Mid Atlantic Team Report: Day 2

May 24, 2014

Christina Roth

Strict handstand push-ups were the separator on Day 2 of team competition in the Mid Atlantic. 

Strict handstand push-ups were the separator on Day 2 of team competition in the Mid Atlantic. 

Hopes are set high for today’s team events.

College Hill CrossFit entered the day in fourth place, looking to move up the Leaderboard. The team members are excited about their return trip to the Mid Atlantic Regional and are prepared to put all training and preparation to the test, and stay positive at all costs.

“We have a saying that carried through the training for our team,” Tracy Shuford said. “It’s #tpts, which stands for Today’s pain is tomorrow’s strength.’ This is what we focus towards because everything we are doing today is going to give us better strength tomorrow and we hope that tomorrow is going to be today.

Team Events 4 and 5

Stop. Collaborate and listen.

Vanilla Ice might not be a competitive CrossFit athlete, but the hip-hopper’s song “Ice, Ice, Baby” kicked off the second day of regional competition for the teams in the Mid Atlantic.

The men and women pushed the limits in today’s descending ladder of thrusters and rope climbs. As the women began working on the initial set of thrusters, their male teammates waited anxiously on the starting mat.

Thrusters alone are enough to deter any novice or seasoned athlete from attending the daily workout at their local affiliate. The addition of rope climbs will surely increase the wear and tear on the team’s endurance. The key to these thrusters is getting the bar into the right set of strong and steady hands.

Strategy varied from team to team. Some of the teams chose to leave the bar in the hang position, while others moved seamlessly with a back-rack to front-rack combination.

The women from South Mountain CrossFit tried several techniques before they settled on their strategya cross between the back-rack transfer and spooning.

“We tried passing the bar from the hang position and we tried face-to-face. Those didn’t work well for us, Kacie Heilman said“The back technique worked the best because we have one teammate that’s very tall so she can dump the bar back onto the next person’s front-rack position with a smooth transition into the thruster.”

The women of CrossFit Wilmington tied for first place in Heat 2 and also utilized the back-rack change to their advantage. Hitting the mat first in the heat, they knew this event was going to require efficiency and purposeful transitions.

“We tried our best to share the load and take advantage of the each other’s strengths,” Amanda Welliver said.

In the midst of several rope climbs, one male member of Wilmington made the impromptu decision to go legless to make each rep count.

“He was trying to go fast,” Welliver said. “Sometimes you have to go with plan B.”

Their strategy definitely paid off in these two events. Wilmington men finished Event 5 in second place in 7:58.

Leading up to the final Heat of Events 4 and 5, the team members of CrossFit Explode made certain they were ready to give it their all. Brian Quinlan is no stranger to regional expectations and knew the team would push through.

“We predicted to take first for both guys and girls in this one, since this is what we do,” Quinlan said. “We do a lot of heavy thrusters and a lot of rope climbs. Nothing is making us nervous today and this score puts us in a good position.

Quinlan and teammates are hopeful their streak will continue into the next event.

“The next couple of workouts are work capacity, so that’s good for us,” he said.

As the tension of the first half of the morning came to an end, some teams will now turn to recovering as quickly as possible before tackling Event 6. However, Rising Orange doesn’t believe they will need much in the way of recovery.

“We just know we have to go hard for the last event,” Ryan Boswell said. “It’s what we have to do. We are in a dog fight with some really great teams out there. So if we stay within ourselves and do what we know we can do, it’ll turn out just fine.

Team Event 4 Results
1. CrossFit Explode (8:36)
2. College Hill CrossFit (9:01)
3T. CrossFit Syndicate (9:19)3.
3T. CrossFit Greensboro A-team (9:19)

Team Event 5 Results
1. Rising Orange (7:40)
2. CrossFit Explode (7:45)
3. CrossFit Greensboro A-team (7:53)

Team Event 6

Event 6 was a definite struggle for the teams in the Mid Atlantic.

The 9-6-3 rep scheme of strict handstand push-ups, hang power cleans and burpees doesn’t seem like something that would cause such a disruption on the floor, but that’s what happened. It came down to how fluidly the men and women were able to crank out the handstand push-ups.

Every rep countsuntil you get a few that don’t.

Alec Smith of CrossFit Krypton, putting his gymnastic skills to good use, increased his speed during the handstand push-ups in Heat 2. However, in an attempt to make up for any potential loss, he was no-repped several times.

“I knew the girls were going to need a little more time,” Smith said. “I just wanted to get through it as fast as I could.”

It seemed like the men in Event 6 followed Smith’s strategy in order to give the women an advantage going into the second half of the heat.

Sitting in second place after the final heat, CrossFit Greensboro A-team had a strong overall performance for the day.

“Our main strategy was no mistakes, and we stuck to the exact rep scheme we got from our coach and never deviated from that,” John Steiner said. “We knew some of us would struggle on the handstand push-ups and others would not, but we stuck to our rep scheme and just got through it.

CrossFit Greensboro A-team placed fifth in Event 6, but with two top-three finishes from earlier this morning, the team has an increased chance at the podium.

For the first time today, the audience jumped to their feet in order watch the final heat of Event 6. Spectators couldn’t keep their eyes off the ebb and flow of Rising Orange and CrossFit Explode as they transitioned from one movement to the next.

Competitive tensions increased as the teams in Heat 3 entered the field of play. Keeping their theme of consistency alive, CrossFit Explode paced themselves throughout the event. At the 15-minute mark, Rising Orange began to make their move as their female athletes whipped through the handstand push-ups.

The anchor female for Explode missed one of her final handstand push-ups, which left room for Rising Orange to slide into the lead.

“We’ve gotten no-repped all weekend, so it’s just a matter of moving on,” Meghan Calpin of Explode said.

Strategy has proven their consistency this weekend as they are currently sitting in first place overall with a 17-point lead over CrossFit Greensboro A-team.

Securing back-to-back first-place finishes today, Rising Orange is exactly where it wants to be this weekend.

“It feels great and helps us breathe a little better,” Boswell said. “Although we have a lot of fighting to do, it puts us in the right position. We are going to go into tomorrow like we were in the same position for Event 6.

Team Event 6 Results
1. Rising Orange (18:40)
2. CrossFit Explode (19:04)
3T. CrossFit Woodbridge (19:31)
3T. Team CrossFit Love (19:31)

Today was a contradiction of events. The morning was fast and furious with the best teams leaving nothing behind. No one loves burpees, but today the strict handstand push-up was the nemesis.

In tomorrow’s chipper, teams will test their overall endurance and team communication. The members of CrossFit Explode have proven they are on top of their game, but can they hold first place after the last two events?

Team Overall Standings
1. CrossFit Explode (13)
2. CrossFit Greensboro A-team (30)
3. CrossFit Syndicate (33)
4. Rising Orange (34)
5. College Hill CrossFit (50)
6. CFWC Snatches and Jerks (50)
7. Forward (54)
8. Hardbat CrossFit (58)
9. CrossFit Wilmington (64)
10. CrossFit Unrivaled (66)