Week Two in Review: Central East

March 18, 2013

Josh Bunch

Rich Froning Jr. once again leads the men in the Central East, and Danielle Sidell sits in first for the women after shocking fans with her score of 420 on 13.2.

Last Wednesday, just minutes after Dave Castro announced the lightweight triplet of shoulder-to-overheads, deadlifts and box jumps, Annie Thorisdottir and Lindsey Valenzuela went head-to-head.

Ten minutes later, Thorisdottir set the score to beat by finishing just more than 12 rounds.

Remarkably, a select few athletes from around the world were able to beat the reigning champion’s score. Several of those athletes came from the Central East. Let’s take a look at what our athletes brought to the competition this week.

Women

Soon after Thorisdottir’s score appeared on the Leaderboard, it dropped from first to second worldwide.

Andye Razmus, a 26-year-old athlete from 8th Day CrossFit in Grand Rapids, Mich., beat Thorisdottir by 13 reps with a score of 374.

“I was pretty excited because that’s pretty much my wheelhouse,” Razmus said.

Razmus held the top position on the Central East Leaderboard until Jennifer Smith and Danielle Sidell turned in their scores.

Smith (CrossFit Maximus) posted 383 reps, which was good enough for second in the Central East and fourth worldwide.

Sidell (NFT CrossFit) took the win. She posted a record-shattering 420 reps, beating the next best female performance by 30 reps. Since she performed the workout at U.S. Army Base Fort Lee, the video must receive Army clearance. It’s expected early in the week.

“I just wanted to see my name at the top of that list,” Sidell says. “The workout had a 10-minute time limit, so I kept going for 10 minutes. I didn’t quit at eight, or nine ... I quit at 10.”

After two weeks of competition, the rookies are at the top of the Central East Leaderboard. Sidell is in first overall in the Central East with two first-place performances, and Smith and Mikki Nuccio are tied for second overall.

Familiar names are in unfamiliar territory. Lower on the Central East Leaderboard, four-time CrossFit Games competitor, Lindsey Smith is tied for 40th place overall after taking 15th on 13.1, and 88th on 13.2.

2011 Reebok CrossFit Games competitor, Lisa Shiu, is in 30th, 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games competitor, Heather Welsh is in 10th and 2010 and 2011 Games competitor, Michelle Kinney is in fifth.

A lot can change, but one thing is clear: it’s not going to be easy to qualify for the Central East Regional. The region is stacked.
 

Men

Dan Bailey broke free of his reputation as the No. 2 to his training partner and housemate, Rich Froning Jr. This week, Bailey held the top spot in the region with 375 reps on 13.2. Froning followed in second with 368 reps, and newcomer, Mitch Barnard, sealed third with 367 reps. Scott Panchik, Marcus Hendren and Graham Holmberg took fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.

At 22, Barnard is a former competitive lacrosse player and has transferred his competitive focus to the Games.

“I want to win,” Barnard says. “I put in a lot of work to get where I am now, and there’s a lot of work left to do to get where I need to go.”

After two weeks, Froning is in first overall in the Central East, Bailey and Panchik are tied for second and Barnard follows in fourth.

Teams

CrossFit Lower Town, of Plymouth, Mich., put in the top team score on 13.2, registering 1,983 reps. That breaks down to an average score of 330 reps per teammate.

Team CrossFit New Albany was close behind with 1,981, and 8th Day Gym followed with 1,957.

After two weeks, CrossFit Maximus is in the lead, CrossFit New Albany is in second and CrossFit Mayhem is in third.

The Central East has 200 teams competing for just 30 spots. Currently, to make it into the top 30, a team must have 68 points or fewer. Over the next three weeks, the teams will have to show that they’re one of the 30 best and most consistent by racking up as few points as possible.

In a few short days, CrossFitters will tune in for the announcement of 13.3 at CrossFit Roots. Kristan Clever and Talayna Fortunato will most likely demonstrate something we are all very familiar with, but like 13.2, something that will surprise us all.