The Southeastern Climbers Coalition - Climb Nashville

The finals at the ClimbNashville Comp. Photo by Andrew Kornylak.

Climb Nashville hosted the American Bouldering Series Regional for the third year in a row on January 20th, 2007. This year was even better than the last two and we had about 115 total competitors. The youth kids tore it up in the morning, most gunning for those invitations to nationals. Many of those kids climbed again in the afternoon session. A local, Ashley Hamilton, placed first in her youth division then climbed again in the afternoon session and made it to women's finals.

In attendance for the afternoon session among many strong climbers were southern locals Kate Reese, Stephen Meinhold, Ronnie Jenkins, Jeremy Walton, Chris Sierzant and Jimmy Webb.

Grady Bagwell made a strong showing early on in the qualifiers making quick work of the open problems. Kate Reese clocked out early as well, ticking enough open problems to secure her spot in finals.

The open problems ran the gamut from hard technical to pure power with most involving a high usage of core strength. For most of the competitors it was their first time to climb on our new 45 and 57 degree walls. Three large features were made right before the comp and bolted on to the 45 and 57 just to mix it up a little bit.

Finals: The women started up the finals with most sending final 1 without much of a problem. Final 2 for the women proved a little more difficult with some dynamic feet cutting moves on the steep 57 wall. Rebekah Shaw controlled the last two holds and fell reaching for the top. Mykael Ann McGinley and Kate Reese were the only two to finish number 2, both flashed it. Final 3 was the line in the sand for the ladies. Most fell early on the long crossover move and only Kate and Mykael Ann made it through that crux to get closer to the finish. In a huge display of power Kate matched the last hold on the 45 and was going for the top when all points popped off for a long fall to the padding. That attempt was enough to secure her victory over the other women. Mykael Ann McGinley and Rebekah Shaw were 2nd and 3rd.

Finals: The men got off to a hard start on men's 1 with some long moves around an arete with a fly-by move producing massive swings. As more finalists came out the problem went down with some flashes. Final 2 climbed across the diamond feature on the 57 wall to end with a backhanded dyno out to the support beam in the middle of the wall. This problem was a crowd pleaser with the huge moves at the end. Five of the eight guys managed to pull this one out. It came down to final three to decide the men's winner. Long moves on opposing holds to a campusing finish was the name of the game on final three. Most were bouted off after the first crux move about a third of the way through the problem. Stephen Meinhold, formerly from Boone, was the first to stick the blind throw around the box and stick the next large hold. Jeremy Walton also made it through to get a hand on it. Qualifying first, Grady Bagwell from Ohio went last in finals with a super strong showing Grady had his feet over his head trying some weird beta that yielded a hand on the second to last hold. That hold was as far as anyone got on three. Qualifying third, Stephen Meinhold was the only one to match the second to last hold bumping him up to first place on the podium. 2nd and 3rd were Jeremy Walton and Grady Bagwell respectively.

1600 bucks were awarded to the open winners and tons of prizes, including 4 crash pads were handed out to winners and raffled to competitors. Jon Glassberg also went home with $200 courtesy of Cumberland Transit in the CT dyno comp. The entry fees from the dyno comp will be donated to the SCC in addition to the money raised from the “Lost and Found Sale”.

All photos courtesy of Andrew Kornylak