North West teams occupy the top five after Day 1 at the West Regional.
Today, Canada West met the North West for the first time under the Tacoma Dome.
Canada West has its work cut out for it in this new regional format. A North West team has occupied the top four at the CrossFit Games every year except 2012.
At the end of Day 1, teams from the North West Region held the top five spots.
Five-time Games team Team Taranis of Canada West started the day in the first heat. The team’s performance today put it in sixth place overall, moving it up to compete against the top 10 teams on Day 2.
"We knew going into this new (regional) it was going to be tough. We're now surrounded by even better teams—we're not taking anything for granted,” Sean Lind of Team Taranis said.
"It doesn't matter what heat we're in,” Lind continued. “We take each event as it is—we know that just because we win our heat it doesn't mean we win the event. We're doing what we trained to do—we don't stop until we cross the line."
TEAM EVENT 1
Like Invictus in the California Regional, CrossFit Fort Vancouver is hoping to make a seventh consecutive Games appearance. With only three of the six Games team members from last year returning, CrossFit Fort Vancouver started the day off strong, claiming the win in Event 1.
Just seconds behind Fort Vancouver was Verdant Green of Verdant CrossFit, a new affiliate in Boise, Idaho.
The first event for the teams is all about the pull-ups. The partner deadlifts are difficult, but the winning teams are those who can get their pairs through the synchronized chest-to-bar pull-ups fastest.
Showing the strategy and pacing of experienced CrossFit Games competitors, CrossFit Fort Vancouver didn’t start off in the lead, but picked up speed toward the end to win the event.
“Our team gained time with the middle pair in the chest-to-bar pull-ups,” Andrea Roozen of CrossFit Fort Vancouver said. “We had very few no-reps, and that’s where things shifted in our favor and we gained momentum.”
Fort Vancouver took the lead when its final two athletes started on the deadlifts. Right behind was Verdant Green, which put together bigger sets of synchronized chest-to-bar pull-ups and caught up with Fort Vancouver on the final set of 9 deadlifts.
The athletes were neck-and-neck for the last 9 pull-ups. Verdant Green tried to fit in a big set of 7 pull-ups, but faltered, lost rhythm and allowed Fort Vancouver to take the win by a few seconds.
“We did better than we hoped,” Adam Neiffer of CrossFit Fort Vancouver said after the event. “It was a total team effort.”
Although Verdant Green is a new team at the regional, many of its team members are former regional individual competitors.
“(Once we set our pairs), we just played the workout by feel,” Cameron Pernich of Verdant Green said. “We had our worst (pull-up athlete) in each pair call out the sets, and our worst (deadlift athlete) call out those sets."
Team Event 1 Results
1. CrossFit Fort Vancouver (14:59.5)
2. Verdant Green (15:03.9)
3. CF Dūrātus (16:03.0)
4. CrossFit Marysville (16:06.3)
5. Lane 5 Athletics (16:30.4)
TEAM EVENT 2
In the West Regional every second counts. In Event 2, it came down to fractions of a second.
CrossFit Fort Vancouver won Event 2 by four tenths of a second, getting its female athletes onto the finish mat in 19:29.8, with second-pace CrossFit Marysville female athletes diving onto the mat to finish in 19:30.2.
As with Event 1, Fort Vancouver did not spend the entire event in first place. The men of CrossFit Marysville got to the rope climbs first, followed by Verdant Green.
Basile Beaty of Verdant Green opted to do legless rope climbs, a strategy that caused the team to fall behind, with CrossFit Fort Vancouver moving into second place.
The women step up to the bar last in this event, and it’s up to them to either make up time or hold the lead gained by the men.
The women of CrossFit Marysville came through, pushing hard to catch Fort Vancouver.
“We knew the weight was light enough for all us girls to go blazing fast,” said Kelsey Nagel of CrossFit Marysville. "We pretty much just had to black out and push hard."
The event came down to a thruster battle between the women of Marysville and Fort Vancouver, and although Nagel completed her last 15 thrusters unbroken, it was not quite fast enough to take the win.
"We did the best we could today, but you really have to take your hat off to CrossFit Marysville—they really pulled it out at the end," Neiffer of CrossFit Fort Vancouver said.
"On both of our workouts today, our girls stepped up big,” Neiffer continued. “They proved that they are here to play this weekend."
CrossFit Marysville’s teammates, who were wearing shirts that spelled out “Tommy V” in honor of Hero Friday, are now in second overall.
“I think we're comfortable with the pressure (from last year's third-place finish),” Ryan Swobody of CrossFit Marysville said. “We feel more pressure to represent our community and gym well. We want them to take pride in us and our gym."
As far as its plan for the rest of the day, Neiffer said the team will “hang out, eat some food, and support our individual athletes that are competing this afternoon."
Team Event 2 Results
1. CrossFit Fort Vancouver (19:29.8)
2. CrossFit Marysville (19:30.2)
3. Lane 5 Athletics (19:47.3)
4. Verdant Green (20:04.8)
5. Team Taranis (20:10.7)
Overall Standings
1. CrossFit Fort Vancouver (200 points)
2T. CrossFit Marysville (180 points)
2T. Verdant Green (180 points)
4. Lane 5 Athletics (170 points)
5. CF Dūrātus (155 points)
6. Cascade CrossFit (148 points)
7. Team Taranis (143 points)
8. X-Factor Black (138 points)
9. Northwest Strength and Performance (134 points)
10. Thorbeckes CrossFit (128 points)
