Who Clawed Over the Cut Line in Week 4?

March 20, 2018

Emily Beers

Which former Games athletes are teetering on the edge of disappointment?

With four weeks down and one to go, the CrossFit Games Open is proving, once again, that last year’s top competitors are still by and large the fittest athletes on Earth.

Only three of the top 10 men currently leading the charge on the worldwide leaderboard aren’t individual CrossFit Games competitors. And on the women’s side, eight of the current top 10 in the world are 2017 Games athletes. 

Even more notable is that, of all the 2017 female Games competitors vying for spots at Regionals this year, nobody is sitting below the Regionals cut line except Australia’s Alethea Boon, who posted a score of 1 rep on 18.3. (Two others—Valerie Voboril and Carly Fuhrer—aren’t competing this year. Voboril is recovering from wrist surgery, while Fuhrer stated she’s taking a year off from competition).

Week 4 also helped a couple of last week’s bubble athletes move into better positions. Two 2017 Games athletes who were moderately in trouble after 18.3—Dani Horan and Casey Campbell—both made big jumps up the leaderboard in 18.4 and find themselves much safer now. Last week, Campbell was on the outside looking in when she was sitting in 38th in the West Coast region.

Thanks to a time of 7:28 and an 11th-place finish on 18.4, Campbell is now in 28th in a region where 35 athletes qualify. Horan, too, sat dangerously close to the cut line after Week 3—24th in a region where 25 qualify—but has moved into 14th overall after completing 18.4 in 7:23, good enough for 6th place in the North East.

Another notable female competitor who made big strides in 18.4 and might just earn herself a Regionals berth is 17-year-old up-and-comer Kaela Stephano. Stephano is in 19th place in the South East Women’s Division, a region with 20 spots up for grabs.

The same is not true on the men’s side: The 2017 Games athletes who were in trouble last week are still in trouble. 

EZ Muhammad
Elijah Muhammad at last year's South Regional

Dakota Rager—22nd at the 2017 Games—was in 40th place after 18.3, 20 spots away from the cut line. Though he performed well on 18.4 with a 20th-place finish in the strong Central East region, he’s still 16 spots and 40 points away from making the cut. Even with a win on 18.5, Regional qualification is likely not in the cards for Rager this year. His only chance might be if 18.5 features more than one scoring opportunity.

Elijah Muhammad’s 2018 Regionals chances also are still in jeopardy. Heavy deadlifts and handstand push-ups weren’t kind to Muhammad, who placed 99th in North Central on 18.4. He’s in 30th heading into the final week and 62 points away from the top 20.

Week 4 was kinder to Brent Fikowski—the second-place finisher at last summer’s Games—and Cody Mooney—17th at the 2017 Games. Both athletes were close to the cut line in their respective regions after 18.3.

Fikowski’s fourth-place finish on 18.4 helped move him into third place overall in Canada West, a region where only five berths are up for grabs. Though he’s safer than he was last week, the race is tight and Fikowski has just a 21-point buffer on the dreaded sixth-place position.

Meanwhile, over in the North East, where 25 will make the cut, Mooney used 18.4 to vault himself from 33rd to 24th. He, too, is safer than he was last week, but with just one week to go—and quite possibly just one final scoring opportunity—there’s little room for error.

Cover image: Courtesy of Shaun Cleary