This year, the USN boys’ and girls’ climbing teams reached new heights with a series of historic successes leading up to national competition in Colorado this March. Five athletes qualified to compete in the American Scholastic Climbing League National Championship this year, and were accompanied by climbing coach and math teacher Alex Wankowicz.
Wankowicz provided a recap of the season leading up to nationals and highlighted the team’s winning streak.
“We had a really great season in all gender categories at the City Championship, the Middle Tennessee Regional Championship, and the Tennessee State Championship. We were consistently on top of podiums.”
In both girls’ and boys’ competitions, USN climbers secured five of the top seven spots in the 2025-2026 Tennessee season ranking. Hannah Mackler ‘29 headed into the national competition as twelfth in the nation, and Erin Ilagan ‘26 held spot fourteen.
A day before departing for the competition in Colorado, Wankowicz broke down the team’s aspirations in terms of scoring, and noted that scoring well as a team is important in addition to scoring as an individual climber.
“On the women’s side, we might have some potential to either get on the podium or get a team score, because right now we have two women in the top fifteen, and we need three to score. There’s only one other school that has that many women so highly ranked. I’m also really proud that we’re repping the southern region.” Wankowicz continued. “There’s a lot of climbers coming from Colorado, and I think the South has a lot of good rock climbing that people don’t know about.”
Wankowicz looked into USN sports history and discovered something exciting.
“There definitely has never been a time where this many USN athletes have gone on and competed on the national stage.”
When asked about goals for the competition, Wankowicz steered his most important aims for the team away from results or placements.
“I want the athletes to do what they do best, which is have fun, support each other, and try their hardest, which I think they’re going to do.” He said.
Just moments before departing, Ilagan shared her excitement about the upcoming weekend of climbing and the new experiences that would come along with it.
“I feel like climbing in Colorado is going to be really fun. I’ve never been to Colorado. It’s also really fun to climb with other people from different states that we’ve been competing against all year, but have never actually met in real life. I’m excited to go with [the other female climbers] because we’ve been competing together in Tennessee for the last six competitions, so we have a kind of Tennessee bond, and I think we should stick together. We get to talk a lot during the season, and it’s nice to get to know each other.”
Wankowicz and Ilagan agreed on a couple of challenges the team anticipated, including climbing unfamiliar walls.
“The routes are going to be really, really hard.” Wankowicz forecasted. “The style might be a little different than we’re used to. I’m really hoping that they can just apply their skills and give a good showing.”
“Usually, when we go to other gyms, things are just different.” Ilagan added.
Ilagan, Mackler, Cate Laird ‘26, Jack Barrett ‘27, and Elliott Carlson ‘29 departed from USN on Thursday, March 19th encouraged by a cheering crowd. Dozens of students and faculty from all divisions lined up with pom-poms and encouraging signs to wish the climbers well.
Ilagan, Mackler, and Laird showed off their skills on Saturday morning. As a team, they secured third place, and Mackler rose up to claim 10th place individually. Ilagan and Laird came in 23rd and 41st respectively.
Barrett felt proud of his teammates who climbed on the girls’ team.
“Knowing all the hard work they put into that, and seeing them up there on the podium, it was awesome.” He said.
In the afternoon, the boys’ team came in sixth after Carlson brought home 28th and Barrett scored 39th. Both teams were the only non-Colorado teams to place.
After returning from the competition, Barrett reflected on the season and his personal goal to encourage his teammates.
“My goal was just trying to do anything I could to get as many people to go (to nationals), whether that was planning practices or other things to do as a team. I also just wanted to continue to enjoy climbing, because last season, I had some moments where I got a little burnt out.”
Barrett’s favorite memory from the weekend was being present with teammates and friends.
“Spending time with all the people on the team, and also with Coach Wankowicz before he leaves at the end of the year, that was a lot of fun.” Barrett recalled. “Nationals was a challenge, and it was a new challenge. I’ll be ready for next year, if we go back.”
