Thompson, Schumaker and Todd kept the Estes Park X Climbing Team competitive at Nationals in July.
By Mike Oatley of the Estes Park Trail Gazette
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Hunter Schumaker, left, Laurel Todd and Laura Thompson
all captured top 10 finishes for the Estes Park Climbing Team
at the USA Climbing National competition last month.
The list of exploits by one of the Estes Valley’s premier teams continues to grow.
X Team climbers Laura Thompson, Hunter Schumaker and Laurel Todd added to the Estes Park climbing team’s legacy with top 10 finishes at the USA Youth Climbing Nationals July 12-13 in Sunnyvale, California.
Thompson finished 10th in difficulty and fourth in speed among female Juniors, climbers in the 17 to 19 age group.
Schumaker finished ninth in difficulty and 10th in speed for girls 13 and 14.
Todd, finished second in difficulty and ninth in speed in the female age 11 and 12 category.
In the same category, Kelsi Lasota finished 29th in difficulty and 17th in speed, and Jessica Goff placed 23rd in the speed climbing category.
To get to Nationals, these climbers had to finish in the top six in regional competition in Colorado and New Mexico, and again in the top six at a Divisional meet, which was held in Tempe, Arizona in June. The Estes Park climbers competed against kids from Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Louisiana and Southern California to earn a bid to the national meet.
The continued success of the climbers coached by Stefan Greenway and Dan Michalec is noteworthy given the growth in popularity in youth climbing in recent years.
The climbing team’s current president, Peggy Mauerman, said the number of climbers registered with USA Youth Climbing doubled over the last year, to 2,000.
“The sport is really expanding and the level of competition is steeper all the time”, Maureman said. “It shows that we have a really such a strong program to be able to produce these good climbers.”
Mauerman said the gap in abilities between those climbers who make the X team, Estes Park’s the top level competition team, and those who are on the recreational climbing team has narrowed.
“Everybody pushes everybody else,” Mauerman said. “Between the top kids on the rec team and the X Team, there is less differentiation than there has been in years past.”
Only 10 climbers make the X Team each year, and this year the climbing team has had to set a limit on the recreational team at a maximum of 16 members. Mauerman said 20 kids were on the recreational team last year, a number that proved too many for safety and slices of the coaches’ attention.
“The rec team climbers are starting to compete, too. None made Nationals, but they were are Divisionals,” said Muaerman.
The climbing team will begin competition in the Denver Climbing League in January, a few months later than usual this season because the primary climbing gym for the league is moving.
The season for USA Climbing’s bouldering and sports climbing series begins in October.
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