Bend Endurance Academy climbers preparing for regionals, loving new competitive space
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The Bend Endurance Academy is sending nearly all of its climbers to regionals, but these climbers have bigger goals.
Moxie Hovorka, 17, is one of 16 Bend Endurance Academy athletes who qualified for regionals, a step closer to making Youth Nationals.
“I want to continue doing elite level comps when I’m an adult, and I also want to make Youth Nationals this year,” Hovorka said. “It would just mean a lot, because I haven’t qualified for nationals in a couple years and I’m getting to the point where I’m going to age out soon, so I think it would be really cool to make it now.”
Even the younger climbers, like twin 11-year-old brothers Ryker and Soren Long, are just as determined.
“I would be happy, because everybody here is saying that I couldn’t,” Ryker said. “But they’re supportive really, too.”
The academy’s climbers are benefiting from the new facility off SE Reed Market Road in Bend and its custom bouldering routes, mimicking what they’ll face at Regionals.
"We need to train hard and try to get into the right mindset to do everything that we want to,” Ryker said.
The Bend Endurance Academy is one of only two programs in the country that has its own select gym for competition climbers.
Cate Beebe, climbing director for the Bend Endurance Academy, said they’re already seeing the benefits.
“In a commercial gym, you can’t just set whatever you want and put a bunch of kids on it for two hours, because members get grumpy. But we don’t have members,” Beebe said. “These are our members, and we cater to them.”
For these "members," climbing is more than a sport.
“I like all the problem-solving, and I kind of like the pressure,” Soren said.
Hovorka chimed in, “I really like it, because it's just me, so I don’t really have to focus on anything else, other than what I’m doing. And I just find it really peaceful and relaxing,” she said.
“It clears my mind.”
The regional competition is January 13th at Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland.
If they place in the top 10, they’ll make Divisionals.
They'll have to place top six there in order to qualify for Nationals.
