South Team Report: Day 2

May 16, 2015

Brittney Saline

All of the teams in the top five overall shifted today, except the leader: Ute CrossFit.

All of the teams in the top five overall shifted today, except the leader: Ute CrossFit.

 

It’s Day 2 in Dallas.

Ute CrossFit entered the competition today in first overall with a 15-point lead, with Backcountry Black following in second, a comfortable 19-point spread between them and CrossFit Lubbock in third.

This morning, the teams would have to move fast, lift heavy and stay balanced upside down in today’s spread of running and wall-ball shots, 1-rep-max snatches and 100-foot handstand walks. 

TEAM EVENT 3

Teams began the day with a sprint to nowhere, as female/male pairs took on a couplet of running and wall-ball shots. It has been three seasons since we last saw running programmed at the regional level, with team athletes asked to run 0.5, 0.4 or 0.3 miles on the TrueForm Runner, a curved treadmill with no motor or flywheel.

With no help to move the belt, athletes had to find a pace that allowed them to keep momentum without burning out. Athletes who got gassed on the run were forced to break up their wall-ball shots, causing a bottleneck as the following teammate waited on the treadmill, unable to advance.

The first team to finish within the 20-minute time cap came from the second heat, Latin America’s CrossFit Moema, but the biggest noise came from CrossFit The Club. Though The Club began the day outside of a qualifying position in seventh overall, the team was able to jump three positions to fourth overall with a single event win. The win added 100 points to its total, which bumped them 1 point ahead of OPEX Red. With a time of 17:34.9, The Club broke the event record of 17:45.4 set by RAW Training at the Atlantic Regional earlier today.

The Club—seventh place, 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games—took the lead from the start. It was the first to send its first female to the wall-ball shots at 3:34, her platinum-blonde hair streaking behind as she ran to the rig. Salt Lake City CrossFit and Ute CrossFit, however, were close behind.

Though Ute CrossFit’s first woman made to overtake CrossFit The Club’s on the 50 wall-ball shots, CrossFit The Club’s first male was the faster runner and they retained the lead.

When the second pairs took the floor, the race was between CrossFit The Club and Salt Lake City CrossFit, side-by-side in Lanes 1 and 2. Their second females hit the finish mat in unison at 11:47.

But again, CrossFit The Club was ready to run. Its second male finished his 0.4-mile run and had 7 wall-ball shots in the bank before Salt Lake City’s second male reached the rig. When CrossFit the Club’s athlete broke after his 15th shot, catching his breath, he gave Salt Lake City a chance to catch up. For the final 20 shots, they were going almost rep-for-rep.

Meanwhile, Ute CrossFit’s Brennan Fjord made a sly catch-up on the wall-ball shots, feet planted and tracing an angel in the air with his arms. Though he beat CrossFit The Club to the finish mat by more than 10 seconds, it didn’t matter—Ute’s final female was still on the treadmill.

She reached the rig simultaneously with CrossFit The Club and Salt Lake City’s last female. Though CrossFit The Club’s final female was the shortest, jumping two inches from the floor with each shot, she finished first at 16:23, giving the team’s final male time to bank 7 reps on the wall-balls before Salt Lake City’s last man joined him at the rig.

But the deal was done. CrossFit The Club was seconds from victory and it wasn’t about to hand it over. With an unbroken final 15 reps, the team’s last male reached the finish mat at 17:34.9 for first place.

"We needed a win,” Sheena Hammer of CrossFit The Club said. “We're confident as a running team so we knew this was an event we could crush, so we put a lot of strategy to make sure we were ready to go on this one."

Though JekyllHyde Blue’s began the day in fourth, its 13th-place Event 3 finish knocked them to seventh overall with 215 points, 22 points behind OPEX Red, in fifth place.

