Week Five in Review: North West

April 5, 2013

Dan Hollingsworth

Only 4 percent of CrossFitters worldwide were able to extend their 13.5 workout beyond the first four minutes. A mere 33 — only three in the North West — earned the right to continue punishing themselves for a third round of four minutes.

The 2013 Reebok CrossFit Games Open certainly ended with a bang.

The combination of barbell thrusters and chest-to-bar pull-ups fit well within many of the predictions that were buzzing around the region on social media circles, but nobody accurately predicted how those movements would be combined.

The “earn your next four minutes” scheme turned the classic benchmark workout, Fran, into a “last man standing” scenario or a, “Last Fran Standing” if you will. This scheme did exactly what Dave Castro, Director of the CrossFit Games, predicted it would do. It pushed elite-level CrossFitters to depths of pain and suffering they may not have gone to before.

When all was said and done, only 4 percent of CrossFitters worldwide were able to extend their 13.5 workout beyond the first four minutes. A mere 33 — only three in the North West — earned the right to continue punishing themselves for a third round of four minutes.

Here’s how the athletes of the North West Region fared in this final round of global Open competition.

Men

Kevin Simons moved up 60 places on the worldwide Leaderboard by posting the third-highest score in the world on 13.5. Simons’ astonishing 240 reps also pushed him into the top 10 in the North West Region for the first time since week one of the Open.

Ben Stoneberg also posted a top-10 worldwide score of 234 reps. His performance cemented his first-place position in the region that he held for the final three weeks of the Open. Rounding out the top three scores in the region was an unexpected name.

John Hassell, of Expedition CrossFit in Boise, Idaho posted a score of 201 reps, which is 31 reps higher than the next highest score on the list.

At the conclusion of the Open, the Men’s final standings are: Ben Stoneberg with his chokehold on first place, Adam Neiffer made his final move, leap-frogging Apollo Lewis for the second-place position, and Lewis continued his streak of staying in the top three for four straight weeks by finishing the Open in third place.

Women

Ashleigh Moe is leaving no doubt that she has recovered from the injury that kept her out of Regionals in 2012. So far in 2013, she has occupied the No. 1 or No. 2 spot in the region for all but the first week of the Open. In week five, she not only reclaimed first place, she also posted the highest score in the North West and eighth highest score in the world with 175 reps on 13.5. Her score was 20 points higher than the second-place finisher in the region, Karen McCadam, of CrossFit Hood River. Moe now sits in ninth place on the worldwide Leaderboard.

Emily Carothers has been battling with Moe for four weeks on the Leaderboard and finishes the Open in second place in the North West and 15th in the world. The third-place position continues to be owned by Rory Zambard, who despite just missing getting into the second wave of four minutes of 13.5 by just two reps, did well enough in previous weeks to cement her third-place finish.

Charity Vale, second place in the 2009 CrossFit Games, put a stamp on her return to CrossFit competition by posting the third-highest score in the region on 13.5 with 151 reps and finished the Open in 13th place overall.

Teams

The battle between Cascade CrossFit and CrossFit X-Factor was settled in week five, as Cascade took one final leap into the top three in the North West with a total score of 663 reps on 13.5. These two teams have gone back and forth between third and fourth place throughout the entire Open. The battle will surely continue when the teams face-off head-to-head at the Regional in June.

CrossFit Intensify Team A maintained its top position in the region, finishing the Open with an aggregate score of just nine points, never placing lower than second on any individual week. On the worldwide stage, Intensify Team A is in 10th place. Intensify’s other team, Intensify Team B, just missed qualifying for Regionals finishing the Open in 31st place.

CrossFit Fort Vancouver posted the highest team total in the region on 13.5 with a score of 818 reps. This score was the 15th best score in the world. Fort Vancouver held onto its second-place position in the region and finished the Open in 12th place in the world.

CrossFit Fort Vancouver also registered a second team in the Open, the Fort Vancouver Farm Team, which finished the Open in 28th place, just sneaking in to earn a spot at Regionals.

With the Open now completed, athletes and teams must now shift focus to the physical challenges that await them at Regionals. The North West Regional will be held at the ShoWare Center in Kent, Wash., on May 31-June 2.

Note: A complete breakdown of all the North West Masters athletes that qualified for the 2013 Reebok CrossFit Games will be out soon.