Delaney Miller and Kai Lightner were named 2015 Sport Climbing National Champions following a dramatic two-day competition at Central Rock, Boston, .
The two young athletes (Lightner is 15, Miller is 19) overcame an unusually deep field of competition to win their respective titles. Participating climbing studs included Alex Puccio, an eight-time National Bouldering Champion who took fourth place at this year’s event, and Sasha DiGiulian, a 2012 Golden Piton Award winner who placed second in 2014, but neither made it to the podium this year.
“I'm very excited to have won SCS Nationals,” Miller, who captured her third national title in a row, . “I still can’t believe how incredible this past weekend was!”
This year was the first in which Lightner competed in the adult nationals. As ܳٲwrote in September, the native of Fayetteville, North Carolina, began climbing at age six and went on to pick up seven USA Climbing youth national championships. Lightner’s first win in a pro competition, at the three-event Ring of Fire series in Glastonbury, Connecticut, took place in March 2014.