None of the California Regional winners started Day 3 in their division’s top spots, but they ended it there.
Josh Bridges won for the second consecutive year and Chyna Cho’s sprint in the final event shot her past overall leader Kirsten Pedri, who sat at No. 1 for five events. NorCal won in similar fashion to Cho, besting Invictus, the only team to qualify for nine consecutive CrossFit Games.
MEN
Bridges’ record-setting performance in Event 5 helped secure him the top spot. He tore through 21-15-9 reps of muscle-ups and single-arm overhead squats with an 80-lb. dumbbell.
“It was a little different in practice because I have shorter straps (at home),” he said after finishing the event.
He said he knew he’d have to take short breaks on the competition floor because the longer straps swing more.
“The overhead squats felt just about the same,” Bridges said.
After the event, he moved from second to first place overall.
Christian Lucero had held the top spot for two days but withdrew with an injury after being unable to complete Event 5.
Although qualifying for the Games is the goal, Bridges said being top dog matters.
“You always want to win,” he said with his mustached grin. “I don’t want to do just enough.”
Three-time Regional competitor Jason Carroll finished third at the Regional, qualifying for his first Games. He missed qualifying in 2016 by 7 points.
When asked what was different this year than past years, his answer was simple.
“I was more fit than last year,” he said, then laughed.
Leading up to the Regional, Carroll spent more time perfecting movement, eating more and moving safely to prevent injury.
“I’m very positive and happy (right now),” he said after finding out he qualified for the Games. “I’m all numb. It’s crazy.”
WOMEN
Finally. She did it.
After four runs at trying to qualify for the Games, Pedri realized her goal, finishing in second place after holding the top spot for five events.
“I really knew I could do it. I knew it in my bones,” she said, pressing her shoulders together as if barely able to contain her excitement.
Pedri, who had qualified for the Games as a master, joked that her maturity only helped her.
The soon-to-be-35-year-old was all smiles all weekend as she repeatedly described the three days as “a celebration.”
“I know what I’m doing here,” she said after placing second overall in Event 3 on Saturday afternoon. “I know what I did to get here. I’m not worried about anyone else. I just feel focused in a much different way.”
She bested her practice time on the event by nearly 30 seconds.
“I just kinda went into the zone on the rope,” she said.
Pedri has improved each year since she began competing at Regionals. In 2013, she placed 14th at the Northern California Regional, then 12th the next year. In 2015—the first year of the combined super Regional—she placed eighth. She did not compete last year due to a knee issue.
With one event remaining Saturday afternoon, Cho tied Pedri at 433 points.
In the final event—25 calories on the stationary bike, 20 burpee box jump-overs at 24 inches and 10 sandbag cleans at 100 lb.—Cho took second and Pedri took fourth. That moved the four-time Games athlete 10 points ahead of Pedri and into first place overall.
“I feel like my stars aligned,” said a cheery Cho.
She added: “I came in with the intention of making the Games. (Winning the Regional) is a nice little cherry on top.”
Becca Voigt, who was seeking an unprecedented 10th Games qualification, finished the weekend in eighth place overall.
TEAMS
Austin Begiebing knew it right away.
“Aw, man, I think that put them in first place,” he said in the athlete warm-up area, practically bouncing off the floor, after the final team event.
The CrossFit Milpitas owner and CrossFit Inc. Seminar Staff member helped coach NorCal. The team won the Regional with a second-place finish in Event 6, 30 Worm clean and jerks.
The team’s three veterans helped the two rookies learn how to communicate and not sweat the small stuff, Begiebing said.
“They’ve been doing it a really long time.”
The team, he said, had not set a goal of winning the Regional.
“They came here to compete,” Begiebing said.
With a minute left on the clock for Event 6, NorCal team member Alex Rollin realized the team had won the Regional, said fellow team member Chris Detmering.
The team’s coach, legendary Games athlete Chris Spealler, had told the team to only worry about what it needed to do to qualify. Nothing more.
“We just wanted to make it to the CrossFit Games,” Detmering said.
Invictus, meanwhile, made history, becoming the only team to qualify for nine consecutive Games. The team recorded three first-place finishes and two second-place finishes. It ended the weekend with a 20th place in the final event.
Men
1. Josh Bridges (524)
2. Garret Fisher (472)
3. Jason Carroll (451)
4. Julian Alcaraz (428) (declined invitation)
5. Jeff Patzer (394)
6. Wesley Rethwill (387)
Women
1. Chyna Cho (528)
2. Kirsten Pedri (518)
3. Alessandra Pichelli (493)
4. Valerie Voboril (484)
5. Lauren Fisher (463)
Teams
1. NorCal (565)
2. Invictus (537)
3. EndGame Athletics (468)
4. Bear Republic CrossFit (458)
5. CrossFit ASAP (433)
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