West Team Report: Day 2

May 30, 2015

Hilary Achauer

Verdant Green moves to No. 1 on Day 2.
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Verdant Green moves to No. 1 on Day 2.

 

When the first day of competition ended on Friday, CrossFit Fort Vancouver had a lock on first place, with two first-place finishes.

On Saturday, everything changed.

The Games veterans were pushed into second place by a new affiliate from Boise, Idaho: CrossFit Verdant Green.

Cascade CrossFit moved from sixth place into fifth, switching places with CrossFit Dūrātus.

Only 2 points separate fifth and sixth places. For Cascade CrossFit, the moment of truth will be tomorrow morning, in Event 6.

“We are looking forward to the muscle-up event, we should do well with that,” Kyle Jacobson of Cascade CrossFit said. He admitted Event 7 with its rowing, handstand push-ups, toes-to-bars and overhead lunges, is not in the team’s wheelhouse.

“We are hoping for a good performance in the first event on Sunday,” Jacobson said.

TEAM EVENT 3


Dūrātus is a Latin word meaning to “endure” or “harden.”

CrossFit Dūrātus demonstrated its capacity to endure by winning Event 3, in which each team member must get through a vicious couplet of TrueForm running and wall-ball shots.

In the previous heat, the lead traded off between four teams throughout the event, but in the final heat Dūrātus came out strong, its first female athlete, Heather Bowman, finishing her 0.5 mile run in about three minutes.

The 6-foot-1 Bowman was then so fast with her 50 wall-ball shots, she was done before the first male Dūrātus athlete finished his 0.4 mile run.

In this event—as with many of the team events—it’s the performance of the women who often make the difference for the team. The Dūrātus team knew it could rely on the women in Event 3.

“Our females are incredible runners,” Kevin Longmeier of Dūrātus said. “We knew that if we could get off the treadmill fast, we had a shot."

The other teams tried in vain to catch CrossFit Dūrātus, who were cheered on by a vocal group of supporters in the stands, counting down the reps of the second female teammate to finish her wall ball shots.

The timing of this event is difficult to manage with many of the male athletes standing on their TrueForm Runners, waiting for the female athlete to finish the wall-ball shots. A male CrossFit Marysville athlete signaled wildly to his fellow teammate who was working on the wall-ball shots, waving his arms to let her know he was almost done with his run.

Although CrossFit Fort Vancouver made up ground in the middle of the event to come in second, none of the teams could touch CrossFit Dūrātus, which finished strong with anchor Zach Bilbrey.

Bilbrey transitioned smoothly from the left to right target for his last 15 wall-ball shots, then ran to his teammates, pumping his fists in victory as he ran into the arms of his waiting teammates.  

"We practiced this event a couple of times and we knew we had the juice with our runners,” Bowman said after the event. “We then knew that we just had to go full on with the wall balls.”

Many of the athletes accumulated numerous no-reps on their wall-ball shots, with the judges making sure each athlete squatted below parallel and hit the target. Bowman said she tried not to let the missed reps bother her.

“We had a few no reps, but we just worked through it,” Bowman said. “Coming off the TrueForm, what it does to your legs, we just worked through it and got it together and found our pace.”

Event 3
1. CrossFit Dūrātus (17:21.3)
2. CrossFit Fort Vancouver (18:03.1)
3. X-Factor Black (18:26.8)
4. CrossFit Reflexion (18:35.5)
5. Team Taranis (18:41.1)
 

 
Verdant Green took its first event win in Event 4—the 1-rep-max snatch. In this event, each athlete has 1 minute to establish their 1-rep-max snatch, with all athletes sharing the 45-lb. barbell.
 
This event rewards strong performances by each team member. A standout lift won’t guarantee a win if the other team members can’t come through.
 
The women of Verdant Green set their team up well, with the first woman up to the barbell confidently snatching 135 lb. and then 155 lb. in one minute. The two women after her both made their 155-lb. lifts.
 
In addition to moving the bar well, Verdant Green successfully stuck to its plan. When Basile Beaty missed his second lift at 235 lb., he used his extra time to load the barbell for his teammate, Cameron Pernich.
 
“We all had two numbers for our lift,” Pernich said. “The plan was for all of us to hit a lower number, then if we had enough time we could try the second lift. But we all needed to make sure to load the bar for the next person.”
 
Pernich successfully snatched 275 lb.—one of the heaviest lifts of the day. In the last 10 seconds he added 10 lb. to the bar and attempted 285 lb., but missed.
 
“In practice, I hit 295 lb. consistently, but it's different out on the floor. ... I just lost 285 lb. behind me,” Pernich said.
 
CrossFit Marysville took second place on Event 4. Kelsey Nagel, who has a reported snatch PR of 200 lb., smoothly power-snatched 177 lb.
 
Kyle Jacobson of Cascade CrossFit said they were happy with their fourth-place tie with CrossFit Wilsonville in Event 4.
 
“Three of us opened at a weight that was slightly risky, so that was nerve-wracking. But four of our six members hit their second weight, which was good for us,” Jacobson said.
 
Immediately after finishing their snatches, the teams moved to one end of the competition floor for Event 5, the handstand walk. The win in this event went to a team in the second-to-last heat, The Centaurs.
 
CrossFit Coeur d’Alene took the lead early on, but the Centaur’s final female teammate was steadier on her hands and overtook the final Coeur d’Alene athlete, who was fighting to stay upside down. CrossFit Coeur d’Alene took second in Event 5.
 
The winner of the last heat, Lane 5 Athletics, took third overall.
 
“We've got some gymnasts on our team,” Joseph McGowan of Lane 5 Athletics said. “And in our gym, we have a ramp you have to go down where we trained for the handstand walk, so that helped with the transition in the middle.”
 
Event 4 Results
1. Verdant Green (1,180 lb.)
2. CrossFit Marysville (1,112 lb.)
3. Lane 5 Athletics (1,095 lb.)
4T. Cascade CrossFit (1,070 lb.)
4T. CrossFit Wilsonville (1,070 lb.)
 
Event 5 Results
1. The CENTAURS (4:44.8)
2. CrossFit Coeur d'Alene (5:33.0)
3. Lane 5 Athletics (5:46.2)
4. CrossFit 604 (6:32.0)
5. Team Taranis (6:45.3)
 
Overall Standings
1. Verdant Green (428 points)
2. CrossFit Fort Vancouver (425 points)
3. CrossFit Marysville (421 points)
4. Lane 5 Athletics (407 points)
5. Cascade CrossFit (367 points)
6. CF Dūrātus (365 points)
7. X-Factor Black (360 points)
8. Team Taranis (360 points)
9. CrossFit Coeur d'Alene (345 points)
10. Northwest Strength and Performance (305 points)
 
 
 
 

 

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