St. Anthony Park resident Sam Struthers won the Youth Bouldering National Championships in the Male A category (16 and 17 years old) on Feb. 12 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was competing against 50 other climbers in his category from across the country who had qualified through Divisional-level events in January.
The award earns him a spot on the Youth National Climbing Team and the opportunity to represent the U.S. at the World Youth Climbing Championships in Innsbruck, Austria, this summer.
Struthers, a junior at Central High School in St. Paul, trains and coaches at the Midwest Climbing Academy in Minneapolis. His older brother, Kyle (a freshman at the University of Minnesota and fellow coach at the academy) also competed at the championship and finished 11th in the Male Junior category (18 and 19 years old).