Every year young climbers from across North America, from Canada, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil and the USA gather together for the Pan American Championships. This fall, a number of talented bay area climbers traveled to South America for the competition.
On November 22nd until the 25th, Touchstone’s Zero Gravity youth team members, as part of the US National team, traveled to Santiago, Chile for the Youth Pan American Championships. The competition consisted of Sport, Bouldering and Speed for the 14-19 year old age group and Sport and Speed for the 12-13 year old age group.
The United States performed well with Zero Gravity putting in a stellar effort. The USA placed first in team results with Ecuador followed by Canada placing 2nd and 3rd. “Overall, Team USA did well enough to claim the overall Pan-American Championship Team title, one which we were a close second to Ecuador in 2010,” said Josh Levin, one of the Zero Gravity team members. Levin pulled off a championship in speed and placed 3rd in lead and bouldering. Cicada Jenerik and Conor Everton became Pan American Champions in bouldering and sport climbing respectively. Seth Rogers received silver in Sport.
The Games began on Thursday with the lead competition. A flash-format qualifier was held in the morning with semifinals later that evening. On Friday, a single onsight route for the top 8 competitors determined the champion. The bouldering began next and continued into Saturday with the top 6 competitors moving on to a World Cup-style finals round on Saturday night. On Sunday, the speed event lasted all day with an elimination style tournament bracket that pitted climbers head-to-head on the IFSC standardized speed wall.
All of the Zero Gravity athletes climbed well. Sera Busse placed 6th place in Bouldering and 8th in Speed. Matt Grossman placed 5th in Speed and 7th in Sport. Dylan Meyerhoffer placed 6th in Sport. Full Results can be found at the Pan American page.
The competition season continued for Zero Gravity last weekend when the team headed to City Beach in Fremont for the USA ABS Regional Championships. The team also plans on presenting a slide show about traveling to and competing at the Pan American Games. Stay tuned for details and congratulations to the entire team!
