Central
Two events, two event records and the 18th Regional event win of his career—Mathew Fraser is back.
Fraser started Day 2 in second place but quickly rose to the top by winning Event 3 with a time he said was a minute faster than in training. Going unbroken on all his muscle-ups and working through the handstand obstacles with ease, Fraser was the first athlete to break the 8-minute barrier, finishing in 7:34.
Then Fraser got his hands on a barbell.
He started Event 4 doing sets of 10 touch-and-go reps on the 175-lb. snatch, then picked up his pace as he went along, finishing more than 30 seconds faster than the other athletes in his region.
“Success doesn’t diminish my drive,” Fraser said about his dominance in the sport of CrossFit. “It was there from day one when I wasn’t winning.”
Six-time Games competitor Scott Panchik moved into fifth place after a third- and a fourth-place finish on Day 2, but he is only two points ahead of sixth-place Alex Anderson.
At the end of Day 2 the women’s leaderboard for the Central Regional was the same as at the end of Day 1, with Brooke Wells at the top and Jessica Griffith holding onto the fifth and final qualifying spot.
Wells continues to show her versatility as an athlete, taking seventh on Event 3—her lowest finish so far—and second on Event 4.
The biggest surprise out of the Central women’s competition so far is Amanda Barnhart. The former swimmer out of Cleveland State University finished 25th at the 2017 Central Regional, and this year she’s in third place overall at the end of Day 2.
Barnhart won Event 4, power-snatching the 125-lb. barbell in quick touch-and-go reps and finishing the event just nine seconds off the event record set in Week 1 by former Fittest Woman on Earth Katrin Davidsdottir.
Barnhart was nearly 30 seconds faster than Wells, who took second.
WEST
Consistent finishes moved Cole Sager to the top of the leaderboard after Event 3 and then into second place overall after a 12th-place finish on Event 4.
Sager is an athlete known for his epic comebacks and is accustomed to fighting into the top five, not sitting comfortably in second place.
“I’m here to take care of business,” Sager said about this year’s competition.
The man at the top of the West Regional leaderboard after four events is 35-year-old Josh Bridges, a master’s athlete who declined to compete in the Age Group Online Qualifier.
Bridges moved to the number-one spot after a third-place finish in Event 4. The 175-lb. snatches were heavy for the 5-foot-5, 173-lb. athlete, but Bridges knew he could make up time on the burpees and then just step on the gas when he got to the 115-lb. barbell.
“(It’s) just go time,” Bridges said about the last two rounds of the event.
Garret Fisher dropped to sixth place after Day 2. He’ll have to pull a Sager-like comeback if he wants to take a top-five spot from Mitch Barnard or Mitchel Stevenson.
Alessandra Pichelli spent Day 2 moving steadily up the leaderboard. She started the day in 10th place, and by the end of Day 2 made her way up to third overall. If she can continue to deliver top-10 performances, her chances look good for a return to the Games for a sixth-consecutive year.
Rookie athletes often make a splash on Day 1 and then fall quickly down the leaderboard, but a woman in her second year of CrossFit is hanging onto the second-place spot. Ehea Schuerch, a corrections officer out of Spokane, took ninth on Event 4 and finished Day 2 in second place. The former college basketball player and state champion in the long jump competed on the Spokane Valley team at Regionals in 2017.
Like Pichelli, Carleen Mathews used Day 2 to move into the top five. Her fourth-place spot is only two points ahead of Meredith Root in fifth.
The athlete to watch going into the final day of the West Regional is Chyna Cho. The 2017 California Regional champ is in sixth place, six points out of a qualifying spot.
LATIN AMERICA
The strike in Brazil continued to have an effect on the events at the Latin America Regional. Athletes in Rio did bar muscle-ups instead of ring muscle-ups and only faced one handstand obstacle instead of two on Event 3.
Event 4, a combination of snatches and burpees, was the first Latin American event identical to its counterpart in the other Regional competitions. Luis Oscar Mora, a 2016 Games competitor in the Boys 16-17 Division, took an early lead in the final heat of this event. Pablo Chalfun, competing in his home city of Rio de Janeiro, closely followed Mora through much of the event and picked up speed on the final 12 burpees, overtaking Mora and winning by less than a second ahead of second-place Mora.
Chalfun said the cheers of his fellow Brazilians helped him edge out Mora.
“I’m home. That’s my house, my crowd, so I could do the fastest burpees of my life,” Chalfun said.
The win put Chalfun, who was in 30th place going into the Regional, in first place overall going into Day 3. He’s only two points ahead of Mora, who is followed closely by Manuel Gallegos in third overall.
The 125-lb. snatches challenged Simona Quintana, the overall leader at the beginning of Day 2. Quintana took sixth on Event 3 but tied for 29th on Event 4.
The winner of Event 4 for the women was Cecilia Ramirez Villamil from Mexico City, Mexico. The win moved Ramirez Villamil into second place overall.
Brenda Castro finished Day 2 in first, but with very few athletes putting together consistent top-10 finishes, the single Games qualifying spot is still up for grabs.
central - STANDINGS AFTER DAY 2
MEN
Mathew Fraser (364)
Nicholas Uranker (322)
Drew Wayman (274)
Streat Hoerner (266)
Scott Panchik (256)
WOMEN
Brooke Wells (360)
Kristi Eramo (356)
Amanda Barnhart (300)
Michele Fumagalli (268)
Jessica Griffith (266)
TEAMS
CrossFit Mayhem Freedom (388)
OC3 Black (356)
CrossFit 417 (328)
CrossFit Mayhem Independence (316)
CrossFit Kilo (292)
West - STANDINGS AFTER DAY 2
MEN
Josh Bridges (304)
Cole Sager (298)
Brent Fikowski (294)
Mitch Barnard (258)
Mitchel Stevenson (254)
WOMEN
Emily Abbott (334)
Ehea Schuerch (284)
Alessandra Pichelli (278)
Carleen Mathews (274)
Meredith Root (272)
TEAMS
Invictus X (376)
Torrance Training Lab (356)
CrossFit Fort Vancouver (346)
CrossFit Billings (298)
Code 3 San Diego (296)
Latin America - STANDINGS AFTER DAY 2
MEN
Pablo Chalfun (306)
WOMEN
Brenda Castro (276)
TEAMS
Samurai Team (382)
For complete details, visit the Leaderboard.
