South East Regional Report: 14 Men and 1 Woman Beat Time Cap

May 18, 2013

Dawn South

"It's going to be a long one, a hard one," Adrien Tapia said.

View more photos here.

Clear skies, warm weather, and a nice breeze made it perfect beach weather on Day 2 of the South East Regional. The top athletes of the Dirty South made their way into the Palm Beach County Convention Center, but sandy beaches were not on their minds. 

100 wall balls, 100 chest-to-bar pull-ups, 100 pistols, and 100 dumbbell snatches lay ahead of the competitors. Earlier today in Europe, only three men and one woman were able to finish the incredible amount of work within the 25-minute time-cap. 
 
Men
 
"It's going to be a long one, a hard one,” Adrien Tapia said prior to Event 4. 
 
“The wall balls ... I'm very good at wall balls. I like wall balls a lot. However, I know it's just one-fourth of it. I know chest-to-bar is going to be the toughest for me. Then after that, I think once you get through chest-to-bar, it's just a sprint to the finish with the pistols and dumbbell snatch,” he predicted.
 
The clock ticked down to the 25-minute time cap while most men were still working through the 70-pound dumbbell snatches. 
However, 14 men made it through all 400 reps.
 
Brandon Phillips took top honors. He not only made it through the work, but he finished it with two minutes and 21 seconds to spare (22:39). 
 
“I wanted to get through pull-ups at 10:00-10:30 because I knew I could hammer out the other stuff,” he says. 
 
"At one point during the dumbbell snatches, I thought about going for the world record, but my hips were tight, and I still have business to take care of.”
 
After taking 33rd on the burpee muscle-up (Event 3) and 17th on Jackie (Event 1), Phillips sits in 9th place overall. He’ll need top performances on the next three workouts to close the gap on the leading men.
 
Guido Trinidad followed 29 seconds behind Phillips for 2nd, and Noah Ohlsen ran to the finish mat three seconds later. 
 
Ohlsen admits that he was a little upset that his training partner, Trinidad, managed to catch him on the dumbbell snatches. Ohlsen had beaten Trinidad to the dumbbell snatches, but his lead didn’t stick. By his fifteenth rep, Trinidad had caught him. For the rest of the workout, they went rep-for-rep until the last five. 
 
"Guido and I did that workout in practice with 50 reps of each movement, and he managed to beat me the same way by eight seconds," Ohlsen explained.
 
The rest of the workout went according to plan, he says.
 
"Things went as expected with sets of 25 wall balls, pull-ups at 10s with no failure," Ohlsen said. 
 
He was a bit surprised by what he referred to as slower pistols, but he attributes that and the pausing between snatches to central nervous system fatigue. 
 
"I'm pissed. I wanted to win, and I could hear the announcers calling the reps, but now we ride the bike and get ready for Event 5," Ohlsen said.
 
After four events, Noah Ohlsen continues to lead with just 18 points. ZA Anderson is in 2nd overall (34 points), and Guido Trinidad is in 3rd (36 points). The 4th-8th ranked men are ten points or fewer behind Trinidad, and could easily strike over the next three events. 
 
Event 4 
1.Brandon Phillips (22:39)
2. Guido Trinidad (23:08)
3. Noah Ohlsen (23:11)
 
Overall
1. Noah Ohlsen (18)
2. ZA Anderson (34)
3. Guido Trinidad (36)
4. Jeff Evans (38)
5. Daniel Petro (41)
6. Matt Baird (42)
7. Travis Mayer (43)
8. Julian Serna (46) 
 
Women
 
Like Europe, only one woman from the region made it through Event 4. In Europe, Sam Briggs got through the work in 22:46. In the South East, Talayna Fortunato finished in 23:34.
 
Fortunato blazed through her wall balls and didn’t slow down until she got to the dumbbell snatches. 
 
"I felt a little nauseous on the dumbbells so I slowed down a little which is why it was nice that everyone else was behind,” she said.
 
As the clock ticked down to 25 minutes, Anna Tunnicliffe worked through her last few 50-pound dumbbell snatches. 
 
"I had like 25 seconds or something with 10 snatches left,” Tunnicliffe said. “I was like, 'Oh I won't make it,' but then I was like, 'Maybe I will!’” 
 
She could hear the crowd cheering her through her last 10 snatches. She finished the 100th rep, but didn’t make it to the finish mat within the time cap. With a score of 25:01, Tunnicliffe took 2nd. 
 
"It energized me,” she said. ”I think that was what made me get to 100. It was a really cool experience."
 
Two-year Games competitor, Jaime Gold, had twelve snatches remaining at the time cap (25:13) and took 3rd while Emily Bridgers had 36 snatches remaining and took 4th (25:37).
 
After four events, Fortunato holds the top spot on the South East Leaderboard. The comeback kid Bridgers is in 2nd (20 points), while Gold holds 3rd (22 points). Emily Friedman and Sarina Woodworth aren’t far behind.
 
Event 4
1. Talayna Fortunato (23:34)
2. Anna Tunnicliffe (25:01)
3. Jaime Gold (25:13)
 
Overall
1. Talayna Fortunato (8 points)
2. Emily Bridgers (20 points)
3. Jaime Gold (22 points)
 
Team
 
The teams were only as strong as their weakest link on Event 4. Going one by one, the three men and three women worked through 30 wall ball, 30 chest-to-bar pull-ups, 30 pistols, and 30 dumbbell snatches at 50 and 70 pounds.
 
Since only one teammate could work on a movement at a time, some teammates had to wait as the teammate ahead of them struggled through the next movement. 
To finish towards the top, all six teammates had to be proficient on all four movements. 
 
Leading team, CrossFit Atlanta Formulx, continued its domination by finishing the event in 17:42 for the win. Their final teammate through the chipper, Jessica Denney, had snatched the 50-pound dumbbell like it was a 15 pounder.
 
“We knew this would be a strong event for us, so we had a plan to put our fastest males first and then our female with the strongest dumbbell snatch [last],” Ken Gall said.
Less than a minute later, CrossFit Adrenaline’s last teammate ran to the platform. Clocking in at 18:29, Adrenaline took 2nd. 
 
Adrenaline entered the second day of competition determined to turn in nothing but top performances.
 
"After Day 1, we know we have weaknesses … Muscle-ups were a weakness,” Chelsea Lowery said, referring to their 7th place finish on Event 3.
 
Adrenaline had accumulated 78 burpee bar muscle-ups in the 7-minute time cap. CrossFit Atlanta Formulx had won the event with 108 reps.
 
“We've got to finish well and do the best we can,” she says.
 
After event 4, Adrenaline’s record isn’t shabby. Other than Event 3, they’ve taken nothing other than 2nd. Currently, they sit in 2nd overall. 
 
Team Event 4
1.CrossFit Atlanta Formulx (17:42)
2. CrossFit Adrenaline (18:29)
3. CrossFit RX (18:35)
 
Overall
1.CrossFit Atlanta Formulx (6 points)
2. CrossFit Adrenaline (13 points)
3. CrossFit RX (13 points)