Pro1 Montreal sits in first at the East Regional after Day 2.
Strength, speed and endurance. There wasn’t much that Day 2 of team competition didn’t test in a pivotal second day that separated some of the East Regional’s top teams and left others in a precarious position.
Saturday started with a killer couplet, wall-ball shots and running, with a cruel twist: the introduction of the TrueForm Runner treadmill. Those who had practiced on the TrueForm—which rewards proper cadence—were well-versed in the self-powered machine’s nuances and degree of difficulty. Others were sent stumbling and heaving off the run, many missing their first wall-ball attempts as they tried to get their legs back under them.
The combo that followed was technically two separate events, but they were done in immediate fashion to test each athlete’s ability to handstand walk under duress. First, teams were tasked with Event 4’s max-snatch event—which showcased speed along with brute strength—and athletes’ fatigued shoulders were immediately put to the test again in Event 5’s 100-m handstand-walk relay.
In the end, the North East Region has kept its edge—with three teams in the top five—although Canada East made some noise in Pro1 Montreal jumping up to the top spot on the leaderboard. Both CrossFit New England and CFNE Courage remain in contention for Carson and would be just the second box to ever send two teams to the Games in the same season.
TEAM EVENT 3
The new regional scoring system rewards teams with top finishes and CFNE Courage, the second team from Ben Bergeron’s box, used that to its advantage, winning Event 3—its second top-three finish of the weekend.
The biggest factor was the TrueForm, a true test for many teams that had wisely watched prior regional teams swallowed whole, either buried by an insurmountable lead or crashing and burning as weaker runners were exposed.
As soon as the regional event was announced, CrossFit New England bought a TrueForm.
"It makes a big difference. The fear factor kind of disappears a little bit,” said CFNE Courage’s Heather Bergeron, who was able to seamlessly transition from her 0.4-mile run to 40 wall-ball shots. “You know where you can stay confident, you know your numbers. It’s all in the numbers. We get on there we know where we should be every 30 seconds. If you just stay to that, you do what you expected to do."
CFNE Courage’s savvy pacing strategy paid off at the end. While Lusine CrossFIt Taschereau was the first with a female across, in 6:15, CFNE Courage—which was never lower than third—came back on its third female’s set of 30 wall-ball shots and established a comfortable lead. The team took the event win in 18:00.9, besting Lusine (18:21.6) and keeping their Games dream alive.
"When we tried it (in practice) we never had someone catch up to someone ahead of them,” Bergeron said. “That’s why we keep saying, ‘Just run until you black out’. It’s not a wall-ball workout.”
Like Event 2, teams were able to rely on stronger athletes by having them do more work with the 0.5 mile and 50 wall-ball shots, as the reps were lowered by one tenth of a mile and 10 wall balls in each successive round. But, unlike Event 2—where work could be divided up at the team’s discretion—every athlete had to run at least three tenths of a mile and do 30 wall-ball shots (to a 10-foot target), making each team only as good as their weakest link.
“Usually we can do the wall balls no problem,” said Lusine’s Lisa Kham, “but for me, my legs were shot and it was much harder.”
Kham wasn’t alone. With athletes slogging through the TrueForm, the degree of difficulty with wall-ball shots increased two-fold and it was a common sight to see athletes collapsing into tired heaps after crossing the finish line. Several top teams, including FITINERITY—which placed 18th—and Pro1 Montreal (10th) struggled with the run and it showed with long breaks and short sets in the ensuing wall-ball shots.
“(That run was) harder than we expected,” said Lusine’s Manon Arsenault. “I (ran) on a different runner with more incline, and it was way easier than this one.”
Team Event 3 Results
1. CFNE Courage (18:00.9)
2. Lusine CrossFit Taschereau (18:21.6)
3. CrossFit Wachusett (18:31.4)
4. CrossFit Milford (18:32.7)
5. CrossFit Plateau 2 (18:39.7)
TEAM EVENTS 4 AND 5
There was only one way Pro1 Montreal was going to attack the max-snatch event: as heavy as possible.
