Week 2 of Regionals could be characterized by two words: drama and dominance.
By Sunday, Week 2’s two fittest men and top returning team from the 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games had full control of their Regionals.
Two brothers finished the weekend side by side and turned a comeback story for one of the biggest names on the men’s side into a family affair.
Some epic comebacks on the final event had fans and athletes sitting on the edges of their seats for the qualifier announcements.
For this week’s report card I’m going to ignore the obvious stories about Mat Fraser and CrossFit Mayhem Freedom since I’m confident I’ll be talking about them plenty in Madison.
Grade: A+
Jenn Smith
A year after failing to qualify in the Central in 2017, Jenn Smith put down a tremendous performance in the final event to make up a 22-point deficit and leapfrog over Jessica Griffith into the top five.
What impressed me most was the way she bounced back from what could have been a devastating turn in Event 5.
As Smith closed in on the red line for her final walking lunge steps, she was in a heated race with two more athletes immediately to her left.
Although she had a slight lead, her arm holding the dumbbell overhead collapsed and she failed her final step, allowing both athletes to sneak past her onto the finish mat. The finish cost Smith a precious 4 points that could have narrowed the gap between her and Griffith.
She took a chance on the final lunge steps and failed, but rather than letting that dictate the close of her competition, she collected herself, attacked Event 6, and earned a fourth-place finish in the finale that will send her back to the CrossFit Games.
Now she can hope to erase the sting of her 2016 Games campaign that was marred by a foot injury on the first event at the Ranch.
Panchik Bros.
I have to be honest. I’m a little jealous that Scott and Saxon Panchik get to share the competitive thrill of qualifying for the CrossFit Games together as brothers.
I’m nearly 9 years older than my brother (the same gap between Scott and Saxon), and competitively the most we’ve been able to share is being on the same team for our High School’s alumni basketball game.
How the Saxon brothers accomplished the feat was pretty fantastic too. With one event to go, both Scott (6th) and Saxon (8th) were outside the bubble for a spot to the Games.
It seemed likely that only one of them, most likely Scott, would make the push back into the top five. It would take top finishes from both and the collapse of someone comfortably in the top four for two Panchiks to end up in Madison.
Scott and Saxon did their part, going rep for rep throughout the entire workout en route to a second-place finish in the event for Scott and a third for Saxon.
Attention shifted to Streat Hoerner, who along with Drew Wayman was the only other athlete on the floor in danger of losing his qualifying spot. Hoerner finished and the entire arena awaited the announcement of the qualifiers.
The announcement of Scott in fourth place brought raised eyebrows from the crowd, and the announcement of Saxon in fifth brought the house down.
It was a special moment in one of the best weeks of Regionals competition in recent memory.
Becca Voigt
A decade.
That’s how long Becca Voigt has been at the CrossFit Games.
To put that in perspective, when Voigt first lined up at the Ranch in Aromas for the 2008 Games, Sequoia Barrera, who competed beside Voigt in Heat 3 on Saturday at the West Regional, had just finished second grade.
Since then, Voigt has become a legend in the sport, having made the podium, won the Spirit of the Games and qualified for more individual appearances than anyone in history.
Her record-setting 10th qualification looked to be out of reach at the end of Day 2. Starting Day 3, Voigt was 50 points back of fifth and 10th place overall (her placing seems a bit poetic after the fact, doesn’t it?).
Her third-place finish in Event 5 was her best event of the weekend and moved her up into sixth, still 22 points shy of Meredith Root in fifth place.
In Event 6, Becca Voigt showcased the experience and wisdom that have kept her at the top of the sport for so long. When Emily Abbott and Alessandra Pichelli set a blistering pace from the start, Voigt put the blinders on, avoided costly no-reps and earned her second-best finish (seventh) in an event that didn’t necessarily favor her.
Root struggled with the final set of thrusters and slipped to 22nd in the event. It was a 36-point swing in Voigt’s favor and completed the largest Day 3 comeback in Regionals history.
Just hours prior, I showcased a graphic on our broadcast coverage that listed the largest comebacks in history.
I’m happy to say that graphic will need some updating.
Grade: A-
Brooke Wells and Kristi Eramo
I said prior to the weekend during our Update Show preview that Brooke Wells and Kristi Eramo are two of the U.S.’s best hopes of breaking up the international party on the women’s podium at the Games.
They did not disappoint as they traded shots and the overall lead with every event during the first two days of the Central Regional.
Eramo won the Event 1, but Wells surprised everyone by finishing a close second and showcasing a new level of endurance.
Wells won Event 2, but it was Eramo who turned some heads with her improved proficiency with the barbell.
After Day 2, each had bested the other in two events, and it was clear that they were the two best in the division.
Wells took a significant points lead after Event 5 and held on for the win despite Eramo beating her in Event 6.
The only reason their performance didn’t earn a higher grade is that their counterparts in Week 1 still got the best of them. In a comparison across both weeks so far, the top five women on the All-Regional Leaderboard still come from the East and Europe, despite their having one less week to prepare and practice the events.
