive game, showing up on the podium at major pro events and winning all 3 previous SBS events this year–The Gun Show, Psychedelia, and Highlines/Highballs. She came out strong and though she looked to be trying hard on on the crimp/pinch cross, she managed to get her foot back on and finish the problem with a flash. Nice job Nina! Score: Flash
Nina Williams sticking the hardest move | Katrin Bell
Nina Williams after the flash | Katrin Bell
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Megan Mascarenas holding the hard swing | Katrin Bell
Megan Mascarenas swept SBS 7 and for SBS 8 she has been just behind Nina. Our technical starts this season have been causing many competitors, Megan included, to make mistakes and fall early. This problem was a little more straightforward power, and with Megan’s lead from qualifiers if she flashed the final she’d win. If not, Nina would win. That’s a lot of pressure, but Megan handled it well, styling the bottom, holding the difficult swing on the crimp and the pinch (but it looked like she barely held it as her left hand slipped on the pinch) and finishing the problem for the flash and her first SBS 8 win.
Great job to all the competitors, especially Megan and Nina for their hard-fought battles for first place these past two seasons!
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Results
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8. Mirthe Van Liere
Mirthe moving out to the undercling | Katrin Bell
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7. Laurel Todd
Laurel working out the bottom | Ryan Nadlonek
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6. Tika Anderson
Tika Anderson | Katrin Bell
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5. Margo Hayes
Margo trying for a bicycle to cross to the pinch. | Katrin Bell
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4.Tiffany Hensley
Tiffany struggling to hold the pinch. | Katrin Bell
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3. Isabelle Goodacre
Isabelle Goodacre handily flashing the final | Ryan Nadlonek
Flashed the final but was last of the 3 flashers in qualifiers so 3rd overall.
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2. Nina Williams
Always a good attitude from Nina! | Ryan Nadlonek
Flashed the final but 6 falls behind Megan in qualis means Nina ended up in 2nd.
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1. Megan Mascarenas
Holding the difficult swing at the top! | Ryan Nadlonek
Megan flashed and because she was 1st in qualifiers as well she won!
Megan! | Ryan Nadlonek
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Thanks to all who came out to compete in or watch SBS 8 comps.
See you next season!
Gladiator Finals Open Final Results!
Ian Powell and Spencer Pitman battling it out.
Ok, so the comp just got over and man was it exciting! Gladiator Jousting, 230 adult competitors and over 150 youth competitors. Food, beer, a huge raffle, and of course beats from rising star DJ Dirt Monkey and a rockin’ pro final! More pictures, full results, and a rundown will come soon, but for tonight here’re the top 3 from the Open Final.
Women’s Final Top 3
Megan Mascarenas eyeing the committing dyno that she stuck one handed to flash the boulder and win the comp.
1. Megan Mascarenas! For the first time this season Megan qualified for finals in 3rd instead of 1st. Nevertheless, Megan handily flashed the final to secure her fourth win in the four-comp Spot Bouldering Series 7, making her the overall champion of the series and igniting a fire in the crowd who cheered loudly as Megan stuck a huge committing dyno and finished the boulder.
2. Nina Williams! Nina was looking really strong and she qualified for finals in 1st place for the first time this season. She looked strong but it took her two tries to make the 2nd and final send of the final problem for 2nd place overall behind Megan. Nice job Nina!
Chauncey Cox about to static her way through the dyno.
3. Chauncenia Cox! Chauncey hasn’t been at a Spot comp so far this season but she came on with a vengeance to qualify in 2nd and end up in 3rd overall after statically controlling the dyno stick hold with her off-hand but not being able to move from the position to match it. Thanks for coming out Chauncey!
Men’s Top 3
Spot Setter (but not for this comp) and Team ABC Boulder Coach Garrett Gregor came out and gave the best flash burn on the problem to control these slopers and the win.
1. Garrett Gregor! Qualified in 5th, but came out and gave a great flash burn to control hold #8 on his first try. He and the 2nd and 3rd place finishers all made good tries to stick the blue pinch that is the last hold on the problem, but nobody could stay on it so Garrett took the win. Nice job Garrett!!!
First-place qualifier Jon Cardwell came close to sending the final and taking the win but he couldn't quite stick the blue pinch to seal the deal.
2. Jon Cardwell! Jon qualified in 1st over Matty Hong by a few falls. Both sent O10, O9, O8, O7, and O6 and still had enough energy to perform strongly in finals.
3. Matty Hong! Like Jon and Garrett, Matty fell trying to get a hold of that last little blue pinch. They gave the crowd a good show, and hopefully one of these guys will come back and send this rig soon before Carlo gets home from Boston.
