South East Regional Report: Afternoon Events Shake Leaderboard

May 18, 2013

Dawn South

"I feel good today, but today is not the big day."
~Daniel Petro
 

For most of the athletes in the South East, Events 2 and 3 were what the athletes had been waiting for, allowing them to show off their strength and gymnastic skills. Consisting of overhead squats and muscle-ups, the afternoon would prove to be a test of endurance, flexibility and solid core strength.  

"The thing that you're probably most concerned about here is just making sure that the athletes … they're doing everything they can to not only make the standard, but also be safe,” says Head Judge Chuck Carswell. “In competitions, sometimes that can be one of the challenges. It's a little bit different from your training every day. Every day, you get the chance to drop the bar if you want, but in competitions sometimes our athletes have a tendency to go a little too far.”

Starting off with a three-rep max on overhead squats followed by burpee muscle-ups, Event 2 and 3 shook up the Leaderboard by the end of the day.

Men

"Competition is completion. If you keep moving, things will happen,” said Elijah Muhammed as he headed into Event 2 feeling confident.

He finished the workouts with two reps at 285-lb. and a time of 5:31 on Event 3‘s 30 burpee muscle-ups, moving him up to ninth place overall.

Travis Mayer’s main goal was keeping a clear head and staying focused.  

"I was shooting for 285 lb. and ended up with 275 lb., and then mentally, just a clear head going into burpee muscle-ups because when you stay stressed out about the overhead squats, about how you were expecting to do that and (did) not, then it'll affect you going into the muscle-ups,” Mayer says. “I was just trying to get a clear head going into the next one."

Mayer finished the day in seventh place.

After beating his personal best on Jackie by 16 seconds earlier in the day, Daniel Petro headed into Event 2 knowing it would be one of his strengths.

"I feel good, but today is not the big day,” he says. “It is actually kind of fun. In fact, for most of us this would be a light training day seeing as it is so skill-based."

Petro finished Day 1 in third place overall. Irving Hernandez knew after only getting two overhead squats at 235 lb., a win on Event 3 was necessary.

“I practiced the burpee muscle-up last week with a gas mask and scored 5:30,” Hernandez says. “So I knew I could go sub-five.”

He did just that, blazing through the burpee muscle-ups with an impressive time of 4:39.

Brandon Phillips and Matt Baird tied for first place in Event 2 with the heaviest lifts of the day at 295 lb. for three reps.  

Event 2:
1. Brandon Phillips (295.3)
1. Matt Baird, (295.3)
3. Jeff Evans (285.3)
3. Rey Fernandez (285.3)
3. Daniel Petro (285.3)
3. Julian Serna (285.3)
3. Adrien Tapia (285.3) 
3. Guido Trinidad (285.3)  

Event 3:
1. Irving Hernandez (4:39)
2. Noah Ohlsen (5:08)
3. ZA Anderson (5:10)

Overall Standings:
1. Noah Ohlsen
2. ZA Anderson
3. Daniel Petro 

Women

In the women’s division, the story of the day was four-time Games athlete Shana Alverson. Alverson received a DNF after being unable to complete three overhead squats at the starting weight. 

Newcomer Taylar Stallings who won Event 2 with the heaviest overhead squat at 195 lb. Stallings is a former competitive powerlifter, which helped her on the overhead squats. She easily hammered out three reps at 190 pounds, but slipped on her first attempt at 195 pounds.

“The bar got a little bit forward, and I tried to fight it back, but didn’t succeed, which stunk because it was the third rep,” says Stalling.

With plenty of time left on the clock, she hoisted 195 lb. back overhead and quickly knocked out three more reps. She finished the day in fifth place overall.

Going into Event 2, Jaime Gold was confident and looking forward to it. 

"I'm expecting a lot of intensity from the crowd and to have a good time,” Gold says. “I'd like to hit 185 lb. That'd be my goal, and I'd like to try to finish the burpee muscle-ups. I'm pretty decent at muscle-ups, but the burpee adds a whole new dimension, especially after the overhead squats.”  

