On the edge of Bowling Green lies a place called Redpoint Climbing Gym. The only climbing gym in the city, the building even hosts its own climbing team. One of the team’s members, Greenwood junior Anna Emedi, recently made it to the Divisional competition.

Her season began with training in October and four separate qualifying competitions. She trained a lot in the fall, working on technique. To further complicate things, Emedi participates in a variety of other sports. “I was doing Cross-Country at the time, and during spring I’ve been doing track.” On top of all of this, she took part in the Academic Team season, took multiple AP classes, and kept up amazing grades, which makes her success even greater.

Emedi explains that the competitions are different for each discipline. “You have a set amount of routes, and you’ll have like a certain amount of time to climb. And, it’s just who gets the furthest in the fewest number of attempts.” 

Emedi states that the hardest part of climbing is the mental aspect. “Competing is hard, it’s a lot of pressure. And climbing has risk to it, so you’re always thinking about that, too.” In contrast, she explains that the most rewarding part of climbing is the people. “It’s an amazing community, so I love meeting everybody and having really good friends through climbing.” Additionally, she cites topping out (reaching the top of a wall) as another amazing part of the sport.

On April 11-12, Emedi participated in Divisional competitions. While she did not win any medals, reaching divisionals at all is a phenomenal achievement. She described it as “a good accomplishment” and got ice cream to celebrate, as per her tradition. As for her goals for next year’s season, Emedi explains, “I wanna make finals at Divisionals and make a good final senior season.”