If there’s one word to describe this year’s Atlantic Regional, it would be “dominance.”
From Event 1, all three Atlantic Regional winners took first place overall and never relinquished it across three days of competition.
Reigning Fittest Man on Earth Ben Smith did what he’s know for: performed consistently.
In Day 1’s first event, the snatch ladder, Smith’s last rep at 265 lb. looked like his first at 185 lb. The weekend continued for him in such a fashion.
In the process, he became the only athlete to win a regional six times, surpassing Annie Thorisdottir’s record of five regional wins. The 26-year-old also qualified for his eighth consecutive CrossFit Games; only Becca Voigt has qualified for more.
And he did it in a regional crowded with 10 male Games veterans. Practicing the regional events for the first time ever might have had something to do with it.
“Regionals are so competitive now. Every single second counts,” Smith said after the second-to-last event of the weekend.
He continued: “You need to know where you need to pick it up.”
Smith finished Event 6—a chipper that included biking, handstand walking, overhead squats, rowing and burpee box jump overs—in sixth place with a time of 10:50.50. That was a couple of seconds faster than he had done it in practice.
When all was said and done, Smith never placed outside of the top 10 on any event.
Since last year’s Games, he said he’s learned more about how he should train and has tried to improve his mental game, the latter of which he said is most important.
“You can only compete as hard as you train,” he said.
And the goal is to have “as many of those days as you can.”
Emily Bridgers did the same. All her event finishes were within the top 10 and she was in first place from Day 1. Bridgers won her regional the previous two years as well.
“She only went as hard she had to go this weekend,” said her coach and husband, Ben Benson.
He told her she only had to place 16th or better in the final event to qualify for the Games; she placed fourth.
“She definitely mailed it in,” he said.
Benson added with a smile: “We have bigger plans and bigger concerns.”
The fact that Bridgers’ 80 or 90 percent was good enough to dominate the regional is encouraging as they prepare for the Games, Benson said.
“We’re going after a top-five finish this year. Why else go?”
Right behind Bridgers in second place was Anna Tunnicliffe, who battled back from eighth place overall at the end of Day 2.
"She is as tough and gritty a competitor as they come," Games analyst Pat Sherwood said during a Friday Update Show recapping the day’s competition.
And finishing in fourth was six-time Games athlete Christy Adkins, who qualified for her seventh Games after missing qualification last year by one spot. In the process, the 30-year-old athlete laid to rest any uncertainty about the strength of her overhead movements as she did 10 155-lb. overhead squats unbroken at the beginning of Event 6 and then 5 unbroken at the end.
“That is redemption right there,” Adkins said with a laugh, minutes before she took the podium for the medal ceremony.
Since last year, she aggressively focused on her overhead position with a team of five people helping her to improve it.
When asked how she felt, she enthusiastically replied, “So good!’
“I don’t feel that emotional,” said a smiling Adkins.
Team Soul, of CrossFit Soul Miami, held onto first place over the course of the weekend. The team recorded three first-place event finishes on its way to qualifying for its first Games; its lowest finish was seventh in Event 6. Behind Team Soul was HustleHard CrossFit, 12 Labours Lions, CrossFit Bound and The CrossFit Squad.
New Faces, New Outcomes
A couple of new faces are headed to Carson, California: Jacob Anderson, Alea Helmick—and her husband, Gary—and Meg Reardon.
Reardon’s first-place finish on the final event—involving thrusters and legless rope climbs—gave her enough of a boost to take her from sixth to third overall.
Helmick, meanwhile, has been so close to qualifying over the past several years: seventh in 2015, fifth in 2014 and fourth in 2013.
Throughout her weekend, her strategy was to focus on herself.
“Run my own race, not worry about what everybody else is doing,” she said roughly 40 minutes before Event 7.
Before the event, Helmick admitted she was anxious to “get this last one over.”
Her 11th-place finish was enough to get her to the Games.
Gary, who also is her coach, held back tears of joy after hearing of his wife’s qualification.
“We had high expectations,” he said as he put on knee sleeves and changed his shoes to warm up for the weekend’s final event. “She did what she had to do.”
Gary added: “I need it more for her than I need it for me this year.”
In the end, Gary also placed fifth and qualified for his second Games after missing the previous two regional competitions due to injury. They are the first married couple to qualify for the Games since Matt and Cherie Chan did so in 2011.
“It’s amazing, oh my gosh,” Gary said afterward.
“And, of course, we tied. We always tie at the gym.”
And although three-time Games athlete Cassidy Lance climbed the Leaderboard after finishing ninth on Day 2, it wasn’t enough. She ended the weekend in sixth, 9 points outside of a qualifying spot. Talayna Fortunato also was not able to make a return to the Games, finishing in 12th overall.
