Rock Climbing: UTPA Competition

Rock Climbing Competition at UT Pan American

Maj Harold Compton

climbingOn Saturday, 28 April 2012 the MMA Rock Climbing Team competed in a rock climbing competition at the University of Texas, Pan American Wellness and Recreation Sports Complex.  The team had been practicing and looking forward to this event since the start of the semester and daily workouts havw focused on endurance, technique and increasing physical fitness in expectation of a difficult competition.  Team members were  not disappointed as the competition was long and difficult and tested their abilities.  The team members performed well and by the time the day ended and we headed off for a well deserved meal the cadets were indeed tired but looking forward to their next climbing competition.

 

MMA Rock Climbing Team

rock climbingThis year the Rock Climbing Team has a total of 14 members of which 12 participated in the competition.  Team members that competed were Cadets Will Timpany, Stevan Banker, Jacob Hudson, Nicholas Hamblin, Rustam Shaykhutdinov, Douglas Hodge, Cody Smith, Charles Lemaster, Jacob Leroux, Warwick, Sandford  and Moore.  This year’s team has only two members that returned from the previous year and surprisingly is made up mostly of underclassmen.  Their daily climbing routinely normally consists of a physical fitness workout that includes plenty of upper body exercises to build strength and lasts approximately 15-20 prior to heading to the climbing wall.  Once at the wall each cadet must do a series of fingertip pull-ups before climbing begins.  These workouts proved to be beneficial in their latest competition as it was apparent that those members that began the semester needing to improve their fitness had done so.  This year the Team Captains are Cadet Timpany and Cadet Banker.  As Team Captains they are responsible for leading all the exercise sessions as well as putting and taking down and ensuring that all equipment is properly stored each day.

UTPA Climbing Competition

rock climbingThis year the Climbing Competition was hosted again by the University of Texas, Pan American and co-sponsored by UTPA and MMA.  A number of prizes were to be awarded and included equipment and gift certificates to purchase climbing equipment.  A total of 8 students from UTPA and 12 Cadets from MMA participated.  The event began at 8:00 AM with signup and administrative procedures.  Participants were then given an opportunity to look over the routes they would be climbing.  The UTPA rock climbing wall was set up with a total of 5 major routes that each climber would negotiate.  Each major route had two variations that the climber had to climb for a total of 10 routes.  In addition, a bouldering problem had been set up for those that wished to compete in bouldering.  Each participant would take on one route and then take a break until all had completed their first route and the repeat the process until all had climbed all 10 routes.  Each route had a maximum score of 100 points from which the climber would lose 10 points each time they went off route or lose 25 points if they fell.  The climbs were also timed so that in the event of a tie, the fastest climber would be the winner.  Prizes were to be awarded for each major route and for the best overall climber.  The bouldering problem was to have a 1st and 2nd place prize.

rock climbingConsidering that the majority of our team was high school underclassmen age I was very impressed with their performance.  Cadet Will Timpany placed 1st on two of the routes and placed 2d  overall with a score of 900 out of 1000 points on the climbing routes.  Additionally he placed second in the bouldering competition with one minor mistake at the end of the problem which cost him 10 points and the bouldering win.  Cadet Hudson also placed third overall in the climbing routes..  Cadet Hudson also finished with an overall score of  700 out or a possible 1000 points.  All of the cadets on the Rock Climbing Team were impressive in their performance and should be proud of how well they represented the Academy!

Learn More about Climbing at MMA

rock climbingTo learn more about the Marine Military Academy visit our website at http://www.mma-tx.org

Check out all  the Rock Climbing Photos in our Photos Gallery.