The first week of the 2018 Regionals season is all said and done, and we now have our first batch of this year’s Games athletes.
The Week 1 athletes each year always have a special place in my heart for acting as the proverbial guinea pigs for other athletes and coaches to study and learn from.
The revelation of the Regional events always causes a bit of commotion within the community, but we never really understand the magnitude of Dave Castro’s programming until the first true test subjects take part under all the intensity and pressure of the Regional spotlight.
Now that we have the results from Week 1, below are my grades from the Europe, East, and South Regionals.
Grade: A+
Katrin Davidsdottir
If there were any questions about how Katrin Davidsdottir would respond after a “disappointing” 2017 campaign, she provided a pretty clear answer this weekend: She wants her crown back.
The two-time CrossFit Games champ had the best Regional performance of her career, winning five of the six events and putting a stranglehold on the top spot in the East.
Most importantly, she attacked every event.
The look of resolve on her face, one that was inexplicably missing in Madison last year, never gave way to complacency as she laid waste to the rest of the field.
Davidsdottir held court in Week 1, setting the standard for any contenders in future weeks. Now the question is how they will respond.
Don’t Stop
I have to give credit where credit is due. On Saturday this past weekend, I issued a challenge to the Don’t Stop team of Travis Williams, Jordan Cook, Rachel Garibay and Sheila Barden.
I challenged them to try and beat the point total and performance of the 2017 Affiliate Cup champion from the South Regional last year, Wasatch Brutes. Wasatch did not field a team this year, and the opportunity was ripe for another team to step up as a front-runner. That night Jordan Cook sent me a message stating, “Challenge Accepted!!”
On Day 3, Don’t Stop accepted and met the challenge by winning both events.
In Event 5, they were just the second team across all Regionals to finish. In Event 6 they set an event record to close out the weekend with an exclamation point.
The hype is real about this team, and they smashed my challenge. The biggest challenge awaits them still in Madison, but so far, so good.
Roman Khrennikov
The biggest surprise of the Regional weekend was the emergence of Roman Khrennikov.
The young Russian from Sever CrossFit in St. Petersburg won a Europe Regional that was supposed to belong to Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson.
Instead, Khrennikov took command early, finishing Day 1 in first, and he would never dip below second place overall at any point of the competition. Outstanding for his first trip to Regionals.
His win in the Event 6 finale would secure him first place overall and make him the first individual athlete to qualify from Russia.
He’s only 23, and he’s been doing CrossFit for less than two years, which instantly spikes my curiosity about what he’s capable of in Madison.
He works with three-time Affiliate Cup champion and 2015 individual qualifier Adrian Conway, Aerobic Capacity SME Chris Hinshaw and the Brute Strength crew, so maybe his Regional performance is just the tip of the iceberg.
Grade: A
Patrick Vellner and Annie Thorisdottir
I decided to jointly grade Patrick Vellner and Annie Thorisdottir because, if you’re a serious fan of the CrossFit Games, their performances this weekend should come as no surprise.
Both earned a bronze medal at the 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games, and both won their Regional competitions this weekend, Vellner in the East and Thorisdottir in Europe.
A little bit of context, though, adds a little cherry on top of what would seem to be an otherwise expected result.
This year, Vellner had his first Regional win, and it comes in the absence of Mat Fraser. The last two years Vellner has been in Fraser’s shadow at the Regional level. This year for the first time, he had the pressure of being the favorite in the East.
Seeing an athlete step up and be “the man” when given the opportunity is always a treat. Vellner did that this weekend by finishing every day in first place and thriving in the spotlight.
For Thorisdottir, this weekend was a bit of a Regional renaissance. Despite her success last year, it was the first time since 2014 that she’s won her Regional competition.
She beat out two former Regional champions in the (formerly named) Meridian, Kristin Holte and Sara Sigmundsdottir, and a future star in Laura Horvath.
Since programming was standardized in 2011, each year Thorisdottir has won her Regional (three times), she’s gone on to podium at the Games. It also sets up a nice storyline with Katrin Davidsdottir, as both seek to become the first woman to win the Games three times.
