Letendre and Fraser win at the East Regional.
A year ago, Alex Vigneault missed out on the CrossFit Games on a tiebreaker, Spencer Hendel placed fourth, Daniel Tyminski was hurt and Austin Malleolo missed all of his snatch attempts to bury his chance early.
On Sunday, the quartet of comeback kids had an exhilarating race to the finish—behind clear champion Mat Fraser—as each found redemption and a spot in Carson.
“It’s a dream come true right now,” said second-place Vigneault, the only Games first-timer of the group. “I started off like everybody else, but my first year I managed to qualify for regionals. So I decided to keep going for my second year, but full time. The results are here.”
For Hendel, a four-time Games competitor, this will be his first appearance since 2012 while Tyminski and Malleolo both went in 2013. Tyminski rallied from eighth place to third, with Hendel taking fourth and Malleolo grabbing the final Games-qualifying spot.
On the women’s side Michele Letendre—finally in a regional competition without 2014 Games champ Camille Leblanc-Bazinet—had three top-three finishes Sunday to easily take first place and mark her fifth consecutive CrossFit Games appearance.
“When we were in Canada East, me and Camille were exchanging first, second, first, second and last year, I was a little bit shaken up but this is different,” Letendre said of facing the North East Region, as well. “I mean, I only won two events this whole weekend. So it’s different, but luckily with my experience, it didn’t faze me that much.”
Dani Horan followed her and newcomer Kari Pearce took third. Carol-Ann Reason-Thibault and Kelley Jackson—who returns for a second year—round out the final Games spots.
“Qualifying last year was like, ‘Alright, I finally did it’ and qualifying again this year is a little bit of validation, like I deserved to be there last year and now I’m going back,” Jackson said. “I’m so excited because walking into this I didn’t realize how good this region was and how amazing these women are.”
MEN
Fraser set a record in Event 6, giving the silver medalist at the 2014 Games a stranglehold atop the East Regional’s men’s leaderboard. Fraser—who entered the day in first place—extended his lead over Vigneault to 65 points, but the real spotlight Sunday afternoon belonged to the event’s second-place finisher: Daniel Tyminski.
Sitting in eighth place after two days of competition, Tyminski stormed to a second-place Event 6 finish to break into the top five with just one event standing between him and a return to the CrossFit Games.
“Mentally, it was definitely challenging,” Tyminski said of not competing individually in 2014 due to injury. “My team did qualify for regionals (last year) and we didn’t do so well so I was kind of bummed out about that. I was like, I’m not going let that happen again, if I get hurt I’m going to go until I die, seriously, so I can make it. But, it was a struggle mentally and I want to get back so badly.”
Tyminski, who made his move on the fourth round of the 25-calorie row, 16 chest-to-bar pull-ups and 9 strict deficit handstand push-ups, turned in his best performance of the weekend at just the right time. The owner of CrossFit Lindy, Tyminski crossed the finish line in 11:37.3, not enough to catch Fraser (11:16.7), but still enough to come in under the previous record.
“I knew coming into this I was in eighth place, 14 or 15 points out from fifth, I had to make up ground,” Tyminski said. “That’s all I thought about last night, visualizing this workout and knowing what I had to do.”
The event saw numerous place changes over 5 rounds, though Fraser was able to take the lead back from Craig Kenney on the third round of pull-ups and keep it for good.
“Halfway through I figured I was gonna get kinda down the chart a little bit ‘cause everyone else was pulling hard on the rower and going unbroken on those handstand push-ups,” said Fraser, who wisely took early breaks and was able to avoid redlining. “Just being consistent paid off.”
Kenney, who needed a solid finish to stay in Games contention, couldn’t hang on in the final round of handstand push-ups, and fell just over 10 seconds behind Cody Mooney and Vigneault.
“It was something I needed definitely,” said Mooney, who finished third in the heat and fifth overall to bump him up to fourth on the leaderboard. “Craig (Kenney) and I had a good race going there. We both got no-repped with just a few reps to go. I was like, ‘Just dig deep’. Those bars are a little slicker, I ripped a little bit, but it was fine. The crowd was incredible, I’m blessed to have gyms here (to cheer), the atmosphere was amazing. I’m super blessed just to be here.”
Men’s Event 6 Results
1. Mathew Fraser (11:16.7)
2. Daniel Tyminski (11:37.3)
3. Paul Tremblay (11:50.1)
4. Nicholas DelGrande (12:02.9)
5. Cody Mooney (12:40.6)
Sunday’s finale was built to be a thriller, but perhaps no regional had seen a final heat stacked up quite like this. With just a 6-point margin between third and sixth place, there was no room for error and barely time to set up for the ascending 5 squat clean ladder that followed 15 muscle-ups.
Half of the top 10 came off the rings within fraction of a second of each other, but it was gripping and ripping Paul Tremblay in Lane 1 who won the event, crossing the finish line in 1:19.4. Tremblay took his first event win of the weekend but it wasn’t enough to send him to the Games.
Seconds behind him, those Games spots were being decided.
Fraser—who sealed a regional win—took fifth and finished behind Tremblay in 1:22.3 with Tyminski, fresh off a second-place finish in Event 6, punching his ticket to Carson by placing sixth in 1:23.2.
