The South West's Cinderella Story

July 8, 2014

Mandi Lo

Like a Cinderella story come true, CrossFit The Club will finally get the chance to compete at the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games.  

Like a Cinderella story come true, CrossFit The Club will finally get the chance to compete at the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games.

Like a Cinderella story come true, CrossFit The Club will finally get the chance to compete at the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games.

After several years of finishing the South West Regional just shy of qualifying, the team not only took home first place this year, but also broke event records while it was at it.

The team—which includes Blake Bastian, Chase Heywood, Autumn Hawkins, Sheena Hammer, Chris Perrins and Anthony Jackson—went into regionals determined to get on that podium.

But it was a rocky start for The Club. Hawkins struggled to complete her last muscle-ups in Event 1 and the team had to take the time cap and penalty, putting them in 14th place. For a brief moment, the team felt déjà vu with similar mistakes made in previous years at regionals.

“In our practice, that first (event), we’ve done that in 7 minutes,” Perrins said. “Then we just struggled on that last muscle-up, it was just crazy. We didn’t have a plan for failing because (Hawkins) always hit those muscle-ups in practice.”

“We were like, ‘Oh my gosh, here we go again. This is another year that we may take fourth again,’” she continued. “But then we just said to ourselves, ‘Snap out of it! We just have to focus.’”

That focus led to an Event 3 win, accumulating 555 feet in handstand walks. The struggle of the first event was put behind them. They finished the regional with the top spot in three events and second place in two. Hawkins made a comeback in the Event 6 relay as the anchor for her team and the team broke the event record.

“We played it pretty safe in that event,” Bastian said. “We were actually a little slower than we were in practice. Autumn usually does that even faster with her handstand push-ups and bigger steps, but we were nervous from the mishap from the first event so we made her slow those down.”

CrossFit The Club was not an exception to those who were affected by the mysterious stomach bug going around at the South West Regional. Hammer was awake and sick Saturday night due to the affliction, but finished Event 8 as the anchor for the team to beat the event record.

“She was really sick, throwing up all night,” Bastian recounted. “She wasn’t sure how she was going to even perform, but when it came down to perform she was ready. She pulled it through. She is really tough mentally so she could do it.”

Now going into the Games, the team is hopeful for a top finish. Though Bastian said they are just looking forward to the experience.

“We’re just going into it to see what happens,” he said. “We would all love to get on the podium whether that’s first or third, we’d love it. But we’ve never been there, we don’t know what to expect, honestly. … I think with the team we have, we definitely have a chance at the podium.”

The team went to regionals uncertain of the future after this year’s competition. Lindsay Hassel, owner and head coach of CrossFit The Club, hinted earlier this year that the team might be disbanding once this year’s competition is over.

Perrins, the oldest member of the team at 44, qualified for the Games in the Masters 40-44 Division this year. Though she is sticking with her team for the Games competition, she plans to focus on the masters competition in 2015.

“To keep up with the caliber and training with these young kids, it’s taking a toll on my body,” she explained. “I’m going to focus on qualifying for the masters and go from there.”

Bastian said nothing is certain.

“I think every year we had just been let down when it came down to regionals time,” he said. “We pretty much have always had the same team and we’ve always been right there. We’ve always come so close and just never got it, so I think everyone was kind of frustrated with that. I don’t know, I think after this year going to the Games, everyone might stick around and go team again. It’s just kind of up in the air at this point.”

He added: “We’ll see how the Games treat us.”