More to come tomorrow. But until then, contemplate this:
Excuse us, Miss, what, exactly, do you think you're doing?
SBS Highlines & Highballs Open Results + Commercials – Alex Honnold & Katie Brown, and Chris Sharma selling watches?!
Highballs & Highlines Open Finals Results
Yes, it was exciting. As usual. Three members of Boulder’s Team ABC made finals, giving the start of the finals some orange flair. On top of that, we staggered start times due to a men’s finals no show, so our 2nd girl ABC’er and 1st guy ABC’er ended up climbing at the same time. There was SO MUCH ORANGE! I’ll write up a longer rundown later, but til then here are the results:
Men's winner Alex "Socks" Johnson staring down the Bear Claw. Photo by Jay Droeger.
Men
1. Alex “Socks” Johnson (fumbled the accursed BEAR CLAW!)
2. Matty Hong (1 move below Alex)
3. Garrett Gregor (we messed up scoring a little at comp time, Garrett actually earned 7- so he should have been 3rd)
4. Alex Manikowski (6+)
5. Michael O’Rourke (6+, qualified lower than Alex M so in 5th actually instead of 3rd)
6. Matt Lubar (6+, last qualifier so in 6th here)
Women's winner Megan Mascarenas hiking her final.
Women
1. Megan Mascarenas (flash!)
2. Nina Williams (14-)
3. Tiffany Hensley (13-, top qualifier of the next 4 climbers)
4. Isabelle Goodacre (13-)
5. Gabi Masse (13-)
6. Jesse Youngwerth (7)
I can’t find any more pictures of it yet, so here’s a picture of Maddie in the youth section of the comp.
Commercials
You may have seen this recent Citibank Ad featuring Alex Honnold and Katie Brown.
No, that is not Katie’s voice. You can read an interesting blog about how that all went down on Beth Rodden’s Blog.
But you probably didn’t know that Chris Sharma ditched his hot Spanish lifestyle and went climbing in Italy. Well, check this out:
He ties the rope, but did you see him use it?
We’re glad to see that climbers are finally getting paychecks from other industries!
Highballs & Highlines Results & Reset
We will be resetting Monday – Friday in the mornings. If you want to climb only comp style go to The Spot today. Tomorrow afternoon (after 4 is a safe bet) there will be at least 1 new wall for you. Etc. for the rest of the week until the gym is fairly full.
The rest of the SBS 7 Highballs & Highlines Wrap Up is coming later this week. Photos, full results, and more. Stay tuned, and see you at The Spot!
Psychedelia 2011 Open Finals Result
Goodness, gracious... yes that is a real bowling ball. Most of one anyways. O1.
The rest of the results will be up soon (preliminaries at least) but here are the top results from the open final. We had 6 men and 7 women due to a tie for women’s 6th, and we couldn’t take 7 men cause we had a tie for men’s 7th, which would have meant 8 men, which would have meant finals would have run quite long.
Men’s Open Final
I really hope someone took video of this. The guys started on the far left side of the Beach. After a few moves straight up they were handed a bone that was hung with chain from the rafters. They had to jump and swing across the huge open space to grab a large incut jug ledge just left of the center bulge of the Beach. From there they had to down climb and then climb in a semicircle out and right before heading up again into the left side of the bulge.
Matty Hong got the furthest on his flash go and to the same place on his second try, and he ended up falling around 3 holds from the finish. Spot setter Garrett Gregor, who did not set at all for this event, came in 2nd because he fell grabbing at a hold that Matty held. From there people fell off in various places across the semicircle traverse, except the first competitor who didn’t manage to stick the swing. The swing was definitely difficult and took several competitors several tries to stick. Adam Markert, who came out 2nd, stuck it straight away though to the great delight of the crowd and proceeded to spiderman around on the jug for a while before continuing on the problem. Gun Show winner Michael O’Rourke almost didn’t stick the swing, but after several goes he worked it out and made his way down and through part of the traverse. Michael and Alex “socks” Johnson both climb in socks, and for this comp they had matching knee socks that kind of glowed in the blacklight.
It is worth nothing that for the men’s final qualification it came down to falls, meaning that the two guys who tied for 7th, BRC setter Seth Lytton and Logan Jauernigg, were only 2 falls behind 6th place John Brock, and Seregi Kiefel, who qualified in 9th, was only 2 falls behind them.
Men’s Open Final Results
1. Matty Hong
2. Garrett Gregor
3. Adam Markert
4. Alex Johnson
5. Micahel O’Rourke
6. John Brock
Women’s Final
The women’s open final started opposite the men’s, with a few hard moves up the right side of the Beach followed by a bone zip-line and a difficult campus move to a jug, followed by a drop down, more mini jugs, another bone, and some hard moves out left where you were supposed to bicycle the bone and then swing your feet around to a heel hook. That’s not exactly how things went but I don’t have time to lay it all out this second so I’m gonna post this for now and fill in later. Ok, updated now.
