BREVARD, N.C. – The Brevard College Climbing team will compete at the USA Climbing Appalachian Regional Collegiate Championships on Saturday at The Crag in Nashville, Tennessee. The Regional Championships serve as a qualifier for the USA Climbing National Championships to be held April 26-27 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Seven Brevard College student-athletes will make the trip to Nashville to compete in the Regional Championships. In the men's competition, Brevard will be represented by Carlton Angell, Nathan Boepple, Taylor Everard, Mac Fitzgerald and Samuel Willis. On the women's side, Madison Altman and Danielle Brown will be competing for the Tornados.
"Regionals are the culmination of all the hard work that each team member has poured into this program," said Head Brevard College Climbing Coach Travis Gray. "This is what we look forward to all year - a chance to qualify for Nationals."
The Regional Championships will begin with a rules session at 9:30 a.m. CT on Saturday followed by three hours of climbing time from 10 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. CT. Scoring will be tabulated 1:30 p.m. preceding the awards ceremony at 2 p.m. CT.
The regionals feature competition in three disciplines – Bouldering, Speed and Sport.
The highest five ranked competitors per gender and per discipline will receive an invitation to the USA Climbing National Championships.
The 2018-19 regular season featured a number of highlights for the Brevard College Climbing team under the guidance of Coach Gray. The competition season began with BC hosting its Fall Collegiate Competition at the Brevard Rock Gym in October where Altman finished second on the women's side while Boepple was the highest finishing Tornado on men's side with a 12th place result.
Altman then won the women's completion at the Wake Forest Collegiate Competition in November to round out the Fall schedule. The Spring schedule began with the Tennessee Bouldering Authority Collegiate Competition in January where Altman and Brown finished second and third respectively. Following a comp at Western Carolina University, the Tornados hosted the third annual Boulder Bash where 79 collegiate climbers representing nine different colleges participated. At the third annual Boulder Bash, Altman was BC's highest finishing women's climber while Jake Roberts was the highest finishing Brevard College climber in the men's competition.
To prepare for the multiple disciplines of Bouldering, Speed and Sport that will be on display at Saturday's regional championships, the Brevard College Climbing team trained last weekend at Cliff Hangers in Mooresville, N.C. At the training session, the Tornados focused primarily on Speed and Sport techniques in advance of the regionals.
"As their coach, I could not be more proud and inspired by each of them and their ability to adapt to a varsity culture, embrace the sacrifices of what it means to be a student athlete and continue representing themselves and each other as ambassadors of Brevard College Athletics," added Gray. "Our motivation and hopes are high for regionals but regardless of results, the members on this team are already winners in whatever they pursue in life, everything else is just icing on the cake."
Stay tuned to www.bctornados.com as well as the Brevard College Tornados Twitter and Instagram pages @bctornados for updates from the Regional Championships. Full results will also be posted on www.usaclimbing.com following the competition.
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