“We could be a top-10 team. I think we’re capable of that.”
When the 2014 Open wrapped, four of the six team members from Timberwolf CrossFit in St. Paul, Minnesota, qualified to compete as individuals at the North Central Regional.
However, team members had decided if the team were among the top five, they would forgo individual competition for the Affiliate Cup.
The team finished in third place.
Timberwolf CrossFit— made up of Tony Koens, Megan MacLellan, Andrea Nisler, Kyle Spears, Jacob Spehar and Kelly Wild—would carry that momentum to Chicago, Illinois, and win the North Central Regional, becoming the first team from Minnesota to qualify for the CrossFit Games.
“We talked a lot about it,” Koens said about the decision to compete as a team. “Five of us wanted to do team. Kyle’s been wanting to do individual, and that’s still one of his goals. But we talked prior, and he said if we were top five in the region coming out of the Open he’d do team. We wouldn’t have a team if any one of us left, so all the pieces had to be there for us to go to the Games. If anyone left, we’d have a decent team, but we probably wouldn’t be going to the Games.”
In retrospect, Spears said he made the right decision.
“I’m happy with it,” Spears said. “The workouts at regionals this year definitely weren’t a strength for me. So going team was an excellent decision for me. I definitely wouldn’t have placed as high at regionals as I would have liked (as an individual competitor).”
Heading into Chicago, much of the focus was on teams that had previously qualified for the Games. But scouting reports did make mention of Timberwolf CrossFit as a squad to watch based on its performance during the Open.
The team backed up its Open performance with impressive results at the regional. Aside from taking 13th in Event 6, Timberwolf CrossFit finished no lower than eighth place in any other event and won with a 4-point cushion over Games veterans CrossFit Kilo of Cedar Falls, Iowa.
“We were pretty confident in our abilities,” MacLellan said. “We all complement one another very nicely and I knew we were well-rounded enough to do well. I know I didn't expect first place.”
A Team Forms
The Timberwolf members made their way to CrossFit through paths that varied as much as the main site’s programming.
Koens, owner of Timberwolf CrossFit, started CrossFit in 2009 and used to train under Games veteran Tommy Hackenbruck. MacLellan started in 2008 in Canada and competed in the Games in 2009. Nisler, who played softball and swam in high school, will celebrate her two-year anniversary as a CrossFit athlete during the Games weekend later this month.
Spehar is the newest and has been doing CrossFit for less than a year. Wild got her start after wrapping up her hockey career at The Ohio State University in 2012.
Each was drawn to CrossFit for different reasons. Most of the teammates participated in organized sports when they were in college or high school. MacLellan even compiled a 20-1 record as an amateur boxer. But the common thread that drew them to CrossFit was the search for a program that pushed them in ways no sport did before.
Wild was an award-winning defenseman for the Buckeyes women’s hockey team. But she also found off-ice training held a certain appeal—the same sense of exhilaration she finds in CrossFit.
“We had a couple of weeks of the year where we’d do … max testing like max back squat or pull-ups. And that was one of my favorite weeks,” Wild said. “I was always at the top of my team coming out of that. And the intensity in general translates over from hockey. I couldn’t ever just go to the gym and do bench press and then stand around for a while.”
In addition to stoking the competitive flames, CrossFit holds a special appeal for Koens and Nisler.
Koens said he was drawn to the sense of community CrossFit offers and the friendly competition built in to the sport. There also was the added fun of training under an elite athlete.
“What was cool was I was training under Tommy Hackenbruck, and I’m like, ‘Holy crap, this guy is good.’ So I had him to look up to and chase after,” Koens said.
Nisler said running on a treadmill during college never helped her shed a poor body image.
“I was really super self-conscious before I started CrossFit,” she said. “So I just tried it thinking I’d hate it and quit eventually. But I started feeling really confident. And this sounds really cheesy, but it made my whole life a little bit better. And I guess finding some success probably helped, too.”
Steady rise
Timberwolf CrossFit may be new to the Games, but the team has had an upward trajectory in the North Central the past two years, finishing 88th and 49th, respectively, in the 2012 and 2013 Open competitions.
Even though this was the team’s first trip to regionals, Koens said he was confident the team would break through for two reasons: Timberwolf’s women and the regionals programming. Each team member was required to compete in each event so there was no way to play to strengths or hide weaknesses.
“Our women are what make our team,” Koens said. “We have three awesome women. To find three great women in one gym is hard to do. And we have that.”
Timberwolf’s first-place finish also speaks to the individual talent of each member. Koens said because of conflicting schedules the whole team was never able to practice any of the regional events.
Nisler has a full-time marketing job, and MacLellan, Spehar and Wild are all in graduate school. Koens owns and runs the two Timberwolf CrossFit locations where Spears works as a coach.
Koens said he’s sometimes frustrated he can’t devote more time to CrossFit, and it’s important the team make the most of their time together. But he’s also confident everyone puts in the necessary work.
Koens handles much of the practice programming for the Games team, and Timberwolf CrossFit maintains a blog for all its competitive athletes to help keep everyone on task.
“We try to plan our time smartly,” he said. “We’re kind of in between. We’re not casual, but we can’t do it full time. But everyone has their priorities. I have two kids and I own two gyms, so those are my priorities.”
Timberwolf CrossFit’s Games preparation is more structured than it was for regionals. The team meets twice a week and focuses not only on more grueling workouts or testing previous Games workouts, but also some non-traditional stuff such as two teammates carrying a barbell while another teammate hangs from the bar to help with team communication.
Timberwolf CrossFit is ready to be in Carson, California, and isn’t letting its rookie status diminish its goals.
“If things go perfect, we could be up there,” Koens said. “We could be a top-10 team. I think we’re capable of that. It just depends on how we handle the things thrown at us. I’m not going in there with expectations of taking home the cup. But if we go in there and perform to the best of our abilities, and we don’t have any huge breakdown in communication … I’ll be happy with that.”