Kara Caputo came out first and after a bit of difficulty with the mantle at the beginning deftly rode the zip-line and campused off the end to the first mini jug. She climbed through the small drop down, up the next mini jugs, grabbed the next bone, jump-campus-match-campused to the next mini jug (out left on the right side of the Beach’s overhanging bulge) and then fell campus-crossing to the next hold even further left. Her 2nd go yielded the same result.
Rachel came out next, as she and Kara were tied going into finals. She fell in the same place as Kara on her first go, and then got there once or maybe even twice more before running out of time.
Note – The idea with the 2nd bone was to bicycle the bottom of the bone with your feet so as you moved out left your foothold would sort of extend with you. No competitors seemed to think of this solution though, as, like Kara who tried campusing and Rachel who tried bicycling the bone at the top, everybody either bicycled at the top and therefore were unable to extend all the way left with their feet still on, or abandoned the foot and tried to do the extremely difficult campus move cross left to the sidepull jug. The other pitfall of bicycling the top of the bone is that the bone will suddenly flip and drop you off like a trick trapdoor. This happened to Rachel at least once and Sierra and Nina as well (if I remember correctly).
Paige had a ton of trouble with the zip line and using sport climbing technique couldn’t seem to figure out how to stay high enough on the zip line to catch the next jug.
Tyler Youngwerth whipped right through the zip line and fell higher twice, the 2nd time at Kara and Rachel’s highpoint. Tyler also tried the campus maneuver but was stymied.
Nina Williams, who sets at Miramont out of Fort Collins and is sponsored by event sponsor Vertical Girl, came out next and did almost the same as Tyler, falling at the cruxy cross after trying the campus method.
Sierra Blair-Coyle, visiting from Arizona with Rachel Pienknagura, had a bit of trouble with the zip line at first but once she figured it out she climbed past the previous climbers’ highpoints and got a hand around the corner onto a foot jib but was unable to grab the next handhold. If she’d bicycled the bone down lower she might have been able to keep moving out left with her feet on, as it was she tried the jump-campus twice but was not successful.
Finally, Gun Show winner, 13 year-old Megan Mascarenas of Colorado Springs, came out in her Verve pants, Mad Rocks, and glowing cat ears to give the problem a go. The crowd was worried as she fell over and over from the zip line. Finally she stopped to rest and re-examine the end of the problem. After working through the sequence in her mind she grabbed the start holds, stuck the zip line move, and proceeded to hike the rest of the problem. When she encountered the difficult section at the lip of the bulge she CAMPUSED through it–campusing from the hold everyone else fell off to stick the hold Sierra fell off, then campusing to the foothold, to the next left handhold, and, after trying and rejecting the left foot heel hook, campusing her left hand up AGAIN to the next high hand hold. After that she put her foot on, crossed into a gaston, and casually rocked out left to the finish hold. The crowd went absolutely nuts. The future of climbing was once again on display at the Spot open finals, and Megan’s performance was amazing, impressive, and most of all inspiring–an fantastic ending to a wonderful evening.
Women’s Open Final Results
1. Megan Mascarenas
2. Sierra Blair-Coyle
tie for 3rd:
3. Kara Caputo
3. Rachel Pienknagura
5. Tyler Youngwerth
6. Nina Williams
7. Paige Claassen
The Gun Show 2011! Photos + Run Down + Results. Hurray!
All photos by and copyright Jay Droeger. Click on the photos for bigger versions. If you want to share any please give Jay photo credit and link back here. Thanks!
More Dunk Tank
Near the end of the youth comp and running through the beginning of the adult comp we ran the Dunk Tank as a fundraiser for the Spot Youth Team. Throwing balls cost $5 for 3 throws and various athletes, coaches, and Spot employees sat in the hot seat and waited to see if they'd stay dry. No one did. Here, Climbing School Director Brett Merlin watches the ball flying straight towards the dunk button. He's screwed.
A few of the younger kids (and a couple teenagers too--I'm talking to you Dallas Milburn) took it upon themselves to run up and hit the button with their hand when they couldn't do it with the ball.
At least it was a hot day so the dunkees seemed to be having fun. Spot Head Coach David Garcia emerging from his most recent plunge.
Andrew Clinkingbeard holding down the Dunk Tank. Nice sombrero. He needed it--it was hot out there!
