Local rock climbers qualify for national championship

 
The Division 4 Youth Climbing Championships (an invitation only event) were held June 13th and 14th in Melbourne, FL.  With only five Divisions covering the entire USA, Division 4 was comprised of the best youth climbing had to offer from FL, GA, AL, TN, MS, SC, NC, VA and WVA.  These nine states sent a total of 108 of their best climbers to this event.  Thirty-eight of those climbers hail from Georgia.  Eleven live and train right here in Fayette County at Reality Climbing in Tyrone.
 
When Reality Climbing Center opened doors in August of 2005 owner Nicole Colvin had no immediate intentions of having a youth climbing team.  "One day a couple of kids walked in and asked if I was going to have a team" said Colvin, "without a clue as to what it entailed I said ‘Sure.  You're it!'"  From that simple start with only a couple of climbers in their 2006 season the Team Reality program has thus far evolved to produce 4 nationally ranked, 11 divisionally ranked and 21 regionally ranked climbers.  Darlene Stone, the Team's assistant coach and gym manager, stated "Our Regional Coordinator told us this year (after seeing the size of our Team) that Reality ‘is building an army'."  We're proud of what we have created for this community not just competitively but through our many recreational climbing programs as well, said Stone.
 
The eleven climbers representing Reality Climbing at this year's Division 4 Championship in Florida were:  Madison Altman, Victoria White, Ryan Lowther, William "Billy" Porter and Will Sport (in the youth D category); Carly Triana and Ben Mechelke (in the youth C category); Jessica Wurst and Jonathan Wurst (in the youth B category); Caleb Robertson and Ben Watson (in the youth A category). 
 
These climbers traveled to Florida for the two day event designed to identify the climbers most suited to represent their Division at the Youth National Climbing Championships in Utah this July 10-12th.  The first day (qualifier round) began with a maximum of 18 climbers and functioned as a means to identify the top ten from each gender divided age group for both speed (literally the fastest up the wall) and difficulty (following a set path without falling).  Those ten were invited back for a second round of climbing (the finals round) which consisted of one difficulty climb and two more speed routes.  When it was all said and done the top six climbers in each age / gender category for each discipline were awarded the highly coveted 2009 Youth National Climbing Championship invitations. 
 
In 2007 & 2008 Reality Climbing's Youth Program sent two climbers to the National Championship.  This year, their newly re-vamped training protocol has proven that they can now hold their own against the more seasoned teams.  They sent eleven climbers to Divisionals this past weekend and eight of them came away with an invitation to the National Championship.  To top that off, the Team as a whole placed 6th out of 15 different teams for total points over the two day event.
 
"Other teams and coaches are taking note of our rapid rise and have begun to keep their eye on us", stated assistant coach Darlene.  According to coach Nicole, Reality's competitive program is designed to have their climbers peak at the National Championship Event (their last major competition of the season).  She stated, "If our results so far are any indication, we expect a great showing in Utah this year!"
 
Congratulations to:  Madison Altman (3rd difficulty & 4th speed), Victoria White (4th difficulty & 1st speed), Ben Mechelke (5th difficulty & 1st speed), Ryan Lowther (5th difficulty & 6th speed), William "Billy" Porter (6th difficulty & 4th speed), Caleb Robertson (5th difficulty & 3rd speed), Jonathan Wurst (4th speed) and Jessica Wurst (5th speed).  These are Team Reality's 2009 Youth National Climbing Championship invitees.  Good luck in Utah!