The Brevard College Climbing team will be competing at the upcoming USA Climbing Collegiate Southeast Divisional Championships to be held Saturday and Sunday, March 26-27, at High Point Climbing in Birmingham, Alabama.
Six Brevard College student-athletes will compete in the discipline of bouldering at the Divisional Championships with the opportunity to qualify for the USA Climbing Collegiate National Championships scheduled for April 22-24 in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania. BC’s Kendrick Austin, Chris Board, Dawson Jacobs and Caleb Trent will compete in the men’s competition, while Madison Altman and Shyvonne Potter will compete for the Tornados on the women’s side.
The competition will mark the first USA Climbing championships for the collegiate level since 2019 due cancellations as a result of the pandemic.
“After two years of not competing, the Climbing team is filled with excitement around competing at the USAC Collegiate Divisionals,” said Brevard College Head Climbing Coach Dan Horne. “This will be the first time for many of the athletes at said event. Although we did not compete for the last two years, the team has been training hard through that entire time period and is ready to crush!”
In advance of the Divisionals, Brevard College competed in two qualifying collegiate events. Between the two events, the Tornados racked up two event wins, eight top-five finishes and 11 top-ten’s.
In December, the Brevard College climbing team earned a 1-2-3 sweep in men’s competition and took 2nd and 3rd place in the women’s results at the BigFoot Climbing Competition in Morganton, North Carolina. Austin won the competition to lead the 1-2-3 sweep for the Tornados in the men’s with Board placing second and Trent taking third place. Altman finished second in the women’s competition with Potter placing third.
In February at the Wake Forest Competition, BC posted impressive results, including an event win by Jacobs. With a strong field of 32 men’s climbers, Jacobs won the competition to lead the Tornados to a total of four men’s top-ten finishes. Trent finished third, followed by a sixth-place result for Board and a seventh-place finish for Austin. Altman led Brevard in the women’s competition with a fourth-place result in a field of 18 climbers. Potter placed seventh to give BC another top-ten result, while freshman Shannon McCarthy finished 16th.
The USA Climbing Collegiate Southeast Divisionals bouldering competition will begin on Saturday with two qualifying sessions beginning at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. CT (3 & 7 p.m. ET) at High Point Climbing in Birmingham, Alabama. Following Saturday’s qualifiers, the Bouldering Finals will take place on Sunday beginning at 8 a.m. CT/9 a.m. ET.