Week One in Review: SoCal

Athletes found themselves in a whirlwind of burpee mayhem.

The burpee. No nonsense. No equipment necessary. It is one of the foundational movements in the CrossFit world centered simply around one’s own natural body weight. However, when Workout 12.1 called for burpees to be performed over and over and over again for seven minutes, Open athletes found themselves in an whirlwind of burpee mayhem. Stirring the similar feelings to that of the legendary benchmark WOD “Fran,” and perhaps one of the most challenging workouts Open athletes have ever faced, tens of thousands gathered around the world to perform over 5 million burpees in less than a week. The Southern California Region took this on breathing the fire of this “7 Minutes of Hell” and its front-runners cranked out big numbers. 

MEN

With one burpee separating 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places, Rryan
Kingsbury of Indian Hills CrossFit in Tehachapi, Calif., tops the Southern California Men’s Leaderboard. His impressive performance of 148 burpees also puts him in a three-way tie for 5th in the world. 
Placing 2nd and 3rd in the region are Jarett Perelmutter and Craig Avera, respectively, of Brick CrossFit in West Hollywood. Perelmutter, head coach and owner of Brick, also dubbed “Ninja” followed one burpee behind 1st place with 147. Perelmutter currently sits in a four-way tie for 8th in the world.

To obtain his 3rd place ranking, Avera tried an interval-type methodology of achieving 20 burpees within each minute and then resting during the remaining time. Unsatisfied with his first score of 124, he decided to give 12.1 a second chance. Avera says he “just tried to keep a fast pace and never stop.” This strategy held strong as he overwhelmingly surpassed his original score, this time completing 146 burpees. Avera ranks in a three-way tie for 12th in the world.

WOMEN

Unsurprisingly, the 2010 Games Champion once again finds herself at the top of the Women’s Leaderboard. Valley CrossFit’s Kristan Clever maintained a grueling pace to round out the top with a remarkable 143 burpees. Clever also currently holds 1st in the world.

In a close 2nd in Southern California and also 2nd in the world is Andrea Ager, 24, of Brick CrossFit. Ager completed her first 100 burpees within 4:55 as she concentrated on finishing 10 every 30 seconds. After the initial 100, her focus became “making the burpees as efficient as possible and sprinting through.” She says “it wasn’t about the first 100. It’s about how fast you could do the burpees after the first 100.” True to her endurance background, she maintained her mental strategy and completed the WOD with 141 burpees. 

Ager’s teammate at last year’s Games’ 5th place finishing Brick team, Maddy Curley completed 135 burpees and currently holds 3rd in the region. Curley also finished the 2011 Open in 7th place. She now ranks 8th in world, sharing a six-way tie with Games’ veteran and last year’s “Spirit of the Games” winner Annie Sakamoto.

Clever’s popular Valley CrossFit comrades, Rebecca Voigt and Lindsey Valenzuela also had notable performances. Voigt, 2011 Games 3rd place finisher, ended 12.1 in a two-way tie for 13th place in the Region, along with Ashley Mathews of CrossFit Brand X in San Diego, as both ladies finished 123 burpees. Meanwhile, Valenzuela edged out in the top 20 of SoCal, sitting in 19th place.

TEAM

Those Southern California teams finishing within the top 20 after Workout 12.1 have combined totals of more than 700 burpees performed between six individuals, 3 men and 3 women. On average, each individual on these top 20 teams completed at least 117 burpees. The top three teams include Brick Nation from Brick CrossFit, Valley CrossFit, and DogTown CrossFit Team A, respectively. Other notable performances come from fellow top 10 teams Brick City of Brick CrossFit, Outlier CrossFit, Orange Coast CrossFit, CrossFit Invictus, CrossFit PB, and CrossFit Rancho Cucamonga.