Teams fill the stadium with gear and bodies in a last-ditch attempt to make tomorrow's finals.
The teams returned to the packed stadium this afternoon for their final event of the day. With only the top six teams going on to compete in Sunday’s workout, the stakes were high.
Like many of the events at this year’s Games, this workout was a combination of two tasks. After a run at max bar muscle-ups in three minutes as a team, the athletes moved on to a gnarly chipper that combined GHD sit-ups, deadlifts, double-unders, overhead squats and pull-ups.
The Bar Muscle-Up event presented a strategic challenge for the teams. Each team had only three minutes to accumulate as many muscle-ups as possible, but the men’s and women’s totals were scored as separate events. The teams had to decide if they wanted to let one male or female team member rack up as many bar muscle-ups as possible or cycle through teammates as quickly as possible to try and win both halves of the event. Once the athletes’ hands left the bar, they were done.
CrossFit Melbourne sent their women to the muscle-ups first, where 2011 Individual Games competitor Amy Dracup did 13 unbroken muscle-ups.
“We had the women go first, then we let the boys finish,” said Ali Murdoch of CrossFit Melbourne.
Many of the women struggled with their muscle-ups toward the end of the 3-minute time cap. The minutes went quickly as the teams tried to rack up as many muscle-ups as possible knowing they had an exhausting chipper ahead.
The winner for the men was Jet City CrossFit, who accumulated 51 bar muscle-ups. CrossFit Southie completed 47 for second and Invictus did 45 for third.
The top female score was 34 bar muscle-ups for CrossFit Jenks. They were well above second-place Team CDR Redlands, who managed 24, and Diablo CrossFit Anejo, who scored 21.
The event was immediately followed by the Team Chipper. Each athlete had to complete 30 GHD sit-ups, 30 deadlifts (225/155 lb.), 30 double-unders, 30 overhead squats (95/65 lb.) and 30 pull-ups. The men started first, then the women. Athletes could not advance until the station in front was clear.
None of the teams finished the Chipper under the 14-minute time cap in the first heat, but CrossFit Adrenaline came the closest and won the first heat, with their last athlete getting 15 of 30 pull-ups.
Heat 2 was a close finish. Bayou City CrossFit managed first, followed by CrossFit Southie and team CDR Redlands, but not one of them finished the workout under the time cap.
The third heat featured last year’s champions CrossFit New England in their last chance for a top-six spot and an opportunity to compete on Sunday. The stadium floor was a mass of athletes pulling, jumping and squatting in the hot sun. As the teams worked through the Chipper, a race developed between CrossFit Melbourne, CrossFit Fury and RCF Honey Badgers. It all came down to the women: how fast could they finish their last 30 pull-ups?
“I just told myself, ‘Do not let go,’” Ali Murdoch of CrossFit Melbourne says. “I did small, fast sets of seven or 10 reps, then went to sets of five and four.”
CrossFit Melbourne won their heat and finished the workout with a time 12:51, a third-place finish overall. Murdoch said their strategy was to go hard and fast.
“There were one or two holdups, but it went really smoothly,” Murdoch said.
Ten teams took the floor for the final heat, battling it out for one of the top six spots. Front Range CrossFit and Hustle Hard took an early lead, with the men facing each other as they worked on their overhead squats,daring the other one to drop the bar.
Front Range was in the tenth spot going into this workout, a familiar position for the team. Last year, Front Range CrossFit was in ninth going into the second-to-last workout, and they ended up placing second overall by the finish of the Games.
After battling it out on the pull-ups, Diablo CrossFit finished first in the heat and overall with a time of 12:17.8, and Front Range came in second, finishing in 12:30.3.
“We did what we needed to do,” Front Range athlete Caleb Sommer says.
The men of Front Range CrossFit did not compete earlier in the day in the Rope-Clean workout because the women did not complete their portion of the event.
“We had pent-up wrath going into this workout,” Sommer said. “This was important to us because it’s the last year for one of our teammates. Lee Lyles is moving, and this is his last chance. We were doing it for him.”
The Front Range team did all they could, but their second place finish was not enough to move them out of 10th place. Invictus, who placed 11th in the Team Chipper and third in the men’s Bar Muscle-Up, made the move into sixth, pushing out CrossFit Dallas Central.
The top six teams are as follows: Hack’s Pack Ute (648 points), Diablo CrossFit Anejo (591 points), RAW Training (550 points), SPC CrossFit (518 points), TJ’s Gym Mill Valley (518 points), and Invictus (496 points).
The team scores will be erased, and tomorrow they’ll race in one winner-take-all final event to determine the Affiliate Cup winner. Just like last year, the top six teams will have one workout named The Girls. A crowd favorite, this event combines six classic CrossFit workouts: Elizabeth, Fran, Isabel, Grace, Diane and Karen.
For full results, visit the leaderboard. http://games.crossfit.com/leaderboard