We knew it was going to be big. We knew it was going to be badass. We knew it was going to be fun…but nothing could prepare us for the sheer awesomeness that was Battle of the Bay 2018.
Battle of the Bay is already the largest indoor climbing competition in the U.S. Between the fire from all the competitors in both the Open and Citizens categories and the incredible pysch of the crowd in Finals, Battle of the Bay 2018 set a new standard for what events like this can be. Read on for comp results and an overview of this Touchstone record-breaking event. Photos by Saki Cake.
Open Qualifiers
The day began bright and early at Dogpatch Boulders with Open Qualifiers at 9am. Some of the best climbers in the world threw down on 10 redpoint qualifier problems. The competition was fierce and the problems were tough. All of the competitors brought their A-game, hoping to make top eight in their gender category for a chance at glory and a $10,000 cash purse in Finals later that evening. After three hours of calculated comp strategy combined with pure try-hard, our 16 finalists emerged from a particularly stacked field.
Open Qualifiers—Women’s Category
Youth competitors dominated the Women’s category. It’s always a pleasure to see such young crushers—we can’t wait to see what they do next in their climbing careers! Cloe Coscoy, Kylie Cullen, Maya Madere, Katie Lamb, Quinn Mason, Jenny Jiang, Sophia Hoermann, and Carina Claassen took the top eight slots for the day.
| Women’s Qualifiers Ranking | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cloe Coscoy |
| 2 | Kylie Cullen |
| 3 | Maya Madere |
| 4 | Katie Lamb |
| 5 | Quinn Mason |
| 6 | Jenny Jiang |
| 7 | Sophia Hoermann |
| 8 | Carina Claassen |
| 9 | Emma Palmer |
| 10 | Phoebe Troup-Galligan |
| 11 | Leila DeSchepper |
| 12 | Rebecca Vincent |
| 13 | Lauren Smith |
| 14 | Jennifer Kim |
| 15 | Phoebe Wong |
| 16 | Amanda Keys |
| 17 | Katie Lawler |
| 18 | Stella Strader |
| 19 | Ayla Ertan |
| 20 | Analise Van Hoang |
| 21 | Missie Lee |
| 22 | Madeleine Farmer |
| 23 | Audrey Varner |
Open Qualifiers—Men’s Category
The field in the Men’s category this year was notoriously stacked. Our top eight finalists were a mix of local and visiting crushers from both the pro and youth comp scene, with Sam McQueen, Carlo Traversi, Ross Fulkerson, Matt Fultz, Daniel Woods, Keenan Takahashi, Ethan Pringle, and Alex Fritz getting the highest scores in qualifiers.
| Men’s Qualifiers Ranking | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sam McQueen |
| 2 | Carlo Traversi |
| 3 | Ross Fulkerson |
| 4 | Matt Fultz |
| 5 | Daniel Woods |
| 6 | Keenan Takahashi |
| 7 | Ethan Pringle |
| 8 | Alex Fritz |
| 9 | Solomon Barth |
| 10 | Andrew Lamb |
| 11 | Collin Wills |
| 12 | Simon Benkert |
| 13 | Timothy Kang |
| 14 | Joe Diaz |
| 15 | Obie Kahne |
| 16 | Anthony Lesik |
| 17 | Will Fraker |
| 18 | Kevin Parker |
| 19 | Noahlani Litwinsella |
| 20 | Dan Yu |
| 21 | Scott Cory |
| 22 | David Seo |
| 23 | Martin Loncaric |
| 24 | Ryan Olson |
| 25 | Chris Chang |
| 26 | Yi-Shiou Du |
| 27 | James Howard |
| 28 | Jonathan Hopkins |
| 29 | Andrew Pitts |
| 30 | Dustin Glasner |
| 31 | Miguel Santos-Pozos |
| 32 | Noah Rezentes |
| 33 | David Liang |
| 34 | Cohen Ruport |
| 35 | Taylor Spriggs |
| 36 | Silas Ertan |
| 37 | Drake Martin |
| 38 | Jorge Portilla |
| 39 | Nick Torres |
| 40 | Emerson Sosa |
Citizens Comp
Next in the day came the Citizens Comp, where climbers of all levels came to test their mettle on the plastic classics our Routesetting Team put up especially for the event. Climbers had a full five hours to tick their projects before the Onsight Finals show began.
We gave out:
1,002 scorecards ?
744 beers ?
2,010 free shirts ?
4,800 pizza slices ?
We broke all of our own records at Battle of the Bay this year, from number of competitors to number of t-shirts handed out. Everyone was all smiles as they tested their limits, snapped pics in our photo booth, and hung out with some of our favorite vendors. Nothing makes us happier than seeing our climbing fam having a good time with us. A huge thank you to everyone who came out to try hard and bring the stoke!
Open Finals
The show started promptly at 7pm. The crowd was bigger and louder than ever before—we wouldn’t be surprised if they really did cheer some of the competitors up the wall! After a raffle with some amazing prizes, each of the finalists tried their best on to onsight three problems per gender category in a five minutes on/five minutes off format.
Open Finals—Women’s Category
The Finals problems for both categories were designed to test a little bit of everything, from techy slab footwork to big, crowd-pleasing dynos. While Women’s 1 didn’t put up too much of a fight for any of our finalists, Women’s 2 and 3 really separated the field. After an intense round of sussing beta and throwing down with everything they had, Cloe Coscoy emerged as the victor of the Battle of the Bay Women’s Open Comp, with Kylie Cullen taking second and Maya Madere in third. These ladies fought hard for their places on the podium and all of the finalists put on one hell of a show!
| Women’s Finals Ranking | Name |
|---|---|
| 1st | Cloe Coscoy |
| 2nd | Kylie Cullen |
| 3rd | Maya Madere |
| 4th | Quinn Mason |
| 5th | Jenny Jiang |
| 6th | Katie Lamb |
| 7th | Sophia Hoermann |
| 8th | Carina Claassen |
Open Finals–Men’s Category
Though we are (perhaps not-so-)secretly biased towards Ethan as one of our Touchstone athletes, we were stoked to get a chance to see each of the men’s category heavy hitters battle it out in Finals! The problems were brutal, with none of the competitors topping more than a single problem; Men’s 3 saw no tops at all. But the competitors dug deep for a truly memorable onsight round, and our ears are still ringing from the crowd going wild with each attempt.
After a heroic showing from every finalist, Matt Fultz took the crown in the Battle of the Bay Men’s Open Comp and local crushers Ross Fulkerson and Sam McQueen took second and third.
All of our Open competitors proved that Battle of the Bay really lives up to its name. It’s going to be hard to top their performances next year…but we bet it can be done!
| Men’s Finals Ranking | Name |
|---|---|
| 1st | Matt Fultz |
| 2nd | Ross Fulkerson |
| 3rd | Sam McQueen |
| 4th | Alex Fritz |
| 5th | Daniel Woods |
| 6th | Carlo Traversi |
| 7th | Ethan Pringle |
| 8th | Keenan Takahashi |
THANK YOU everyone for coming out and making Battle of the Bay 2018 our biggest comp yet!
Big ups to Seven Stills for their generous beer donation and to The North Face, Flashed Climbing, Rx Bar, Alite Designs, Vanderwall Climbing, Adidas Outdoor, Mountain Hardwear, Friction Labs, FiveTen, Soill, Evolv, Clif Bar, Mad Rock, Organic Climbing, Parks Project, Prana, and HippyTree for helping us make this comp so special.
We’ll be releasing all of the photos from the event (including ones from the photo booth) on Facebook soon.
Stay tuned for Battle of the Bay 2019 dates!