“It was really difficult; there was no workout you could rest on your laurels or take for granted. There were a lot of guys that were pushing me on everything,” Fraser said. “I’m excited to sit back and look at the other scores, the other (regionals) and see how this one stacks up. I think it’s going to prove itself that this is a very tough (regional).”
Spencer Hendel sprinted to the finish line a second behind Tyminski to move him from sixth place to fourth and mark his first Games appearance since 2012.
“I can count on my hands, on all five fingers, maybe my second hand as well, how many times I’ve been put in that position, knowing I need to beat people in order to go to the Games,” Hendel said. “They stood in between me and making it before and I wasn’t going to let that happen again.”
Austin Malleolo was in the same boat, as the four-time Games competitor—who had one of the most spirited celebrations after Saturday’s snatch event—hung on for ninth in Event 7, edging out Craig Kenney by 11 points and taking the fifth and final spot.
“I said on Friday that this is the most important competition in my life to date, so there’s not a better feeling from a competition perspective,” Malleolo said. “It’s pretty awesome.”
Men’s Event 7 Results
1. Paul Tremblay (1:19.4)
2. Nicholas DelGrande (1:20.6)
3. Justin Tamane (1:21.1)
4. Kurt Garceau (1:22.2)
5. Mathew Fraser (1:22.3)
CrossFit Games Qualifiers
1. Mathew Fraser (630 points)
2. Alex Vigneault (556 points)
3. Daniel Tyminski (511 points)
4. Spencer Hendel (503 points)
5. Austin Malleolo (500 points)
WOMEN
Kari Pearce—part of a closely-contested women’s competition for the final three spots—gave herself some breathing room after posting a new Event 6 record. The former collegiate gymnast, who finished the 5 rounds of 25-calorie row, 16 chest-to-bar pull-ups and 9 strict deficit handstand push-ups in 13:19, increased her third-place lead to 35 points and put her on the cusp of her first CrossFit Games.
“No, (I didn’t expect to be in the top 5) because this is my first regionals. I just came into it wanting to have fun and a good time and shine in the handstand events,” said Pearce, who bested the record set in the prior heat by Chloe Gauvin-David (13:30.4). “I had no clue I would be sitting where I am right now, so I’m super excited.”
Pearce stayed back for the first rounds before taking the lead for good on the final round of pull-ups. She wasted no time kicking up into a handstand, completing all five sets of handstand push-ups unbroken, and crossing the finish line well ahead of the rest of the field.
Top seed Michele Letendre also made a late move and finished second in the heat—and third overall—with 13:40.7.
"I knew I could do the whole thing unbroken, so I figured, because I’m not a good rower, I’d make up my time on the gymnastics,” said Letendre, who like Pearce, passed Dani Horan and Carol-Ann Reason-Thibault in the last few reps on the rig. “It worked out well. I wish I would have won it. But hey, the goal is to go to Carson, and that will get me there."
Letendre took a comfortable lead heading into Event 7’s finale with 514 points, 22 ahead of Horan, which put the Canada East competitor as a near-lock to take first place overall.
Horan finished fourth in the event (13:47.4) but was still in a cushy spot in second place overall, 52 points ahead of third-ranked Pearce.
Women's Event 6 Results
1. Kari Pearce (13:19.0)
2. Chloe Gauvin-David (13:30.4)
3. Michele Letendre (13:40.7)
4. Dani Horan (13:47.4)
5. Carol-Ann Reason-Thibault (13:49.6)
To say Letendre dominated Heat 4 would be putting things mildly. While the men’s finale saw fractions of a second magnified, Letendre was the first woman done with her 15 muscle-ups and had done four of five squat cleans before anyone else even picked up a barbell.
“I love muscle-ups and I know I can string a few of them together so knowing that was an edge for me,” said Letendre, who cruised to a Heat 4 win (1:38.1) and tied for second in the event. “I was looking forward to this one all day, all weekend.”
Letendre, who already had a commanding lead, sealed first place overall as soon as she crossed the finish line, with Dani Horan—who took fifth in the event—finishing second overall.
“Going into it you have no idea who your competition really is,” said Horan, who finished 71 points ahead of third-place Kari Pearce. “A lot of names I didn’t really know, so I’m just really happy to be going back to California.”
Carol-Ann Reason-Thibault took fourth in Event 7, finishing only behind Letendre in her heat, to hold on to fourth place overall and seal one of the final Games spots.
“I felt a little bit of pressure winning the Open (in Canada East), but my goal was to remain in the final heat throughout the weekend,” she said through an interpreter. “Obviously I dreamt about it. But I told myself that if I accomplished the objectives I set out for myself then it would be OK, that I would focus on next year (if I failed). This weekend I saw I had good WODs, one not so good, so I believed, then I stopped, then I believed again. Finally yesterday I went to bed with a good attitude and I think it paid off.”
Women’s Event 7 Results
1. Rachel Goldenberg (1:36.7)
2T. Jessica Cote-Beaudoin (1:38.1)
2T. Michele Letendre (1:38.1)
4. Carol-Ann Reason-Thibault (1:53.0)
5. Dani Horan (1:57.3)
CrossFit Games Qualifiers
1. Michele Letendre (609 points)
2. Dani Horan (572 points)
3. Kari Pearce (501 points)
4. Carol-Ann Reason-Thibault (490 points)
5. Kelley Jackson (475 points)