“We went a bit hard on it, I would say,” said Roch Proteau whose team totaled 1,142 lb. to take first overall and end Day 2 in first place. “Everybody was going on the first bar safe but not really … We want to go to the Games, so we risked it a little bit. It was one of the most stressful things, because you can do well all weekend, and then (throw it away on one bad event). So, we went kinda hard and achieved everything."
The event, which gave each athlete two, 20-second windows to hit a max snatch, involved a lot strategy and communication as team members quickly loaded—or unloaded—the bars and every second was of the utmost importance. For Pro1 the more difficult portion was for the females, who struggled to grip the men’s 45-lb. bar. Still, they easily outdistanced second-place CrossFit Milford (1,096 lb.) with Pro1’s Fanny Girard hitting the top female weight at 167 lb. Dominic Trepanier led the men, locking out 252 lb. overhead.
The win moved Pro1 up the leaderboard and was a nice bounce-back effort after a disappointing 10th-place finish in Event 3. It was also a much-needed score for CrossFit Milford, who entered the day in seventh place.
“The snatch event went perfectly,” said Milford’s Ryan Kononchik. “We practiced like 20 times—all the different things that could happen, fails—we just practiced. Knowing each other’s numbers, who’s going behind you; that’s the key to that workout.”
Milford also made a statement in the handstand-walk relay that followed, jumping out to an early lead and managing to hang on to eke out a second-place finish. The event was a huge confidence booster for Brendan Marolda, who struggled with handstand walking when competing as an individual last year.
“We’ve spent some time working with our gymnastics coach Colin (Geraghty) and it all came together when it mattered,” Marolda said.
CrossFit Milford was able to stave off CrossFit New England by a little more than a second and found itself in third place overall, on the cusp of qualifying for its first CrossFit Games.
The overall Event 5 winner went to CrossFit Resilience which set a new event record in Heat 1. The team finished the six 100-ft. increments in 4:26, shattering the 4:43.5 mark set by CrossFit Jääkarhu at the South Regional last weekend.
“(We have) two gymnasts and one diver so that was pretty good for us,” said Resilience’s Rachel Weiss, whose team finished in first by nearly 50 seconds. “I had to work on making my form worse to go faster.”
Team Event 4 Results
1. Pro1 Montreal (1,142 lb.)
2. CrossFit Milford (1,096 lb.)
3. CrossFit BrickYard (1,095 lb.)
4. CrossFit New England (1,088 lb.)
5T. CrossFit Vagabond (1,085 lb.)
5T. Rhino Comp Team (1,085 lb.)
Team Event 5 Results
1. CrossFit Resilience (4:26.8)
2. CrossFit Milford (5:15.7)
3. CrossFit New England (5:16.9)
4. Pro1 Montreal (5:23.6)
5. CrossFit Wachusett (5:45.4)
Overall Standings
1. Pro1 Montreal (432 points)
2. CrossFit New England (430 points)
3. CrossFit Milford (421 points)
4. FITERNITY (380 points)
5. CrossFit Plateau 2 (374 points)
6. CFNE Courage (367 points)
7. Lusine CrossFit Taschereau (347 points)
8. CrossFit Vagabond (330 points)
9. CrossFit Wachusett (325 points)
10. CrossFit Resilience (302 points)
Canada East team Pro1 Montreal moved up into the top spot after a pair of top four-finishes—including Event 4’s win—in Saturday’s final two events. CrossFit New England, in second for the second straight day, is nipping at its heels while CrossFit Milford made a big jump from seventh to third with three top-four finishes.
FITERNITY, the top team entering the day, saw a poor Day 2 drop it three spots. CFNE Courage, which earned its way into the top heat after a strong Day 1, continues to make some noise and is on the cusp of a ticket to Carson. Just 44 points separate the fifth- to eighth-place teams heading into Day 3’s finale.