Sweet Onion Crank Showcases Talent for Whitman Climbing Team, Ending With Two 1st Place Finishes

The Sweet Onion Crank is a Northwest Collegiate Climbing Circuit bouldering competition and rock climbing festival hosted at the Whitman College Climbing Center each spring. This past week the event turned out to be especially fruitful for the Whitman College Men’s and Women’s teams. A team comprised of mostly first-years, Whitman was able to have yet another strong showing in this truly successful season. The Crank is a climbing competition which combines skill and speed. All climbers are given a time period to rack up as many points as possible, and points are determined based upon the difficulty of the problem. First-year climber Raquel Peterson provided some more detail on the structure of the event. “The climbers are given two and a half hours to rack up points by successfully climbing boulder problems without falling.” The entire conference was certainly grateful for Whitman’s climbing facilities, as it is definitely one of the premiere places in the conference. From Peterson, “It was awesome to see climbers from across the region come and enjoy our beautiful facility.”

This past weekend saw the Men’s team take first place and the Women’s team take first place in the region. With the success of this weekend, Whitman will finish second overall in the NC3, a conference which includes schools like the University of Oregon and Central Washington University. The final season score is simply an addition of a school’s five best scores out of ten events, and Whitman barely missed the top mark. The final standings had University of Washington at the top with a score of 377, Whitman in second with a score of 357 and Western Washington finished with a score of 310. Additional success for the climbing team this season included boasting the best male and female climbers. Sophomore NoahLani Litwinsella and first-year Julia Mason both finished at the top of their respective categories in terms of overall scores.

While this youthful team has experienced great strides this season, the future appears even brighter. Not a single competitor is a graduating senior, so the team can only improve, which is incredible to say about a team that finished the season ranked second in the Pacific Northwest region. The captains for next season have already been named, and are dutifully planning the practices for this self coached team next year. As a captain, Litwinsella commented on the future of Whitman Climbing. “Trust me when I say that we are a team to watch, a team that will be going places and a team that will represent Whitman, our sport and ourselves to the best of our ability. After the performance at the Sweet Onion Crank, it would be difficult to doubt to the Whitman College Climbing Team. Litwinsella also commented on the tremendous environment that surrounds the climbing team, “I have been so proud and so honored to work with the amazing, kind, funny and determined group of climbers that are the Whitman Climbing team.”