The South West went to 17-year-old Colleen Maher and Games vet Zach Forrest.
They came, they saw, they conquered. Five weeks of grueling workouts have come to a close. While a select number of South West CrossFitters and teams will be moving on to the Regional in May, every athlete who took part in this year's Open Competition has something on which to hang their hat. Cheers to all of the participants.
For the final workout, 12.5, athletes were tasked with completing as many thruster and pull-up reps as they could muster in the allotted time. And 12.5 proved to be quite a fight to the finish with many athletes jockeying for the last few slots among the top 60 to punch a ticket to Colorado.
Here is a rundown from Week 5 of the Open.
WOMEN
Keeping a hold on the top spot overall in the individual women's bracket for the third consecutive week was 17-year-old Colleen Maher of Front Range CrossFit, who once again delivered a top-tier performance with a second-best rep total of 151 for 12.5.
CrossFit Venture's Natalie McLain, who currently resides at No. 4 overall in the South West, delivered the top score of the weekend with 154 reps, followed by Maher, CrossFit Wasatch's Tiffany Hendrickson (141), Front Range CrossFit's Jasmine Dever (137) and Urban WarFit's Hannah Caldas (132).
There was one ripple among the top 10 female athletes as Juli Bauer dropped from 5th to 9th overall over the weekend. Seizing the opportunity, Emmalee Moore, Dever and Amanda DeRosa all moved up one slot from their previous Week 4 positions, while Beth Guse continued to lock down the 10th spot.
Chris Perrins and Nicole Christensen of CrossFit The Club and CrossFit Roots, respectively, both continued their surge through the final weeks of the Open, with both women registering an 11th place with a total of 122 reps over the weekend.
Among the last few competitors to qualify for the upcoming Regional, CrossFit Max Effort's Nicole Austin snagged the last ticket to Colorado, moving up from the 63rd spot to 60th from 12.4 to 12.5. Alli Cerruti of Hack's Pack also leapfrogged the competition to secure her bid, putting up 111 reps to jump from 62nd to 54th.
MEN
Moving back into the Leaderboard's top five this week was CrossFit
Modig's Geoff Turner, who paced the way for the individual men's pack with 154 reps. Turner dropped to 6th overall after 12.4, but now holds down the 4th spot heading into Regional competition.
CrossFit Surge's Brandon Mericle had the second-best number of reps, posting a total of 148 to rise from 18th to 14th overall. CrossFit Max Effort's Zach Forrest, who, like Colleen Maher, has been atop his respective Leaderboard for the third consecutive week, notched 147 reps over the weekend, 3rd place among male athletes.
CrossFit Verve's Matt Chan also totaled 147 reps and used the boost to lock down the 3rd overall position in the South West behind Forrest and CrossFit Park City's Chris Spealler. Rounding out the top 10 for the men heading into Regional competition are Forrest, Spealler, Chan, Turner, Nick Zambruno, Lee Lyles, Will Trujillo, Adam Piccari, Shawn Woods and Chad Cole.
A tip of the hat to recently engaged Ute CrossFit athlete Adrian Conway. He suffered a groin injury early in the Open season and posted a lone rep for both 12.3 and 12.4. However, Conway managed to come back strong in Week 5, putting up the tenth-best rep total in the region with 140.
Despite opening the season at 97th overall, 36-year-old Justin Dickson held on to a top 20 spot for the third consecutive week after posting 138 reps in Week 5. The CrossFit Lake City athlete, who is known to "play a mean game of tag," now heads into the May qualifier sitting at 13th overall.
Our favorite bright pink, tee-toting athlete, Drew Canavero, met his goal of making this year's Regional. After dropping out of the top 60 following Week 4, Canavero clawed his way back to 59th overall after registering 130 reps over the weekend. CrossFit SoCo's Sean Turner and CrossFit The Club's Blake Bastian also pushed their way into the short list of Regional qualifiers, notching 128 and 135 reps, respectively, to grab one of the last few slots.
TEAMS
While there were some major waves in both the men and women's divisions, there were also a few surprises in the team competition. Continuing their stranglehold on the top overall spot for the fourth consecutive week, Front Range CrossFit mustered a whopping 800 reps over the weekend to pace the way for 12.5.
The members of Hacks Pack Ute achieved the second-best total for Week 5 with 781 reps, which helped the team jump ahead of CrossFit Verve and secure the No. 2 overall position heading into the South West Regional. CrossFit Verve had the third-best total from the weekend with 732 reps, followed by Crossfit The Club (723) and CrossFit Park City (720).
Among the final qualifiers for the team division - only the top 30 teams in the region move on to The Regional - it was the Tucson, Ariz., outfit, CrossFit Works, that used the last week of The Open season to crack the top 30 teams. After starting the season at No. 4 overall following a strong Week 1 performance, CrossFit Works slipped to 34th, a spot they have remained at for the past three weeks. However, with 653 reps in Week 5, CrossFit Works got just enough of a bump to lock down the 30th overall position and, accordingly, the final qualifying spot for the South West Regional.