Gold completed three reps at 185 lb. and was four muscle-ups shy of finishing 30. Her performance brought the two-time Games athlete up to third place overall.  

Talayna Fortunato found herself going rep-for-rep with Emily Friedman on Event 3. Amongst the screams and cheers, Friedman finished first in the event with a time of 6:06.  

After Sarina Woodworth PR'd Jackie by more than a minute, she then hit a 180-lb. overhead squat for three reps and completed 26 burpee muscle-ups. She finds herself sitting in fourth place overall at the end of Day 1. 

"I didn't expect to be sitting in fourth today because I thought this might be my worst day," Woodworth says. "I really surprised myself because I thought I would be middle of the pack, so I am heading into tomorrow really confident because I knew I could come back if needed."

For Sarabeth Phillips, Day 1 was somewhat disappointing.

"Today didn't go as I expected,” Phillips says. “But when you compete, you are used to dealing with adversity. I am happy Day 1 is done, but compared to my daily training this was low volume, so I feel good about heading into tomorrow's events." 

Phillips managed to overhead squat 185 lb. and finished 23 burpeee muscle-ups.

Emily Bridgers was ecstatic to finish in second place overall after a strong showing on Event 2 and 3. She completed one rep at 185 pounds on the overhead squats and finished the burpee muscle-ups in 6:30.

Event 2:
1. Taylar Stallings (195.3)
2. Talayna Fortunato (190.3)
3. Jordan Pepe (190.2)  
 
Event 3:
1. Emily Friedman (6:06)
2. Cristy Morrill (6:18)
3. Emily Bridgers (6:30)  
 
Overall Standings:
1. Talayna Fortunato
2. Emily Bridgers
3. Jaime Gold
 
Teams
 
For the teams, the strategy was different. The women started with overhead squats, while the men went after the burpee muscle-ups. After a two-minute break, they switched off. For the first heat of teams, the women struggled with the burpee muscle-ups. Four teams ended the day with a DNF.  SF CrossFit kept a positive attitude after being eliminated for failing to meet the burpee muscle-up work requirement of at least six muscle-ups per gender.
 
“We had (muscle-ups) coming in, but the standards with the feet were something we were not used to,” says team member Nick Capo. “No worries. We will just work harder.”  CrossFit Atlanta Formulx finished Day 1 with a solid first-place finish after finishing first in both of the afternoon’s events. 
 
"We pretty much came in here to win, so getting first the first day is a big step because then all you have to do is keep it,” says team member Jessica Denney. “We came here and did what we needed to, and we did end up in first. Hopefully, we can carry it on throughout the weekend.”
 
Denney who continues to impress the South East with her strength year after year at Regionals, completed two overhead squats at 205 lb.
 
“I have a hurt elbow so the third one I put down rather than keep going just to save myself for muscle-ups and what not … I think I hit what we needed to,” she says.  Finishing the day in second place overall is newcomer CrossFit RX. 
 
“We feel kickass!” says team member Sonya McMillan. “I think today was definitely a success. It was probably our most worried day, but we got it behind us and made it.”  
 
“We did more or less what we planned to do and stuck to the plan,” Joey Konieczny says. “We had rehearsed everything so we knew what to expect. We knew what we were capable of doing and we went out there and did it. I am very proud of these girls. They wanted to win it, and they won by a lot.”

Iron Tribe tied for third place on Event 3
 
“We felt really good going into the burpee muscle-ups,” team member Jane Brooks says. “We actually ran through that one once before. We got more (muscle-ups) today than we did the other day. I think we only missed one. It felt really good to be out there and have our fans cheering for us and having that camaraderie.”
 
At the end of Day 1, CrossFit Adrenaline rounds out the top three overall teams, only one point behind CrossFit RX.    
 
Event 2:
1. CrossFit Atlanta Formulx
2. CrossFit Adrenaline
2. CrossFit RX
4. CrossFit Hardcore  
 
Event 3:
1. CrossFit Atlanta Formulx
2. CrossFit RX
3.CrossFit Unmatched
3. Iron Tribe
 
Overall:
1. CrossFit Atlanta Formulx
2. CrossFit RX
3. CrossFit Adrenaline