By: Marcos Hernandez
7 2-person teams and a number of supporters (some still in diapers) showed up in Columbia, MD to compete bright and early.
“Melt In Your Mouth”: Melissa Erickson / Marcos Hernandez
“Turtle Power”: Katie Weddle / Cruz Rodriguez
“CFSS Plastics”: Mallory Band / Jason Liu
“Dino Pajamas”: Rachel Fronapfel
“Doubless Double”: Elsa Dupre / Ian Velinsky
“Team Hot Mess”: Breanna Edwards / Steven Liu
“Duff and Tan”: Meagan Duffy / Zeki Mokhtarzada
It was cold and rainy, but the canopy and pop-up tent kept the snacks, drinks, gear dry for when athletes weren’t competing. While everyone else in the competition was crammed for space, the athletes from CFSS were able to set up a home base for groups to debrief between workouts.
The day started off with a sorting 2-part workout. With a standing in the top half of the competition after the first two scores, teams would be in the gold bracket. In the bottom half, the silver. The first part of the workout had rowing and burpees; part two had sandbag complexes.
Melissa + Marcos and Katie + Cruz wanted to be in the gold bracket, but the sandbags proved to be a big stumbling block. Melissa + Marcos was one of the lower seeded teams in the gold bracket and Kate + Cruz found themselves in the silver bracket, beginning a long day for the pair.
Mallory + Jason knew the gold bracket meant toes to bar, and not wanting any part of those, set out to sandbag (see what I did there?) the first workout to make sure they got into the silver bracket. Well, they were faster than even they expected because once the brackets were revealed they were the highest seed of any team from CFSS!
While the two teams in the gold bracket (Melissa + Marcos, Mallory + Jason) waited for the second workout of the day to begin, the rest of the CFSS teams got ready to go. Breanna + Steven, Meagan + Zeki had some trouble with the teams they were placed head-to-head against and were eliminated. Elsa + Ian, who had a substantial lead going into the final set of synchro wall balls, couldn’t keep it together and allowed their competition to come back and beat them, eliminating themselves from competition.
The marquee matchup of the silver bracket was Katie + Cruz vs. Rachel + Mike. Both teams thought they had a chance, and Katie and Cruz got to the final set of synchro wall balls first. But Rachel + Mike stuck with the plan, kept chipping away, and finished ahead of Katie + Cruz, ending the run of a team which had such high hopes coming into the competition.
In the gold bracket, Melissa + Marcos had trouble with the toes to bar. They were up against a team with no issues whatsoever and were beat handily by their competition.
Mallory + Jason, in a strange twist, found themselves up against Melissa’s sister, who attends a gym in Columbia. Mallory + Jason already had their reservations about their toes to bar ability and came into the second workout no worrying about the results, content with giving it their best. Well, their best turned out to be good enough to win because, after chipping away at the toes to bar for a large portion of the workout, the two teams got to the synchro wall balls at the same time. Mallory + Jason dropped the hammer and completed such large chunks that the other team was visibly defeated. Jason couldn’t believe they had pulled off the upset, and all of CFSS was cheering the lone team left in the gold bracket.
Workout Three was announced at the event, so everyone was surprised and full of curiosity when dozens of barbells appeared on the competition floor. The workout: Isabel (30 Snatches for time) and Grace (30 Clean & Jerks for time). Teams could choose which workout the male and female completed.
Rachel + Mike chose to have Rachel perform Grace and Mike do Isabel, but in the silver bracket the weights were scaled back to 65lbs for ladies and 95lbs for guys. They were up against one of the top teams in the bracket. When their competition finished BOTH workouts in less than 4 minutes, a little after Rachel finished her thirty clean & jerks, all the pressure was off of Mike to get through his snatches. After returning from a recent back injury, there was a bit of trepidation about throwing the barbell overhead thirty times BUT he kept chipping away and was able to get through the workout without issue. His big win for the day!
Mallory + Jason decided to have Jason do Grace at 135# and Mallory do Isabel at 95#. Coming into the workout, Jason had done that weight plenty of time before but Mallory… well, let’s just say it was a “pull and pray situation.” Jason was methodical about getting through his Clean & Jerks, finishing Grace in under 4 minutes for a big PR! The team they were going against ended up second in the entire competition… they finished so fast that Jason and Mallory were able to focus on finishing what was a very challenging workout for them. When Jason tagged Mallory, bringing her on to start her barbell work, she set her jaw and got to work. Over the course of the rest of the workout she did one lift at a time; every time the bar got close to being overhead she had to press it out and catch her breath from the exertion of each effort.
As she got closer to finishing the workout the entire gym became aware of what was happening, that this one athlete was putting her all into finishing the workout and she wasn’t going to be denied. The crowd began to form at 25 out of 30 reps, and each successful rep brought louder and louder cheers. When she finished, everyone present was reminded what CrossFit is all about: supporting fellow athletes as they test their own limits.
After the third workout, all the teams from CFSS were eliminated. But everyone who competed that day got something out of the experience: some learned about what they need to work on, others regained confidence after being out with injuries, and many were able to rally their support, regardless of home gym, because of a gutsy performance in a very difficult WOD.
Don’t be surprised to see these 14 athletes back in another competition soon and when you do, the lessons learned from Syndicate Vault will be on display once more! Interested in competing yourself? Let us know and we’ll keep you posted of upcoming competitions so you too can test yourself outside of the gym.
