Teams of South Central

Which team will represent the South Central Region in 2014?

The best teams from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi come together this week to compete for a spot to the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games.

After several rule changes to the team qualification process, spectators can expect to see a more star-studded team lineup than ever before.

These stacked teams include CrossFit Big D, Team Ballistic and CrossFit Central Downtown Black, as many of the region’s standout individuals are preparing to shakeup the team competition in a big way.

Other teams will be difficult to ignore, as well. Get Lifted, CrossFit Cedar Park and #TeamDensity of CrossFit OverTake have fielded highly competitive teams in the past and after a strong showing in the Open will be making another run at the Games.

One of the newest gyms to make a play for the podium this year is CrossFit Big D out of Dallas, Texas. Games veteran Chase Ingraham, also known as “Captain America,” leads the affiliate, which opened only nine months ago. Ingraham is one of the most notable athletes who has chosen to compete with a team in the South Central Region.

“When I qualified this year I had a big decision to make,” Ingraham said. “Since August I have poured everything I have into my new gym to make it exactly how I want it to be. I felt like this was just the next step for me as an owner—to give back one last thing to the gym and put this team competition before myself. At the end of the day, I want CrossFit Big D to stand on its own and for its members, not for the person who opened it.”

Ingraham’s team also consists of two female athletes—Julz Kennedy and Meredith Ramsey—who have competed at the CrossFit Games with CrossFit Dallas Central.

Keeping with the trend of new gyms and dedicated owners, the Bielefeldt brothers—Ryan and Aaron­—have also opted out of the individual competition to join their teams. Aaron has finished in fourth, ninth and 23^rd places, respectively, over the last three years as an individual at regionals. Ryan finished 12^th and 13^th place overall in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

After years of competing against one another, however, both men came together to form their new gym Ballistic CrossFit in June 2013. After their stellar group effort in the 2014 Open, they are the top-seeded team going into regionals.

The pressure at the top can be daunting for some, but not for these brothers.

“We are not going to disregard the accomplishment of finishing first as a team during the Open, but we all know it means nothing if we don't show up at regionals and produce,” Aaron said.

“I feel confident that we are going to use the energy from that weekend to push through in a positive manner, and not let the preconceived expectations distract us,” he continued. “All six of our team members have grown up playing competitive sports, including a few of us being college athletes. We are used to having to compete in tough situations. We all have a decent amount of experience within CrossFit, and we can draw from the past to help.”

Aaron added: “We know, however, that being a team is all about working together as one unit, and not six individuals. It’s going to get tough and you have to fully trust the person next to you.”

According to Ryan, it was a no-brainer when it came time to make the decision between team and individual competition.

“The decision to go team this year was actually pretty simple. When our gym opened, we were surrounded by so much talent from other athletes who were just as committed as we were,” Ryan said. “Some faces were old, some were new. When you have the much talent surrounding us, you need to invest as much as you can in them, and that’s what we did. Once that foundation was set, we were able to focus and go to work.” 

Ryan said it would be a new experience to compete alongside his brother, instead of against him.

“Aaron and I have been going head-to-head for so many years. We’ve always been intrigued to see what would happen if we went alongside each other,” he said. “Given that we had competitors who were just as eager as us, it was a pretty easy decision to make. I'm looking forward to working with him out there.”

Finally, attempting to maintain their muscle amongst the newly established gyms is CrossFit Central Downtown Black, an offshoot of CrossFit Central, which was one of the first 50 CrossFit affiliates in the world. The gym had a tough 2013. For the first time ever, none of the individuals or teams associated with CrossFit Central qualified for the Games.

This year, however, the team has a plan of attack to change that. Games veteran Lisa Thiel and experienced regional competitor Ingrid Kantola have joined the cause.

“Last year’s results were tough for our group,” Kantola said. “There is a long history of fantastic female athletes from our gym as well as stellar team showings. The individuals each had their own sense of accomplishment as Lisa was coming back from pregnancy, Chelsea (McKinney) was competing for the first time as an individual, and I ended the competition on a high note, helping to erase weaker workouts from my memory.” 

She continued: “At the gym, however, there was definitely a void—we had left a goal on the table and no one knew what do with themselves when we didn't have the Games to train for. We took an honest look at our lead up to the event and could clearly see our errors in preparation and during the competition. As a group we began to look forward to 2014.”

With the team’s newfound motivation, Kantola found her passion for CrossFit all over again.

“I had a great time competing at the variety of Games qualifying events as they developed over the years, including having an absolutely fantastic time at regionals last year,” she said.

“What wasn't as much fun for me was training alone as an individual. … While I didn't immediately rule out still competing as an individual, I felt that joining the group was like joining a team again,” Kantola said. “I loved that environment and came to realize that being happy with my training situation on a daily basis was the most important thing to me. I was finally swayed towards team by the other women in our training group who each went individual last year.”

The team will include McKinney, Thiel and Judy McElroy who are making the switch from the individual division.

“Knowing that I had the opportunity to be teammates with these three great athletes fired me up and really got me fully invested in our team mission,” Kantola said.