April 6th and 7th, marked the 2012 Sport Climbing Series National Championships in Boulder, Colorado at Movement Climbing + Fitness. Zero Gravity Climbers Josh Levin, Alexa Nazarian, Charlie Andrews, Dylan Barks and Jacquelyn Wu traveled to Boulder to compete with some of the best climbers in the country. The National Championships are used to determine who can represent the US Team in this year’s World Cups and World Climbing Championships.
After the chalk settled from the two climb qualifying round, Josh Levin, Dylan Barks and Jacquelyn Wu made the 8 climber finals. Had there been semifinals, Alexa Nazarian would have qualified with a respectable 16th. Charlie Andrews came in 24th.
The next morning, Josh, Charlie and Jacquelyn tried their hand at the speed wall. All three made it to speed finals held later in the evening. Josh and Jacquelyn had the 2nd fastest times and Charlie had the 3rd. Ranking was a combination of the qualifying round and the finals round. Charlie was faster than Josh in the final round, but not enough to swap places. Jacquelyn won her finals against Danielle Rogan, but not by enough to be National Champion.
At 6:45pm, Saturday evening, all the finalists came out to a packed house in order to be introduced to the crowd and the finals problems. Over 400 people were at the event and stands plus 3 floors were full of spectators. At 7pm, climbing began.
LT11 wrote “The finals round on Saturday was one for the history books. For the women, Sasha Diguiulian dominated the field for the 3rd straight year with no falls and a relatively easy looking flash of the finals route…For the men it was a different story. Daniel Woods was destined to win the 2012 SCS Nationals with an impressive flash of both qualifying routes. In finals, poor route reading led to a fall down low and bumped him into 3rd place. Newcomer, Dylan Barks hurtled into 2nd with an impressive read of the finals route but couldn’t hang in there for a send. Vasya Vorotnikov, fresh off a debilitating shoulder injury, rose from the ashes for a monumental attempt on the finals route, achieving high point and his name in the record books.”
After the competition, Dylan said he was shocked at beating Daniel Woods. He just focused on climbing his best and was thrilled with the results. Jacquelyn couldn’t believe that she tied with Tiffany Hensley in the last climb and beat Angie Payne. She was amazed when these seasoned climbers asked for her input in the final climb beta discussions.
With 3 climbers in sport finals and 3 climbers in speed finals, Coach Scot Jenerik must be doing something right with his climbers.
Finals results as follows:
Women’s Sport Climbing Men’s Sport Climbing
1 – Sasha Digullian 1 – Vasaya Vorotnikov
2 – Delaney Miller 2 – Dylan Barks
3 – Michaela Kiersch 3 – Daniel Woods
5 – Tiffany Hensley 5 – Matty Hong
6 – Jacquelyn Wu 7 – Josh Levin
7 – Angela Payne 12 – Carlo Traversi
Women’s Speed Climbing Men’s Speed Climbing
1 – Danielle Rogan 1 – Alex Johnson
2- Jacquelyn Wu 2 – Josh Levin
3 – Kyra Condie 3 – Charlie Andrews
