“It's still kind of surreal. I mean you work for something so hard for so many years and then it actually happens.”
When team members of CrossFit Katy found out the date of the South Central Regional weekend, one thought entered their minds: the wedding.
Teammate Madeline Felio Moore’s wedding date was scheduled for Saturday, May 24, the same day as Day 2 of the regional competition.
For the past four years, the team had set its sights on qualifying for the Games only to fall short. As the 2014 season approached, its members felt more confident than ever about their chances.
They just knew this year they had a shot at the podium.
Moore changed her wedding date.
“I moved it just two weeks to June 7,” Moore said. “It all worked out. One of the most fun things though was on the Saturday of the regional everyone wore white shorts to celebrate the day I was supposed to get married. I also wore a T-shirt with my maiden name on Friday, and then a shirt with my married name on Saturday. My husband does CrossFit, too, so he completely understood.”
With the wedding crisis averted, the team vowed to take each step, one step at a time. First, it had to get through the Open and qualify for the next stage. Then came the weeks of hard training and finally, the regional.
Five of the six members have been on the team since its inception. Adam Heiman, Leah Kay, Brittani Morales, Chad Morales and Mike Scott have become a family over the past four years. They’ve been together since 2001 and under the guidance of CrossFit Katy founder and coach Neal Kay.
Moore, 23, is the only new member this year after moving to the Katy, Texas, area last fall. She already knew about the team’s potential—and wanted to play a role—after watching CrossFit Katy at the 2013 regional.
“After watching CrossFit Katy get fifth last year, I knew when I moved to Houston, CrossFit Katy is where I wanted to go,” Moore said. “It took me a long time to fully realize I was good enough to be on the team, let alone help them make it to the Games.”
Moore’s background in gymnastics and competitive acrobatics during college was welcomed with open arms by the team, whose members admitted they are more about “heavy lifting” than gymnastics. All of the men boast clean-and-jerk maxes well more than 300 lb. For the women, Kay and Morales can put more than 200 lb. overhead. They can also snatch 155 lb. and squat 250 lb.
With raw strength as the team’s strong suit, it wasn’t necessarily pegged as a “team to watch” entering the Freeman Coliseum in May. Also, a 19th-place finish in the Open didn’t exactly make them a favorite going in.
In 2013, the team missed its shot at advancing to the Games on the regional’s last day. On Days 1 and 2, it had done enough to climb to third, but Event 6 proved a stumbling block. A 21st-place finish dropped the team to fifth place.
Fast forward a year and Day 3 for CrossFit Katy actually became its saving grace, despite another run-in with Event 6.
“We knew that event was going to be our worst event,” Moore said. “I am really the only gymnast on the team, and the strict handstand push-ups were a struggle for the other girls.”
As predicted, Event 6 proved difficult. The team didn’t finish within the time cap, taking 14th place. It was still in good shape—sitting in third with 32 points—but rivals CrossFit Ballistic and #TeamDensity were much too close for comfort.
CrossFit Central Downtown Black already had first place wrapped up, but second and third were up for grabs.
Taking the floor for Event 7, Team CrossFit Katy heard a chant of “Ka-ty, Ka-ty, Ka-ty!” echo through the arena. More than half of the gym’s 300 members had made the trip to San Antonio to cheer on their team.
There was plenty to cheer as the team won its heat and took second overall in the event, shaving almost a minute off its best practice time.
“I am normally a super even keel person,” Kay said, “which most would tell is an understatement, but I absolutely lost it after winning the heat and was screaming at all of our fans in the stands who were also going nuts. It was incredible.”
The performance moved the team up to second place, where it stayed. After Event 8, Team CrossFit Katy could finally celebrate four years of hard work.
“It's still kind of surreal,” Leah Kay said. “I mean you work for something so hard for so many years and then it actually happens.”
Her teammate Heiman echoed the sentiment: “I think I am still in shock, but we work hard so it's well deserved in my opinion.”
Now, looking forward to its first trip to Carson, California, the team is doing what it has always done: follow its leader, Coach Kay.
Kay writes all the programming for the team, which trains as a unit twice per week. The other days, team members jump into the gym’s regular classes and do whatever task is at hand after completing 30 minutes of mobility and WOD-specific warm-ups. Team workouts, since regionals, have continued to focus on improving skills, including muscle-ups, handstand push-ups, chest-to-bar pull-ups, pistols and rope-climbs, accompanied by plenty of heavy work, such as sled drags, deadlifts and heavy med-ball cleans.
Leah speaks for her teammates as a whole when she said it would be nice to get some “heavy work” at the Games.
“Bring on the heavy weights,” she said. “Regionals didn't have anything really heavy and that's where we excel as a team.”
