Deep South Sectionals Post-Game Report

Yesterday the 2010 CrossFit Games Deep South Sectional Qualifier concluded, sending 15 men and 15 women to the Southeast Regional qualifier in Jacksonville, Florida on May 28-30. The event was hosted by CrossFit Huntsville at Brahan Spring Park in Huntsville, Alabama. Below is a summary of the event followed by some commentary. You can access final scores here.

At least 22 athletes from CrossFit Impulse participated in some way. For an affiliate less than four months old with about 40 regular members, that is phenomenal. Furthermore, with only ten judges available during each heat, five of them were from CrossFit Impulse. Other volunteers ran scoring, vending, registration, and even turf repair. It was truly a great showing for our affiliate, furthering my pride in all of you. We also had one hell of a good time, but more on that later.

Event 1 started with an all out sprint:
3 Rounds for time of:
25m Down-and-Back sprint (50m total)
10 Burpees
7 Power Cleans – 155/105lbs

Jordan started the action in the ladies heat, but couldn’t finish her final cleans before the 10 minute time limit expired. Her performance would only improve as the weekend went on, and this DNF would prove to be the only disappointment in a long string of victories ahead. I was the first male competitor from CrossFit Impulse, earning a time of 3:22 and 15^th place overall.  Hudson scored 3:55 for 32^nd place and Jakub scored 4:31 for 46^th place.

The next WOD was what most considered the most brutal of the weekend:
12 Deadlifts – 275/165lbs
40 Wall balls – 20/10lbs
9 Deadlifts – 275/165lbs
30 Wall balls – 20/10lbs
6 Deadlifts – 275/165lbs
20 Wall balls – 20/10lbs
3 Deadlifts – 275/165lbs
10 Wall balls – 20/10lbs

The exceptionally difficult wall ball target made this a game of accuracy vs fatigue with a small pause for brute strength between rounds.  Jordan began turning things around, scoring 15:02 for 19^th place. I placed 27^th with a time of 9:22. Hudson followed with 12:05 for 49^th place and Jakub rallied for 24^th place with a time of 8:57.

The third WOD would be pivotal for all of us.

Five rounds for time of:
400m run
25 Pull-ups (men)/15 Pull-ups (women)

Jordan placed 7^th at 15:52 and I placed 2^nd at 13:21, a distant second to Drew Shamblin who won the event at 12:44. Hudson also fared extremely well, placing 7^th at 15:08. Unfortunately, Jakub suffered leg cramps beginning in the middle of the workout and placed 52^nd at 22:09.

At the end of day one this left me in 8^th place overall. Jordan was at 17^th place in the ladies’ standings, and Jakub and Hudson fell near the upper middle of the pack in the men’s. The final WOD on Sunday would determine the standings once and for all. It was a traditional CrossFit triplet:

As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of:
Handstand Push-ups (3 reps women/ 5 reps men)
Squat Snatch, 7 reps (65 lbs women/ 95 lbs men)
20″ Box jumps, 10 reps

Jordan was first up in the ladies heat. As soon as the heat began her dominance of the event was evident.

Most women struggled badly on the handstand pushups. To Jordan, however, they were merely a distraction between the more taxing squat snatches and box jumps. She took a commanding victory in her heat and finished #6 in the event overall with 126 reps. Jakub was up next. He performed extremely well with the squat snatches, finishing 40^th overall with 106 reps. Hudson came next with 133 reps, good for 27^th place. It was my turn to face the pain in the next to last men’s heat. I soared through HSPUs, but squat snatches quickly became power snatches followed by an overhead squat. In the final 20 seconds of the event I went back to linking box jumps without stepping down to gain extra reps before time expired. This resulted in a finish of 9^th place with 174 reps.

At the end of the weekend, CrossFit Impulse athletes finished as follows in the overall standings:

Jordan             14^th place         32 points

Jeff                  6^th place           53 points

Hudson           31^st place         115 points

Jakub               41^st place         162 points

In a field of the fittest 71 men and 21 women from all of Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi, this is nothing short of phenomenal performance. Additionally, Jordan and I were able to make the top 15 that move onto Jacksonville for regionals. I can only imagine the anguish that weekend will hold, and the level of competition that will be present.

Finally, I want to highlight some of my favorite experiences of the weekend. First, just being surrounded by like-minded people and all my friends from CrossFit Impulse made for an awesome weekend. Chatting during downtime and cheering on our athletes are my favorite memories of the event. We all had a good laugh at the expense of Tristan’s dislocated Vas Deferen from Friday’s WOD. I’m glad he is such a good sport about it. Tent teardown on Sunday and the R-rated analogies it brought was also hilarious. Despite impersonating the Unabomber on Saturday morning, Christina turned out to be harmless, unless she was judging you. If she was your judge then you might have thought she was impersonating the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld, or perhaps even a real Nazi. “No clean for you!!” David was also notoriously tough, reportedly requiring athletes to actually roll over the pullup bar for their pullups to count as “breaking both planes.” On many occasions I also saw Chris exclaim like a crack addict, “No! I gotta have the depth, man!”

Steven’s trip to Wal-Mart and hasty turf repair was majestic during the last WOD, and then I ruined all his work after about three snatches. Sorry, Steven. Russell and John did an amazing job of keeping scores updated. About 5 minutes after a heat you could view your results online. That’s what happens when CrossFitters are equipped with the internetz and Web 2.0.

Mark Fowler’s pictures from the event are amazing. I cannot believe what is possible when you combine someone with photography skill and quality equipment. Check out all the photos on our Facebook group here. As a competitor, I didn’t get to spend much time with many of the volunteers, and I regret that. Please know that your efforts are appreciated by all. I also look forward to seeing photos from a coworker that volunteered, Leslie-Ann Barr. We also appreciated help from the Vegas, Daniel, Andy, and Melissa Fowler. I think CrossFit Huntsville may hire Melissa as their t-shirt marketing director after this weekend. All the cheering and visits from spectators was appreciated as well.

Jordan’s comeback performance in the final WOD was probably my favorite event of the weekend. Watching her nail all the HSPUs unbroken and lap her competitors repeatedly was exhilarating. Rich Froning’s unbroken squat snatches in the final WOD were also awe-inspiring. This weekend was a lot of fun in a lot of ways. I’m looking forward to continuing our training at CrossFit Impulse and taking an even larger sample of athletes to sectionals next year. Talk to anyone who competed or attended and they’ll tell you that the friendly competitive atmosphere should not intimidate you. Competitors of all abilities and ages participated, and all had a chance to succeed in their own way, whether it be simply completing a scaled version of the WOD or moving on to regionals. Networking with other local and area CrossFitters is also very fun and informative. Finally, the post-sectionals cheat meal at Cantina Laredo was welcome and well-deserved by volunteers and competitors alike.

I’m excited about the future of participating in more WODs, competitions, and social events with everyone at CrossFit Impulse…and hopefully reducing our number of scrotal injuries. See you at the box.