Pro1 Montreal wins the East Regional.
When time had officially expired on Sunday’s Event 7 finale, Team Pro1 Montreal held up a finger in unison. An ode to their name? More like a victory call.
In an epic down-to-the-wire finish, it was Pro1 that swooped in to take first place in the regional finale’s final few seconds, putting it atop the leaderboard as the East Regional champions by the slimmest of margins: 1 point.
“Oh god, it was such a battle until the end,” said Pro1’s Roch Proteau, whose club will get a chance to better its 18th-place finish at last year’s Games. “We needed to stay focused until the last second. Right now, (it takes) lots of energy (to) stay focused, it feels amazing when it’s all released.”
Pro1 edged out CrossFit Milford—which will return to the CrossFit Games for the first time since 2010—and ensured that Canada reigned supreme in the first-year mash-up of the North East and Canada East Regions.
CrossFit New England placed third after missing out a year ago, while FITERNITY and CrossFit Plateau 2 were the final two teams to punch their tickets to Carson.
“You have bumps, right, things don’t go the way you want, especially in a team it’s about how (you physically) and mentally stay composed,” said Plateau 2’s Patrick Vellner. “It’s a long weekend so you can’t lose your head because things just happen in events. It’s good, I’m glad in the end it turned out well.”
TEAM EVENT 6
After placing outside of the top 3 in the first three events, CrossFit Milford has turned things around and the Connecticut team—whose men stormed back for a first-place finish in Event 6—found itself on the cusp of its first CrossFit Games appearance since 2010.
“We were super confident in this event and knew if everything stuck to plan we could win this one,” said Brendan Marolda, whose team moved from third to first place overall with Event 6’s 18:21 finish.
The second to last team event, Event 6, required each team’s three females to do 50 GHDs each and parcel out the rest of the work—50 muscle-ups and 50 135-lb. hang power cleans—however they wanted before passing the proverbial baton on to the males. The second team to get its women across the finish line, CrossFit Milford, made up a 25-second deficit on the rings, passing then-leader CrossFit New England thanks to the team’s skill at gymnastics.
“My plan was to do quick sets of 5, shake it out, 5 more, and I did that up to 20,” said Paul Buono, who cranked out muscle-ups to help Milford reach the barbell first. “Then Brendan Marolda came in, hit a set a 5 and then 4, which allowed me some rest and then I hit a set of 7 until we all finished it off.”
FITERNITY was also able to pass CrossFit New England on the rings, taking second in the event (18:52.4) to stay in Games contention on the leaderboard.
“(That was) the biggest thing in our life right now,” said FITERNITY’s Molly Abgarian, after her team didn't place above 10th in any of Saturday’s three events.
The top North East team coming out of the Open, FITERNITY’s women finished just a second behind CrossFit Milford and right on schedule.
“We had total confidence in them,” said Mike Abgarian of FITERNITY. “We knew exactly where they were gonna finish, exactly what they were gonna do. We knew we would have a race. We were confident. We paced our GHD, too. Everything went according to plan.”
CrossFit New England and CFNE Courage—the other team from Ben’s Bergeron’s box—finished fifth and eighth, respectively in the event. That moved CrossFit New England from second to third overall and kept CFNE Courage—trying to become the second affiliate ever to send two teams to the Games—just outside of Carson-eligible in sixth.
Team Event 6 Results
1. CrossFit Milford (18:21.0)
2. FITERNITY (18:52.4)
3. CrossFit Plateau 2 (19:16.0)
4. Pro1 Montreal (19:24.0)
5. CrossFit New England (19:38.6)
TEAM EVENT 7
Follow the leader has never been so exciting.
Just 11 points separated the top three teams heading into Team Event 7’s finale, while CFNE Courage lurked in the sixth spot and on the edge of contention. The crowd at the XL Center, reminded of the standings before the final heat took to the mat, knew the champion would be decided within the conga-line style event’s 20-minute time cap.
But no one expected this: the top three teams within several feet of each other, sweating and grimacing as they locked out barbells overhead and lunged forward against the clock’s final few seconds.
After all, CrossFit New England jumped out early to a commanding lead, getting its first pair across in 11:57, well under record pace. But the team struggled on its fifth front-rack axle lunge and Milford and Pro1 saw the opening and quickly closed the gap. All three teams started their sixth and final member on the barbell—after a vicious combo of various holds, rowing, handstand push-ups and toes-to-bars—within seconds of each other and it was a deadlock race down the floor.
No team was able to finish when time expired—just two teams across all of the regionals have completed the event so far—but Pro1 was the furthest along the floor, giving it just enough to take first in the event and win the regional.
“It was absolutely not a free for all,” Pro 1’s Proteau said of the strategy involved in the event, which didn’t let an athlete advance to the next station until the one in front of him was through. “We spent around two hours to strategize. We did that training four times. The third person was giving time to the first person. So we calculated every single event, who was the fastest and mixed pairs with that.”
New England finished in a tie with CrossFit Milford (CAP+7) which was good enough to keep the team in third place and solidify its spot in Carson.
“We worked really hard on weaknesses this year to make sure that we were going to be there,” Allyson Bushey said of a CrossFit New England team that missed qualifying for the Games in 2014.
Milford was also aware of how fleeting success can be, as its second-place finish saw the team return to Carson for the first time since 2010.
“It was pretty amazing,” Katie Steffens said of Milford’s turnaround after a rough Day 1. “We started off a little slow and then picked up speed and hit our marks. We did what we had to do as far as practice and communication and worried about ourselves and not the other teams, which really worked out for us in the end.”
CrossFit Plateau 2 (CAP +8) finished right behind Milford and New England, while FITERNITY—the top regional seed entering the weekend—took fifth in the event to nab the final Games spot.
“That’s the most emotional ups and downs I’ve had in the past three days, but I’m feeling great now!” FITERNITY’s Kevin Seaman said. “The last 30 seconds before we found out was almost devastating because we didn’t finish (Event 7) like we thought we were going to, it was kind of stressful, but now we’re happy.”
Team Event 7 Results
1. Pro1 Montreal (CAP +2)
2T. CrossFit Milford (CAP +7)
2T. CrossFit New England (CAP +7)
4. CrossFit Plateau 2 (CAP +8)
5. FITERNITY (CAP +35)
CrossFit Games Qualifiers
1. Pro1 Montreal (617 points)
2. CrossFit Milford (616 points)
3. CrossFit New England (605 points)
4. FITERNITY (555 points)
5. CrossFit Plateau 2 (549 points)