The Youth Session
After some early-on excitement the youth portion of the comp settled down and seemed to go extremely well. As usual the kids climbed impressively. Here Spot team member Jack is using good technique and is about to succeed on Advanced 8.
Spot team member Katy giving it on a steep Intermediate problem.
Spot Comp Team member Zach Groenwald succeeding on the technical and punishing O2. It was cool to watch the older kids, especially the strong older boys, struggle on this Fontainebleau-esuqe technique problem set by Carlo Traversi. Even here Zach isn't quite done, he needs to stabilize off his heel hook (many used a toe) to match the flat finish hold without barn-dooring off the wall.
A BRC Team Member crushing the top of this difficult Advanced problem.
Spot Comp Team Member Isaac Moctezuma found a creative bypass for the extremely difficult cross on this Open problem. He dynoed from the start hold to double-catch a sloper.
Adult Comp
Crimp Chimps' Amanda the Panda spotting the extremely difficult Open 9.
Women's open 3rd place winner Flannery Shay-Nemirow on A10 during the adult comp.
Women Masters
1. Claudia Williams
Women Rec
1. Jade Sevelow
Men Rec
1. Malcolm Oliver
Women Intermediate
1. Coury Pitt
2. Beth Letourneau
Men Intermediate
1. Kevin Doolittle
2. Garrett Adler
Women Advanced
1. Emily Lewellen
2. Wendy Bradley (in the score sheet below she’s mistakenly listed in Open)
3. Jessica Franco
Men Advanced
1. Jeffrey Stroud
2. Jason Copeland
3. Ian Achey
Click here for Adult Full Results
Other Stuff
Ian Achey of La Sportiva grilling burgers at the La Sportiva & Native BBQ
4 year old Cedar Pidgeon sporting her custom Verve pants on her way to 15 pull-ups in the Gun Show pull-up contest (with a little help from Frank Mendez). Photo by Keith North.
Part of the crowd sitting for the raffle. We gave away a TON of stuff--shoes, gear, clothes, sunglasses, crimp chimps chalk bags...it was awesome!
Brett about to raffle off the coveted Angry Birds Crimp Chimps chalkpot. It even made noise!
Women’s Open Finals
Jesse Youngwerth styling the rose move on the women's final.
Canadian bouldering super star Thomasina Pidgeon (she's done multiple V12s outside!) misread the sequence and used an extreme (and extremely impressive) lock-off off a foothold above both handholds she was using.
Nina Williams of Fort Collins has been on a tear lately, climbing impressively outside and in. At the Gun Show she won the adult comp, qualifying for finals in 2nd and flashing, meaning if 1st place qualifier (who earned her scores during the youth session) Megan flashed as well Nina would end up in second. That is exactly what happened. Here Nina is sticking the cross that is the hardest and scariest move on the problem.
13 year-old Megan Mascarenas qualified in first and because she flashed the final she won the comp. It was her first open final at an adult event. Last year she qualified several times but was not ready to compete until this year. Nice job Megan!
Women’s Pro Finals Results:
1. Megan Mascarenas
2. Nina Williams
3. Flannery Shay-Nemirow (also flashed)
4. Tyler Youngwerth (sent 2nd go)
5. Jesse Youngwerth
6. Thomasina Pidgeon
Men’s Open Finals
First place qualifier Alex Manikowski working his way through the bottom of the finals problem.
Tim Rose was visiting from Pennsylvania and put in a wonderful showing, qualifying in 3rd and ending up in 2nd.
"5.14, V14 Matty Hong" getting a bit tangled in the sequence in the middle of the final. He qualified in 2nd but ended up a bit farther down the list after some apparent confusion about which way his feet should be going. He eventually figured it out but was too tired to stick the alligator out left (Michael O'Rourke is on it below).
Surprise winner Michael O'Rourke eked into finals in a 6th place tie with Ryan Sewell and then went on to pull one of the most impressive campus moves I've ever seen off the Teknik Tufa in the middle of this novelty-hold strewn final. Nobody was able to stick the bear-claw deadpoint at the top of the problem and send, but Michael's manhandling of the beginning of the climb earned him first place. Notice he's climbing in socks. We can only hope this trend isn't catching.
Men’s Pro Final Results:
1. Michael O’Rourke
2. Tim Rose
3. Chase Cazedessus
4. Alex Manikowski
5. Matty Hong
6. Ryan Sewell (it was his birthday!)
Wrap-up wrap-up:
And that was all she wrote for the 2011 Gun Show. 50 new problems, lots of competitors, spectators, grilling, beer, schwag, raffle prizes, pull-ups, dunking, chalking, and cranking made for a great start to SBS 7. See you at Psychedelia on October 22nd!
