Approximately 100 students from all across Texas, including eight from SMU, came together this weekend to show off their climbing skills at the 10th annual Pony Pulldown Competition.
This year’s competition was held at SMU’s Dedman Center of Lifetime Sports and lasted throughout the day Saturday. According to junior Karly Hanson, Pulldown is completely student-run by Outdoor Adventure.
“We start planning in November,” Hanson said. “We divide into committees: logistics, advertising, setting, and sponsorships.”
The teams design the competiion’s shirt, rent out wall space and use contacts to get the word out about the event. According to Hanson, the team also uses student setters and professionals to strip the climbing wall to set up bouldering and top rope route.
“No climbers can see the wall before the comp so it’s closed for a week and a half before the comp,” she said.
Pulldown is a sanctioned Collegiate Climbing Series (CCS) red-point competition by USA Climbing held annually each February. It is specifically for collegiate climbers throughout Texas and provides options for everyone from novice to expert.
The competition is a redpoint format, meaning competitors climb at the same time and as much as they would like within the time limit. Only the top five climbs will count toward each competitor’s final score.
This year’s competition included a three hour morning climbing session and a three hour afternoon climbing session. According to Hanson, climbers were divided by gender and then by ability: Limestone (beginner’s), Sandstone (intermediate) and Granite (advanced). Theses climbing sessions were followed by a speed competition, and a dynamic climbing (dyno) competition.
The top three winners in men’s and women’s beginner, intermediate and advanced divisions and top three winners in speed and dyno won awards.
Unfortunately, no Mustangs took home any prizes this year, but each walked away with a fun “grab bag” full of T-shirts, gear, food and prizes.
“Our climbing comp is known to have the best shirts and prizes, we usually get some big sponsors like Marmot, Smith Optics, and Black Diamond,” Hanson said.
Check out this list below to see the winners:
Women’s Granite (Advanced)
1. Erica Mason
2. Christina Nguyen
3. Nicole Reyes
Men’s Granite:
1. Danny Aleksovski
2. Ryan Schmidt
3. Kevin Zabala
Women’s Sandstone (Intermediate)
1. Alina LaPotin
2. Renee Costello
3. Hanna Bernbaum
Men’s Sandstone:
1. Jeff Dundas
2. Jacob Schofield
3. Samuel Gerlich
Women’s Limestone (Beginner)
1. Natalie Moore
2. Caroline Wick
3. Victoria Levy
Men’s Limestone:
1. Malachi Brown
2. Zachary Taylor
3. Josh Teese
DYNO COMP
1st place Women’s: Erica Mason
1st place Men’s: Joshua Red
SPEED COMP
1st place Women’s: Christina Nguyen
1st place Men’s: Ryan Schmidt
