[Azadeh Bouroumand leads the South Central women with the third win in a row for the region.
Week 4 of the 2011 CrossFit Games Open was marked by a workout that, while termed an "AMRAP,” was really more a race to see who could do a single round, plus as many reps as possible in a second round. The sole reason for this was one single, high skill movement – the muscle-up.
The muscle-up is a key differentiator for competition. It should be no surprise, then, that the 4th workout of the 2012 Open strongly echoes Open Workout 11.4, but ups the ante in a way that only a CrossFit-named workout can do.
South Central's athletes attacked 12.4 with gusto, and finished with five athletes in the top 30 in the world. Let's talk 12.4 results before we look at how the Leaderboard sits going into this last week of the 2012 CrossFit Games Open.
12.4 SCORES
Azadeh Boroumand (Get Lifted by CrossFit) finished 8 reps short of a full round with 262 reps, both winning 12.4 in the South Central Region, and placing herself 7th in the world, making her the first female South Central athlete to turn in a top 10 performance this season, and only the 2nd athlete in the Region to perform this feat.
In a tight finish behind Boroumand, Chelsea Estes (CrossFit North Houston) took 2nd with 259 reps. Amanda Schwartz (Premier CrossFit) and familiar CrossFit Games competitor Carey Kepler (CrossFit Central) both completed 258 reps to tie for 3rd place. Kepler's CrossFit Central teammate, Ingrid Kantola, was only twos rep behind Kepler and Schwartz to lock up 5th place with 256 reps. That's a mere 6 reps between 1st and 5th places, and only 10 reps between 1st and 10th place. Tight race indeed.
A newcomer to our weekly recaps, Jamie Acuna (Ranger CrossFit) was the only South Central athlete to complete a full round of 12.4. In fact, he squeezed out another 5 wall balls to finish with 275 reps, a score that also netted him a 30th place finish worldwide.
Following Acuna was last week’s top man, Jason Hoggan (CrossFit Heath) with 268 reps. Only a single rep behind Hoggan sits a massive logjam tie for 3rd place. Cole Marshbburn (CrossFit The Woodlands), Miguel Garza (CrossFit Austin), Nick Quintela (CrossFit The Human Laboratory) and Lowell Amparan (CrossFit South Tyler) all racked up 267 repetitions for a slice of 3rd place.
For the second week in a row, Team Get Lifted secured the top spot in the Region, turning in 1548 aggregate reps. Unlike last week, though, the 2nd place team was hot on their heels. Behind Get Lifted by a mere 7 muscle-ups, Team CrossFit Central Athletes took 2nd place with a total of 1,541 reps. Repeating a pattern of tight finishes in 12.4, 3rd, 4th, and 5th places are all separated by a single rep. CrossFit Deep Ellum took 3rd with 1,516 reps, Premier CrossFit was 4th with 1,515, and CrossFit Dallas Central took 5th with 1,514.
OVERALL
Completing her third 1st place finish in a row, Boroumand leap-frogged ahead 3 places to finally find the top of the Leaderboard in the 2012 Open. Riding on the back of consistent finishes, Candice Ruiz (CrossFit Iron Horse), who has yet to finish higher than 5th on an individual workout, moves up one place into 2nd with 34 points.
Slipping back two places to 3rd is last week’s leader, Janet Black (Atomic CrossFit) with 35 points. Only 7 points behind Black is Stacey Magnesio (CrossFit Austin) in 4th place with 42 points, and Brista Mayfield in 5th with 44 points. All five of these women have had a 14th place or worse finish this season, and 12.5 could prove problematic for anybody.
Contrast that with the Men's Division where Hoggan simply widened his lead over the rest of the field. After 12.3, Hoggan had a 14-point lead over Courtney Wuistinger (CrossFit Bolt). Just a week later, Hoggan and Wuistinger both stay in 1st and 2nd place, but Hoggan leads Wuistinger by 32 points, with 49 vs. Wuistinger's 81. Hoggan, by the way, is currently 27th worldwide.
Drew Bignall (Mission CrossFit SA) took advantage of 12.4 to jump three places up the Leaderboard to 3rd place with a total of 113 points. Justin Adams (Woodward CrossFit), who was tied with Bignall in 6th place last week, follows him up the board to 4th place with 127 points. Sliding back another spot to tie Adams for 4th, Michael Barrouse (Ragin' CrossFit) also totals up 127 points.
The top four teams in the Region look exactly the same as they did following 12.3. The only difference is the point totals separating them. Increasing their lead by another point, Get Lifted remains in 1st with 8 points and a narrow 3-point lead over 2nd place CrossFit Central Competitors. Both teams increased their lead over the rest of the field, gaining 5 points on 3rd place Bayou City CrossFit, who have 22 total points. Remaining in 4th place, CrossFit Dallas Central gains 3 points on Bayou City CrossFit with a total of 26. Making a move up the Leaderboard, CrossFit Deep Ellum now sits in 5th place with 37 points.
2012 is the first year an affiliate can field more than one team, and several affiliates have fielded a second team this season. While the final results remain to be tallied, it looks like CrossFit Dallas Central may be poised to be the first (and only) affiliate in the South Central Region to send two teams to the South Central Regional competition.
Another concern moving into 12.5 is the struggle to get above 60th place, and several well-known South Central athletes currently sit below the Regional cutoff. Former Games athlete Andy Lewis and Regional favorite Leah Shullenberger sit 63rd and 62nd, respectively, both mere points below the cut line. Both will need to put the hammer down in 12.5 to move on to the next stage of competition in the 2012 CrossFit Games season.
MASTERS
Darlene Price (CrossFit Austin) continues to impress in the Masters Women 55-59 Division. Price got through the wall balls and double-unders to finish with 240 reps, putting her in a 25-way tie for 2nd place in her division. That finish was good enough to improve her position another three places against the field, moving up to 8th. Anything can happen with one workout left, but she has put herself in a very solid position to make a return to the CrossFit Games in 2012.
In the Masters 45-49 Division, both men we've been watching regained some ground on the rest of the field. Cliff Lewis (CrossFit Heath) turned in a 254 rep, 14th place finish in 12.4 to jump up another 10 places on the Leaderboard. That's 18 places in two workouts. Sitting 6 points behind him on the Leaderboard, Ken Cutrer (CrossFit EST) moved up four spots to 15th place after a 35th place, 249 rep performance. Both of these men are in solid shape to head to Carson, Calif., in July for the CrossFit Games if they can continue their solid performances in 12.5 this week.
Scott Patenaude (Atomic CrossFit) makes an enormous 24-place jump up the Masters Men 50-54 Leaderboard to take 41st place. He cranked out 244 reps in 12.4 to take 11th place, his best finish in an Open workout this season by a wide margin.
One week left. One more workout. One more chance to solidify a spot at the top, or get on the front end of the bubble and make the cut to get to the Regional. One more opportunity to prove oneself against the best in the world.
The next week is "make or break" in a lot of ways for the athletes of the South Central Region, and for many the 96 hours between the announcement and close of Workout 12.5 will be an agonizingly long wait for scores to report and results to gel. Only then will we know who moves on to San Antonio in late April.
