I grew up on a ranch in Fallon Nevada. I started roping and competing in team roping / rodeo since I was 6 years old. Other than rodeo, the only other sport I participated in was swimming. I only swam my Junior year of high school, but had a natural nack for it and did pretty well. After high school, I went off to the Navy. This is where I was introduced to CrossFit. I did my first CrossFit workout in October 2011 in Pensacola Florida. One of my good buddies Ryan Smith convinced me to try a workout with him. He talked nonstop about CrossFit so I figured I’d just do this workout, put the whoop stomp on him and that would be the end of it.... boy was I WRONG! Little did I know, Ryan and his team (Fort Vancouver) won the Affiliate Cup in 2011... he was REAL good and I literally thought I was going to die. I was hooked ever since and trained with him every day.
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Fast forward to 2014, I qualified for regionals as an individual in the Mid-Atlantic region, but declined to go team with another on of my great friends and mentors Kent Ingalls. Our team was out of his gym, CrossFit Forward (which he now owns CrossFit Rappahannock), and we took 5th place missing the games by 2 spots.
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In Feb 2014 I got out of the Navy and moved back to the west coast. I moved to Monterey CA in August of 2014 to coach and my Coach’s (Jacob Tsypkin of TZ Strength) gym and be on his team there. This is where I met my love Emmily Butz who also trained and coached at his gym. To add to it, I rented a room from a buddy who said he had a room available. He had his second room rented out to another person, and who was renting that room?? The pretty blonde that also coached at the gym I had just moved to... Not too long after that we were dating and everything was awesome!
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In October 2014 I drove up to my hometown Fallon NV to visit my family, and wound up very literally impulse buying a gym... I called Emmily who I had only been dating for a couple months and said, “ Hey! I kinda....just bought a gym....in Nevada....do you want to move here with me?” She said yes, and the rest is history!
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The doors opened to CrossFit Powerstroke on December 1st 2014. In 2015 I qualified for the first ever “Super Regional” in the South Regional. I honestly didn’t have a real expectation of making the CrossFit Games this year, and ended up placing 6th, which was 1 spot away from qualifying for the CrossFit Games.. This lit a fire under my ass, finally realizing that I had the potential to make it.
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In 2016 I trained harder than ever, went to the south regional again. This time, I did it! I took 4th place and was headed to the 2016 CrossFit Games in Carson, CA. It was such a cool experience and though we didnt know it, this was the last year the Games would be in CA.
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In 2017 I was in even better shape and was ready to take on the season. This year tested my mental fortitude more than ever. If you were following my journey at this point, you know.... ring dips. At this level, all of us athletes know when we are riding the line and cut something too close which costs us a no rep. When that happens you just adjust and fix the issue. I was catching no reps that flat out could not be fixed. This was the second event of the first day and I was devastated. In our south region, there were 50 competitors and whit this massive hiccup it sent me down to 41st place. As much as this was a really tough experience I am glad that this happened. I had two decisions. #1- be angry, feel sorry for myself and let the whole weekend I worked so hard for slip away #2 Cowboy Up, move on from that event and give everything I possibly could on each event moving forward. This was such a good character building year, and I’m so proud that I chose option 2. I had some of the best performances of my life that year and moved from 41st to 6th by the end of the weekend. This was the second year now that I had missed the Games by 1 place.
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In 2018 I trained as hard as ever, and felt that I had grown a lot as an athlete / person. I used the failure of the previous year to really light a fire under my ass. I felt I owed it to myself to not just get back on the horse, but to come back stronger and leave no doubt. I needed to prove to myself I could qualify for the CrossFit Games again. During this summer, I also opened a second CrossFit Affiliate, (CrossFit Powerstroke Fernley) and co founded The Musclestache LLC during this summer. It was a wild time but i loved every second!
At the 2018 south regional, I came out the gates swinging and ended up taking first place! We didnt know it then, but this would be that last regional for any of us. What a way to close out that chapter as an athlete! At the 2018 CrossFit Games I took 22nd place. I had learned so much from my previous year in 2016 and felt I was much more fit this time around. I had some major bobbles that cost me quite a few places, but thats competing for ya! I am continually learning and growing and can’t wait to see what this next year brings!
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It is now February of 2019, and I can barely believe it.... I have already earned a spot at the 2019 CrossFit Games!!!!! It is honestly so crazy to think about. I am so EXCITED! I have been to 2 sanctioned event this year. My first stop was the Wodapalooza. For the first time ever in competition, I got hit with the Flu. I didn’t realize I was sick til the end of the second day. I thought that my body was just unreasonably sore and achy from the travel and first day of competition. As the competition wore on, I just felt like I had no gas in the tank and everything ached. Even though I now knew that I was sick, it still really made me question my fitness and preparation. I had the thoughts of, how much was I really effected by being sick? Maybe I just had a weak performance. Maybe other people have just gotten better. This was really a tough mental struggle for me, especially because 3 days after wodapalooza I was getting on a plane to South Africa to compete at the Fittest In Cape Town CrossFit Sanctioned event.
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As soon as the competition kicked off in South Africa, I was so excited to feel like myself. This was such a fun event with some awesome competitors, and to my absolute delight, I WON! It was such a cool and surreal feeling to come back after such a poor performance at the WZA, and prove to myself that I can do it. I made a 45 min video breaking down each event at that competition, if you want to hear the story of that, click the link in my instagram bio ( @crossfitcowboy45)
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I am really looking forward to training hard in prep for the CrossFit Games this year, and puttin on a show for you guys in Madison!!
#crossfitcowboy
