Marysville, Fort Vancouver, and Boise will represent the North West Region at the CrossFit Games.
With CrossFit Marysville and CrossFit Fort Vancouver firmly in the top two spots, fans watched two Idaho teams fight for the podium. A mere three points separated 3rd-place Boise CrossFit from fourth-place CrossFit Coeur d’Alene. The Idaho team that performs best today will climb onto the North West Regional podium and will compete at the Games in Carson.
Team Event 7
In the final heat of Event 7, CrossFit Marysville began the workout with a big overall lead over CrossFit Fort Vancouver. As expected, Marysville’s first male-female partnership sprinted to an early lead in their heat. Marysville was followed by Fort. Van., Marysville and Coeur d’Alene.
With an outstanding performance, X-Factor Black could have topped 3rd-place Boise. They certainly threatened to do so early as their first partnership landed first on the finish mat. But X-Factor drifted off the lead as the event ground on.
CrossFit Ft. Van. then showed their power. Their third male-female partnership inched into 1st at the 13 minute-mark. They lengthened their lead over Marysville. But Marysville’s last partners surged forward, shortening Ft. Van’s lead.
As Marysville’s last partners began their toes-to-bars, their teammates screamed for them to overtake Ft. Van. But it was not to be. Ft. Van’s final partners, pressed by competition, surged ahead. The last partners joined their teammates on the finish mat. Little did they know, but they had broken the second regional record of the weekend.
Marysville was not too far behind. They hopped onto the finish-mat in third place after CrossFit Intensify finished second. Ft. Van. cut Marysville’s overall lead by two points.
Meanwhile, CrossFit Boise struggled in Event 7, taking eighth place.
Cameron Pernich of Boise CrossFit said, “We had to edge out a couple teams. We got a little behind early but pushed through and managed to catch them right at the end. It went as we planned; we needed to beat them.”
Coeur d’Alene, which took 11th place, had an opportunity to overtake Boise. But despite a good start, Coeur d’Alene struggled through their deadlifts. Their first partners, after leading early, drifted back into the pack.
Camille Hutchison of CrossFit Coeur d’Alene said, “This next one is all or nothing. Boise beat us by seven toes-to-bars in Event 7, so not to be Negative-Nancy, but we also need them to do a little worse than us. It’s not just us now; it is where the cards fall.”
Team Event 7 Results
1. CrossFit Fort Vancouver (15:03)
2. CrossFit Intensify (15:48)
3. CrossFit Marysville (16:07)
Team Event 8
Heavyweight teams clashed for the final time late Sunday morning during Heat 3 at the North West Regional. CrossFit Fort Vancouver, second place overall, sprung onto the pull-up bar hoping to rip first place from CrossFit Marysville. Marysville’s nine-point lead seemed insurmountable, but Ft. Van. was fresh off a record-setting performance in Team Event 7.
Meanwhile, CrossFit Coeur d’Alene -- desperate to pluck third place from Boise CrossFit -- powered quickly through overhead squats. Their male competitor arrived first at the red mat. Their podium dream remained alive.
But Boise’s first female competitor snuffed Coeur d’Alene’s hopes. She erased Coeur d’Alene’s lead during the pull-ups. She then created distance during the overhead squats. Coeur d’Alene’s first female competitor struggled with her pull-ups, missing several single attempts.
Boise was in first place as their second male competitor leapt onstage. But he struggled with his overhead squats, allowing Cascade CrossFit to take over first place. Cascade, which entered the event in 10th overall, held the lead through the middle of the event. They seemed sure to finish first a their last male athlete completed 49 unbroken butterfly pull-ups.
But Ft. Van’s Jessica Core refused to yield.
Core’s anchor-leg was stunning. She cycled unbroken through all 49 pull-ups and all 7 overhead squats. Dropping the bar after her last overhead squat, Core sprinted into her teammates’ arms on the red finish mat. Cascade would not take this event.
Core stated the value of pushing until the end: “You have to keep competing through the whole weekend and take one workout at a time.”
Despite two first-place finishes today, Ft. Van. could not overtake Marysville for the overall lead. Marysville finished third in Event 8 and first overall. Marysville dropped four overall points to Ft. Van. But they won the team competition comfortably.
“Our fans were such a key here this weekend, they provided so much support for us, cheering and being such a part of this,” said Marysville’s Noah Pester. “Plus our families and significant others, they are on-board to support us over these next few months in preparation for Carson.”
Adam Neiffer of Ft. Van. said, “Shout out to Marysville. Congratulations to them on an awesome weekend. It was cool to have that level of competition at the regional level. To be pushed like that made us all better. We feel great. It was fun to finish with a bang a little bit.”
CrossFit Intensify captured second place and finished fifth overall.
CrossFit Boise finished fourth in the event, enough to secure third overall. Boise didn’t follow their weekend plan perfectly. But they did enough to get to Carson this summer. The competitive Coeur d’Alene team would finish fourth overall for the third year in a row.
Caleb Carrico of Boise CrossFit shared, “Doing it as a team like we did and coming back after a kinda disappointing Day 1 was really exciting for all of us."
Cameron Pernich from Boise was almost too excited to talk after the third place finish. “I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it. I am on top of the world. This is unreal. I think every CrossFitter’s dream is to get to the Games. We put in the work and got there; it is unreal. I am shaking and I can’t even hold myself back. It’s crazy.”
Stephanie Miller of Boise CrossFit said, "The first day we expected to come out in the top five. The first workout didn't go as we'd planned but the next two we did better than we thought we could so we were really pumped up about that and the rest of the weekend we just stuck to our plan and did exactly what we thought we were gonna do, what we planned to do and what we hoped to do and now we are top three!!"
Having finished the weekend in style, Jessica Core of Ft. Van reflected on the weekend saying, “Nothing really surprising from the workouts this weekend. We will continue to work on some weaknesses and it would have been nice to have a third attempt on the snatch to get some bigger lifts in.”
Team Event 8 Results
1. CrossFit Fort Vancouver (11:52)
2. CrossFit Intensify (12:45)
3. CrossFit Marysville (12:49)
Overall Standings
1. CrossFit Marysville (17)
2. CrossFit Fort Vancouver (24)
3. Boise CrossFit (45)
4. CrossFit Coeur d'Alene (52)
5. CrossFit Intensify (60)
6. CrossFit Loft (66)
7. X-Factor Black (78)
8. Stoneway CrossFit (82)
9. Cascade CrossFit (83)
10. CrossFit Advantage (92)