Western played host to their annual Veni Vidi Ascendi event opening the Northwest Collegiate Climbing Competition with strong individual performances by juniors Nick Saether and Alicia Christianson this Saturday.
Western performed strongly and was well represented on the podium again this year. Alicia Christianson a junior recreation major, representing Western, placed third in the women’s open division, the most difficult of the four entry categories.
Junior physics major, Nick Saether took first in the men’s advanced division. Saether was able to get two more difficult routes in the last 15 minutes of his heat to really improve his score. He said his goal for the year is to continue to improve his skills and techniques to eventually compete regularly in the open category.
The Vikings’ climbing team is filled with returning talent this year with the likes of sophomore Chayse Jones, and senior Johan van der Veen. Van der Veen returns for another season after having the single best men’s performance in NC3 accumulating 498 points out of a possible 500 points over five competitions.
More than 100 climbers from 10 different colleges across the northwest packed into the Wade King Student Recreation Center to compete in the first of 10 events in the 2016 climbing season.
The competition has four categories of entry: beginner, intermediate, advanced and open division. After the three heats the top four climbers in the open division enter a play off round to determine the winner. The climber who has the highest aggregate score wins the difficulty category they are placed in.
This year the NC3 is choosing an alternative scoring system one which prevents competitor from entering themselves in a skill level that does not reflect their true climbing ability.