That won’t matter in Madison, though, and maybe Week 2’s athletes have more up their sleeves for the Games.
Pablo Chalfun
“If you’re not first, you’re last.” —Reese Bobby, Talladega Nights
While I doubt he had Latin America Regional champion Pablo Chalfun in the mind, the popular quote from Reese Bobby certainly fits when I think of the unlikely rise of Chalfun.
Sure, Chalfun ended up in first by weekend’s end, but not before he was last just a few months prior.
The label “last” might be a tad misleading, but Chalfun was in fact the very last athlete invited to Regionals as an individual out of Latin America.
He finished the Open in 30th place in South America and wouldn’t have even been at Regionals if it weren’t for five other men declining their invites.
Once Chalfun stepped on the Regional floor, however, he performed like he deserved to be there all along.
He finished five of the six events inside the top five and amassed more points on Days 2 and 3 than any individual in Latin America, male or female.
He now has the honor of representing Latin America at the Games, but I can’t ignore the clear holes in his game that led to his Open performance.
Hopefully he’ll have them sorted out by August.
Grade: B+
Torrance Training Lab
One of the teams that I was most excited to see take the Regional floor this weekend was the newly developed team from Torrance Training Lab.
The four-person “super team” includes 2016 Games qualifier Jamie Hagiya, two-time Fittest Firefighter Chelsey Grigsby and a pair of perennial individual Regional competitors in Ted Hwang, and Andrew Kong.
They did not disappoint, finishing Day 1 in first place ahead of powerhouse teams like Invictus X and CrossFit Fort Vancouver.
Starting the final day, they were squarely in second overall before a 12th-place finish in Event 5 dashed any hopes they might have had of catching Invictus X for the top spot.
With one event left, they weren’t in any danger of falling outside the top five, but the way they bounced back in the finale spoke volumes.
Not only did they win Event 6, but they set an event record, beating the previous mark set by Don’t Stop by 15 seconds.
It didn’t erase their slip-up in Event 5, which lowers their grade for the week, but it was a strong performance overall and earned them the right to compete in Madison in August.
Nick Urankar
Lost amid Mat Fraser’s dominance and the drama of the Panchik brothers’ finish was a strong comeback performance from Nick Urankar.
Last year Urankar, a two-time CrossFit Games qualifier, withdrew from the Central Regional due to a pec injury. It was another tough turn in what’s been a seesaw competitive career for him.
Urankar first qualified in 2011, but for the next three years he was just outside the bubble in a stacked Central East Regional.
In 2015, while mulling the possibility of walking away from the sport, Urankar broke through once again to qualify for the Games.
Fast-forward to last weekend and Urankar kicked off the competition with an impressive top-10 finish in Event 1. A longer, endurance-style event like the Triple 3 is not something that’s typically his strong suit.
From there, he’d finish the next three events in the top five and entrench himself in a qualifying spot once again.
The only real blemish on his weekend was a 24th place finish in Event 5, but he closed the weekend with another top-10 finish in Event 6, and would earn himself a 3rd trip to the CrossFit Games.
Amanda Barnhart
No woman closed Week 2 stronger than Amanda Barnhart.
The second year individual competitor from Centerville CrossFit was perfect after the midway point of the competition, winning three straight events and capturing the attention of many.
In her first two wins, she out-dueled Brooke Wells in events that featured a heavy barbell and dumbbells, implements that traditionally favor Wells.
In the finale, she bested Kristi Eramo in an Event 6 that was reminiscent of the 2016 Regional final event that catapulted Eramo to her first CrossFit Games.
The trio of wins came on the heels of Barnhart’s worst finish of the weekend, an 18th-place finish in Event 3. That low point prevented her from ever really challenging Eramo or Wells for the top spot.
Despite that, she was never lower than third place overall at any point in the weekend.
Barnhart qualified for her first Reebok CrossFit Games and will have the distinction of being the only rookie thus far with three event wins.
We’ve seen in past years that the ability to win events and “hit home runs” leads to spectacular results on the big stage, even with a few poor events sprinkled in.
Hopefully Barnhart’s momentum carries over to Madison.
Grade: C-
Samurai Team
Giving lower grades is tough, so I’ll keep this short. The Samurai Team learned a hard lesson this weekend down at the Latin America Regional.
The only time being in first place really matters is when the competition closes on the final day. Unfortunately for the member of the Samurai Team, that was the only time when they weren’t in the top spot.
The team from Argentina won Event 1 and stood atop the leaderboard the rest of the way until it all came crashing down in the final event.
The team needed a fourth-place finish or better to guarantee its spot at the Games, but a mishap with the Worm on the final length of lunges caused it to drop to fifth place in the event and watch as Team Colombia Parceros marched its way to an event win and the lone qualifying spot for the Regional.
Hopefully it’s a lesson the Samurais only need once, and they can come back stronger in 2019.
