Step by step, senior Nico Abbate climbed the daunting wall in front of him. Reaching the top, he grabbed on to the top of the wall, securing the much-needed 63 points for the GDS climbing team.
On Feb. 1, the GDS climbing team competed in the Washington Area Interscholastic Climbing League championship. The GDS men’s team placed second overall out of eight schools, while the women’s team placed last out of ten schools. Senior captain Nico Abbate and senior Sebastian Butts placed third and fourth, respectively, out of 47 in the men’s bracket, and senior captain Sid Depguta placed second of 63 on the women’s leaderboard.
The week before the championship, the team’s practices on Monday through Thursday were canceled due to the snow storm that shut down most of the DMV. On Friday, Jan. 30, two days before the competition, head coach Elaina Berres decided to hold a light practice—consisting of yoga and stretching—to ensure the team was well rested heading into the match.
The men’s team had won their last three regular-season matches going into the championships, and they were hoping to end their season with a strong finish.
“Our goal was to be in the top three,” Butts said.
The championship competition consisted of two events: bouldering, where participants climb a short wall with no ropes or harnesses, and top roping, when climbers scale a 45- to 65-foot wall using ropes and a harness. Both events are scored based on the wall’s difficulty level.
GDS started the championship strong. The team maintained a first place lead throughout most of the competition. However, in the final moments of the championship, Epispocal moved into first, winning the competition 272–269.
“The whole men’s team had a pretty good championship, and the seniors on the girls team also did really well,” freshman Evelyn McDermott said.
Only five women signed up to climb this year, the minimum amount needed to field a team. Because of injuries and absences, there were multiple competitions where the women’s team competed with three or four athletes, such as their competition against National Cathedral School on Jan. 13, which they lost 139-27.
Over the course of the season, the team worked on building endurance and strength to prepare for the championship. They practiced at the Sportrock Rio climbing gym in Gaithersburg three times a week and used the GDS weight room two times a week.
“We just did endurance training and tried to focus on technique,” freshman Felix Fougere said.
Five of the six athletes on the men’s team were seniors this season, which will leave the team with a young group of climbers next year.
“We have a pretty big freshman class, so we will be getting better together,” McDermott said.
CORRECTION (Feb. 9 at 12:43 p.m.): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated senior Sebastian Butts is a captain on the climbing team; he is not.