Team Rock Dominates at Divisional Championships
Team Rock, the youth climbing squad of The Rock Club in New Rochelle, NY, placed 1st at the 2017 Sport and Speed Divisional competition! Divisionals took place in Randolph, MA at Central Rock Gym on June 17th and 18th.
The team collectively scored 1451 points, just about 100 points higher than the second place finisher.
While Team Rock won the team championship, they had mixed results for each individual event, sport and speed.
Team Rock won the speed divisional by a wide margin with 775 points and placed second in the sport divisional with 676 points.
For a quick recap as to how the scoring and results work, check out our last post Team Rock Wins ’17 Sport and Speed Regional Championship. You can view the full scoring results at the USA Climbing results page.
We had the pleasure of speaking to Two Youth D competitors of Team Rock, Sophia and Zoe. They gave us their opinions of comps and how they get ready to crush!
How does the competition start?
You get a 10 minute preview to see your climbs! You are only allowed to touch the starting hold.
Then you go into isolation, this prevents the climber from seeing other competitor’s beta. Isolation takes place in a bouldering room so you can warm up and wait your turn.
Zoe was 2nd to last waiting in iso. She said that it was great because since it’s less crowded, you get a whole lot of space to warm up.
What is it about competitions that you find the most challenging?
The audience. Zoe and Sophia both agreed that it’s pretty nerve wrecking thinking about their families and others watching them. Also, when the crowd is cheering you on and soon as you fall everyone goes “Awwwww.” That can be pretty distracting.
What keeps you motivated and what advice would you give to other competitors?
Sophie: I stay happy! I don’t really ever feel sad. I enjoy competing and I think everyone should bring a happy object to cheer them up!
Zoe: I think about other climbs that I can get and there are other competing options like speed, sport and bouldering. Also, In the morning to prep for the comp I had a large waffle with lots of whipcream!
We wish Zoe, Sophia and the rest of Team Rock good luck at Nationals on July 13th-16th.
All photo credits: Emil Rusev