WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - White Plains native Bryce Viola won the national title in bouldering in the 2013 Collegiate Climbing Series National Championship in Melbourne, Fla.

Viola, a first-year applied mathematics student at the Rochester Institute of Technology, competed as part of the school's rock-climbing team. The RIT group recently took fourth place in the competition.

The student team of nine competed against 31 schools from across the country, including third-place Georgia Tech, second-place University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and first-place University of Texas. Team scores were made up of the top male and female climbers in each of the three disciplines of climbing--speed, sport and bouldering.

In the bouldering competition, climbers were tasked with completing three different boulder problems, with a five-minute rest between each problem. Each move is worth points, while finishing the problem earns bonus points. In the sport discipline, competitors climb a long, difficult route, earning points for the highest hold obtained, with bonus points added for finishing the entire climb.

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