Salt Lake City CrossFit
In the current competitive landscape of the Games, it’s certainly an accomplishment to send a team to Regionals. It’s outstanding to send two teams to Regionals, but it’s practically unheard of to send three.
Salt Lake City CrossFit did just that, sending their Black, Gold, and Blue teams to the South Regional. What’s even better is that they backed it up by qualifying two teams for the CrossFit Games.
The new format of four athletes does make it easier for teams to balance talent across multiple squads, but sending two teams to the Games is still an amazing feat.
The crazy thing is that this isn’t the first time that two teams from the same affiliate have qualified. UTE CrossFit, also in Salt Lake City, did it back in 2013. What is in the water there?
It was a different format back then, and the team competition has certainly stepped up a notch, which makes Salt Lake City CrossFit’s accomplishment that much more impressive.
Training sessions at that gym must be insane.
Grade: B+
Sean Sweeney
The CrossFit Cowboy is back! Sean Sweeney rebounded nicely from a sixth-place finish last year at the South Regional to win it all in 2018.
In a Regional that’s typically known for its volatility and inconsistency on the men’s side, Sweeney was steady as she goes.
With three of the five qualifiers in the South from last year gone, someone had to grab the bull by the horns.
Sweeney took control of the top spot after an event win in Linda and never relinquished it. When he needed it most, he dropped the hammer in Event 6 to close the door on a fast charging Roy Gamboa and Brandon Luckett.
The former saddle bronc rider, sporting the signature cowboy hat he wears on the competition floor, has now qualified twice immediately following years when he’s missed out by just one spot (2015, 2017).
The big question now is whether Sweeney or anyone from the South men’s division will be able to crack the top 10 at the Games.
Brista Mayfield
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
In the case of Brista Mayfield, you’re gonna have to add “try” a few more times.
Mayfield has been competing as an individual at Regionals since 2011, back before most of her competitors had even started CrossFit.
For years Mayfield, a former gymnast, came up just a little short in her quest to qualify for the Games.
Last year was painfully close. She fell out of the top five and finished sixth, one spot out, in the final day.
This year Mayfield was tired of waiting, and she held onto a qualifying spot all weekend long. She even sat in first place for three of the six events, only slipping to third place on the final event.
I applaud Mayfield’s resiliency and constant pursuit of a coveted spot at the Games.
Her drive and patience have been rewarded, as she’ll now get to make her rookie debut later this summer.
Tim Paulson
My favorite post on social media came this weekend from East Regional athlete Tim Paulson (@trexpaulson).
Paulson qualified for the CrossFit Games in 2017 and had a solid 19th-place finish in his rookie debut.
After Day 1 in the East, however, he sat outside of a qualifying spot in eighth place. Not one to be flustered, Paulson posted a photo with the caption, “Time to steal some souls tomorrow.”
He wasn’t kidding. Paulson came out immediately on Day 2 and won Event 3, going a full three minutes faster than he did in training.
It moved him up into the top three, and he never looked back. He finished the next three events in fourth or better and finished the weekend in second overall.
I loved the post, the quote, and the fact that he backed it up.
Grade: C-
Emma McQuaid and Anna Fragkou
This is the hardest grade to give because, in the grand scheme of things, Emma McQuaid and Anna Fragkou are two amazingly fit individuals. They just didn’t qualify for the CrossFit Games.
At the 2017 Meridian Regional, Fragkou and McQuaid were two athletes who landed just outside the bubble in sixth and seventh.
The Regional changes this year, and the withdrawal of Sam Briggs from the competition in the weeks prior, meant last weekend was as good a chance as any to finally get over the hump.
Both have multiple top-10 finishes at Regionals, and both have finished the Open in the top 20 worldwide. But neither has managed to nab one of the coveted spots at the CrossFit Games.
2018 was no different, as both athletes finished lower than they had the year prior. Fragkou finished 11th after fading down the stretch after Event 3.
McQuaid just never quite found her stride until it was too late. She didn’t have a top-10 event finish until Day 3, and she was mathematically eliminated.
It’s a disappointing result no doubt, but I hope that it only fuels them further, and I hope we see them back in the mix for a qualifying spot next year.
