With a max rep handstand push-up of 70, Diane played to her strengths.
Lauren Fisher of CrossFit 209 Sport in Stockton is having a very busy week. A few days ago she busted out 70 consecutive handstand push-ups. This weekend she is competing at the CrossFit Games NorCal Regional. Next weekend she is graduating from high school.
Yes, 18 year old Fisher is soon to be a graduate of St Mary’s High School in Stockton, CA. And she is holding 13th place, amidst some very strong women much older than her, after Day 1 at the NorCal Regional.
With a max rep handstand push-up of 70, Event 1, Diane, played to her strengths. Starting in an early heat, Fisher threw up a very respectable 2:39, which ended up putting her in 4th place. Event 2, with its heavy hang cleans had the ingredients to be a completely different story, but the teenager proved she can lift weights and go longer too, garnering a 21st place finish.
Fisher, whose brother Garret competes for NorCal CrossFit and sits one spot higher than her in 12th place after Day 1, comes from a highly athletic background. She played tennis and volleyball, but basketball was her main sport for her high school athletic career. Her school, St Mary’s, was ranked number one nationally twice during her four years on the team.
Fisher started CrossFit four years ago as an incoming high school freshman in order to help her basketball play, which it did tremendously, but it wasn’t until this last summer that she began to take CrossFit seriously as its own sport. Encouraged by her coaches at 209 Sport and her brother, and inspired by the great CrossFit community and the performances put on by its women, Fisher now looks at CrossFit as her future. So much so, that when she moves down south to San Diego State University this fall, she will make CrossFit Invictus her home rather than SDSU’s basketball court.
Coming into the NorCal Regional, Fisher was understandably nervous, “very nervous” she says. Her performance on Diane relaxed her and proved to her that she can play in the big leagues. Prior to this weekend, she had watched videos of a lot of the top women, such as Annie Sakamoto, but competing against them in person showed her that, no matter how great their prowess, they are normal people just like her.
Day 1 has left Fisher ready for the rest of the weekend, and even though she dropped the big 70lb. dumbbell on her toe the first time she tried to snatch it, she knows that she can do it. Her school friends may think she has lost her mind to miss the St. Mary’s Senior Brunch in order to compete in some crazy CrossFit competition, but she knows this is where she wants to be. And if her performance so far is any indication, missing social events to compete in Regionals may become a habit.