Team Event 3 Results 
1. CrossFit The Club (17:34.9)
2. Salt Lake City CrossFit (17:51.1)
3. OPEX Red (17:53.9)
4. CrossFit Lubbock (18:04.3)
5. Ute CrossFit (18:25)

TEAM EVENTS 4 AND 5

Next, the teams took on back-to-back events with a 1-rep max snatch (Team Event 4) followed two minutes later by a 100-foot handstand walk relay (Team Event 5). 
 
For the max snatch, each athlete had 1 minute to establish their heaviest lift and when the event was over, teams had 60 seconds to transition into the handstand walk. 
 
Though OPEX Red had the athlete with the heaviest snatch in Event 4—Danny Nichols with 315 lb.—it was Ute CrossFit who reclaimed its top spot with a total of 1,200 lb. According to Tommy Hackenbruck, it was light weight. 
 
"When it came to the weightlifting we stayed pretty conservative,” he said. “We missed a couple of lifts but I think it was the right thing to do."
 
All three of Ute CrossFit’s men made their opening lifts of 255 lb., though two of them, including Hackenbruck, missed attempts at 275. Hackenbruck misjudged his power, tossing it behind his head. But the women made up for the missed lifts, the final two each making successful lifts at 145 lb. in the final seconds. 
 
After the weights were cleared, the teams got inverted for Event 5. 
 
Though Backcountry Blue held an early lead for more than two-and-a-half minutes, its fourth athlete fell attempting to pass through the rig, allowing JekyllHyde Blue to pull even. For nearly 30 seconds, the pair stopped and started, unable to traverse the soft matting below the rig. 
 
With Backcountry Blue’s attempts getting sloppier as frustration grew, several teams passed them. Ute CrossFit was among them, but its fifth female was called back to redo her last 10 feet. 
 
In the final athletes’ attempts, Backcountry Blue, JekyllHyde Blue and Ute CrossFit were each stalled at the rig once again, allowing CrossFit Jääkarhu to make its move. In a captivating upset, CrossFit Jääkarhu’s final male broke away with the final 30 feet to win the event for the team in 4:43.5. 
 
"We practice handstand walks fairly regularly, it was something we were prepared for,” said Amanda Dearman of BackCountry Blue’s rapid rise and fall on Event 5. “You know it happens but we love our team.”
 
Team Event 4 Results
1. Ute CrossFit (1,200 lb.)
2. #TeamDensity (1,169 lb.)
3T. CrossFit Katy (1,120 lb.)
3T. CrossFit Lubbock (1,120 lb.)
5. Backcountry Black (1,117 lb.)
 
Team Event 5 Results
1. CrossFit Jääkarhu (4:43.5)
2. East Valley CrossFit (4:48.6)
3. OPEX Red (5:09.1)
4. TEKTON (5:26.7)
5. Ute CrossFit (5:48)
 
Overall Standings
1. Ute CrossFit (455)
2. CrossFit Lubbock (407)
3. Backcountry Black (379)
4. CrossFit Jääkarhu (374)
5. CrossFit The Club (371)
6. Salt Lake City CrossFit (353)
7. OPEX Red (353)
8. JekyllHyde Blue (347)
9. Backcountry Blue (327)
10. CrossFit Waco (321)
 
With more than two-thirds of the regional team events complete, the overall leaderboard looks much the same as it did on the end of Day 1. Ute CrossFit holds fast in first place, 48 points ahead of second ranked CrossFit Lubbock. Today, CrossFit Lubbock moved up by one position (third to second), Backcountry Black moved down by one (second to third), and CrossFit Jääkarhu and CrossFit The Club moved into the final two Games-qualifying positions. 
 
Though OPEX Red, a favorite after taking eighth place worldwide in the 2015 Open, took third in the handstand walk, the team’s surprising 29th-place finish on the max snatch dropped them from fifth to seventh overall. Nichols had the heaviest lift of the day with an incredible 315-lb. snatch, but his teammates several missed attempts at lower weights brought the team’s total to just 940 lb. 
 
With muscle-ups, GHD sit-ups and overhead walking lunges in store for Team Events 6 and 7 tomorrow, they’d better bring their midlines.