Costanza and Grupper Win Lead as Baudrand Takes Second
Jesse Grupper and Melina Costanza take first while Canada's Victor Baudrand concludes the New Mexico competition in second place
This evening saw the conclusion of Lead Finals in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
After numerous ties across both gender categories in the Semi-Final round, the route setters showed their skill in separating the top athletes of each field.
For the Women, Estelle Park kicked off the round with a strong performance. Although she would end up in eighth position, she and those who would follow climbed well and high into the volume-rich Final route. After moving through the strenuous bottom portion of the climb, Park entered the technical crux section of the route.
Pressing into a gaston, Park ultimately lost her balance upon rushing the under-cling section of the route. Although many of the athletes to follow would pull past Park’s final position, almost all would fall on the same high-tension sequence of the crux’s final moves.
Ultimately, each athlete in the Women’s category fell no further than a single move from the person ahead of them. Melina Costanza became the only athlete in the Women’s field to move well beyond the rest.
Preceding Costanza, Canada’s Allison Vest joined America’s Norah Chi and Maya Madere in negotiating the 23-move reach to a thin red crimp. The sloping feet of the climb made for uncertain work and athletes tried to negotiate the multiple angles of the crux.
Vest pushed through to the hold, fought with an undercling and ultimately dead-pointed to the 24 grip. She missed, but took the (+) for her effort. This ultimately secured the Canadian fourth position, just outside the podium. Her results remain consistent with progress over the course of this last year.
By contrast, Chi and and Madere climbed through to 24 and 24+ respectively. Costanza would then drop the hammer.
Costanza climbed a phenomenal Lead competition over these last two days. Despite the challenging nature of topping even one of these routes, Costanza would not see a single fall over the course of her competition. She marked herself above the rest of the field and presented in perfect form. Although many of the Nation’s strongest athletes did not attend this competition, four out of four tops show Costanza is a climber to watch in the coming months.
In the Men’s field, American Ben Hanna climbed first taking the hand jam and pulling it through to the span. Unfortunately, he fell going out right and concluded his competition in seventh position. Solomon Barth, noted for podiuming in the 2019 Boulder Nationals, fell in the same place taking sixth after countbacks.
Between them, American Kai Lightner fell low on the climb, but eighth position in his first Lead competition coming back from hiatus shows the strong North Carolinian to have promise in future competitions.
As the round progressed, the event saw a similar crux to the Women’s. Although the style of movement differed about as much as movement might, the distinctive difficulty of each route’s crux section proved a slim separator for the field. Between seventh and second, no two athletes climbed further than a (+) from the athlete that followed.
Although Canadian Sean Falkner climbed an astounding Semi-Final, he fell just short of podium in tonight’s Final event. Spanning wide from the crack, he appeared confused by the footwork required for the section and ultimately fell lower than predicted. He finished the competition in fifth position.
Team Canada’s Victor Baudrand showed his consistency in tonight’s event. He tied with American Zander Waller at 28+. Baudrand would earn second by countbacks, while Waller took third. Waller became one of only two athletes to efficiently negotiate the crux, only falling due to a dry-fire on the low profile grip.
Baudrand, to his credit, struggled to negotiate the footwork of the transition, but showing a high level of mental fortitude, remained calm and pressed into second position. Despite all the effort of each athlete, American Jesse Grupper climbed in optimal form.
Grupper moved without pause through the crux, only falling due to a foot pop on the technical low-angle sequence near the top. As this became Grupper’s first competition since the pandemic, his impressive result might lead some to feel surprise.
While he did not compete, Grupper did take down multiple challenging boulder problems and sport routes over the pandemic. First ultimately went to the only climber in the category to have climbed 5.15.
As tonight’s Lead event concludes, many will look to tomorrow’s Speed and Saturday’s bouldering competitions. America’s Emma Hunt will prove difficult to beat in Speed, so much so that many will watch to see if she establishes a new National record.
Speed Qualification will begin at 1:00 pm EST.
Results
Women
1 – Melina Costanza (USA)
2 – Maya Madere (USA)
3 – Nora Chi (USA)
4 – Allison Vest (CAN)
5 – Cloe Coscoy (USA)
6 – Julia Duffy (USA)
7 – Kerry Scott (USA)
8 – Estelle Park
Men
1 – Jesse Grupper (USA)
2 – Victor Baudrand (CAN)
3 – Zander Waller (USA)
4 – Ross Fulkerson (USA)
5 – Sean Faulkner (CAN)
6 – Solomon Barth (USA)
7 – Ben Hanna (USA)
8 – Kai Lightner (USA)
Featured Image of Victor Baudrand in Chamonix by Daniel Gajda.
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