Regional Report: Expect the Unexpected in North East

May 25, 2012

Keka Schermerhorn

Under cloudy skies and mildly warm weather, athletes competed for a second time at Reebok Headquarters.
 

With the largest crowd of spectators for a Friday ever, the CrossFit North East Regional was about the unexpected.

Under cloudy skies and mildly warm weather, the athletes competed for a second time at Reebok Headquarters in Canton, Mass.
 
Men
 
Although not all in the same heat, the top three competitors for Event 1 finished within three seconds of each other.
 
The crowd was looking forward to Heat 5, featuring the top finishers for the Open.  David Charbonneau bested his Diane PR by 28 seconds, earning him a No. 2 spot on the Leaderboard for Event 1. 
 
“My only goal was to beat my PR,” he says. “So I guess I did OK.”
 
Heat 4 saw an incredible effort from Tim Carroll and Brendan Marolda, who got his revenge on handstand push-ups after his meltdown at last year’s Regional.
 
It was Heat 2 athlete Brent Miffitt, however, that recorded the best time of the day at 2:01. Miffitt finished the Open in 50th place and was aggressively trying to carve out a spot for himself on the first event.
 
Rounding out the top 3 were Brennen Colwell, who, like Miffitt, came out of the Open in 56th place and is unexpectedly sitting in 3rd place after Event 1. Miffitt, Charbonneau and Brennen Cowell were the leaders after Event 1. 
 
Women
 
The women’s Event 1 was plagued by false starts in two out of the four heats. What happens when you are the culprit of the false start? In the case of Workout 1, Diane, you are asked to face away from the bar before starting.
 
Dana Siegfried didn’t seem shaken up by her false start and moved quickly from her set of 21 deadlifts onto the handstand push-ups. But once at the wall, she was no-repped repeatedly.
 
“It was tough to keep going because I couldn’t figure out why I was being no-repped,” she says.
 
The handstand push-ups, however, were no issue for Event 1 winner Alicia Gomes.
 
With a background in gymnastics, she says she was worried about her overall speed more than anything.
 
“I really didn’t think I was as fast as some of the other ladies,” Gomes says. “I was nervous. I just want to be consistent for Event 2. This was a PR for me, but it’s a long weekend, and this is one event.”
 
Gomes, Jessa Lemoine and Emily Friedman were the leaders after Event 1.
 
Team
 
Communication, rhythm and the grass were the biggest challenges at for the teams in Event 1, a partner version of Diane.
 
Although most teams started out in perfect sync for the first round of deadlifts, many suffered communication breakdown at their second go-round with the barbell. They got out of sync with their partners, which led to numerous no-reps.
 
And then there was the grass. CrossFit Iron Will was the first team to suffer its ill effects. Barbells moved off the wooden platforms, sinking into the grass and making them decidedly harder to move.
 
Ever the gentlemen, CrossFit Route 1 moved their barbell back onto the platform before running to the finish line.
 
“We didn’t want the girls to have to move the bar before stripping it,” Braden Monaco says. “We just wanted them to be able to go and do the reps, nothing extra.”
 
They finished the event in 2nd place.
 
CrossFit New England’s dreams of sweeping the team events again at this year’s Regional were shattered in the first event of the day. The reigning champs came in strong and focused, as it was to be expected, but things fell apart on the second set of deadlifts for the women.
The men ran through them unbroken and looked like they could have been performing a demo video for the workout. But as soon as the women stripped the bar, things started to go wrong. There were no-reps and resetting the grip on every rep after the weight started to slide.
CrossFit Milford ended up winning the event.
 
Team member Jason Leydon said they came in knowing the event was going to come down to the second round of handstand push-ups and deadlifts.
 
“We wanted to stay in control to avoid no-reps. Consistency was definitely a factor in winning this event,” he says.
 
CrossFit Milford, CrossFit Route 1and BKAthletics were the leaders after Event 1.